The Gift of The Magi
IGI illustrator PJ Lynch takes us step-by-step through the creation of the cover of his latest book, The Gift of The Magi.
For the cover of The Gift of The Magi, the well known Christmas story by O.Henry, I knew I had to include the two main protagonists of the story, Della and Jim, and a visual reference to the Gift suggested in the title.
It had to take place in the $8 dollar apartment where they live, and I somehow had to give it a Christmasy flavour.
I had a vague notion of what I wanted, but instead of thumbnail sketches, I began the process by working with my models. Here is a sample of the hundreds of photos I took for this scene. I always try to subtly direct my models hoping they will move into interesting or surprising poses. I shoot photos and video, and after the session I will pore over the images to try to find one magical glance or twist or gesture. What usually happens is that I get most of a good pose in one picture, and I then have to add a hand or a head from another photo. In this case I was lucky as I had good models, who were also actors, and reasonable approximations of period costumes.
Having decided on a good pose I then did a sketch from the photo, and knocked up a very rough impression of how the cover might look. This was done in Photoshop on the computer, which lets me move elements around easily, and also to add a basic colour scheme and some text. Here you can see how I was trying to make the type work against the lightness of the window. A few variations of this went back and forth between myself and Liz Woods, my designer at Walker Books. Liz is an extraordinary designer. She takes immense pains in getting every detail of a book cover just right, and is a very inspiring person to work with.
We knew we had the right elements in place but it was all a bit square on, so I went back to my reference photos and found one that was at a nice angle to show the girl off well. I had to borrow a head for the guy from a different picture but now I felt I had a really strong pose for the heart of the book jacket.
I made this line drawing from the photo reference, and then started pushing it around in Photoshop.
The idea of the couple silhouetted against the window is coming through here, but the compositional breakthrough was when I saw that the table with the gift on it could be used as a way to lead the eye in, as well as helping to define the space and telling a little bit about Jim and Della’s impoverished state.
At this stage I felt the drawing was working well, and I only had to do minor tweaking of the various elements to get the final design. After getting the nod from Liz and the other editors at Walker Books, I pressed on with the painting.
Here you can see the painting in progress. Look how much bleed there is. (That is the surplus area around the actual cover image) This is needed for wrapping around flaps etc, but it makes it very much more difficult to consider the essential image as you are painting it.
I carefully built the image up in watercolour washes, darkening the figures more and more against the light of the window. I spent a good deal of time working up the parcel on the table too. Finally I accentuated the light effects and the lace effect in the curtains with white gouache paint.
At last I could hand the image over to Liz to add the text and a little holly for seasonal cheer.
O.Henry’s The Gift of the Magi illustrated by PJ Lynch will be published in October 2008, and is available for pre-order on Amazon.
June 20th, 2008 11:38
Beautiful image PJ…it’s great to see the way you approach composition problems that every illustrator faces.Sometimes because of time constraints (or plain lazyness!)it’s too easy to go with a first or second compositional arrangement without being entirely happy with what you’ve got. It’s a very underrated skill.
June 20th, 2008 18:38
[...] A ilustração de uma capa, passo a passo O ilustrador é PJ Lynch. [...]
June 20th, 2008 19:35
A very lovely composition. I must admit that there is something very charming about the “plain” image without paints (right before the paragraph starting “At this stage I felt the drawing…”), and was surprised when the article kept going, as I assumed that the unpainted image was the finished piece.
Also, this may be a little pragmatic, but what kind of fee does such a book cover fetch?
June 21st, 2008 12:43
Great composition PJ. The lead in from the parcel to chair to couple has a lovely arc thats very easy on the eye.
June 21st, 2008 14:11
Sheer class from PJ as always.
A great demostration. Great how so little is visible of their faces and yet the emotion comes through with such power.
June 23rd, 2008 08:44
Thanks PJ for sharing your working-process with us! To work with models is a great idea. But I wonder if the fee you get covers the expenses for the models?
Very nice composition. I also must admit that the plain image without the colours are much more appealing to me. Maybe that’s because I personally enjoy illustrations more than paintings.
June 23rd, 2008 12:24
Thank you for posting this. What are the dimensions of the final painting?
June 23rd, 2008 14:28
Simply lovely! What a perfect image to represent this classic tale.
June 24th, 2008 09:41
Great stuff!
June 24th, 2008 09:48
Thanks for all those positive comments.
People have asked about the fees involved. This is the cover of a book I have illustrated, so that the money I am paid is for the entire project.
I get paid royalties on each book sold, so I try to make the cover as attractive as I possibly can.
The modelling sessions were also for the whole book, not just the cover.
I try to use friends who can act a bit and they can be paid of in bottles of wine. Kids tend to get book tokens. But if I’m employing professional models, I have to pay the going rate.
I tend to agree that the drawn rough has an appeal of it’s own, and I’d like to do a book illustrated entirely with sketches one day, but for now the finished piece is a full colour watercolour and gouache painting.
PJ
June 25th, 2008 15:22
Thank you for sharing the process. This is a very sublime illustration. Wonderful. The pose, composition and colors are perfect. And the thing that really makes it is the expression on the girl. This shows really well how if everything isn’t worked out in the sketch, then the painting will not come together.
I’m wondering what size you did the final? There must be a zillion glazes on there!
June 25th, 2008 16:45
Well done, PJ!
How long did it take from the first sketch untill the finish? Was there a tight deadline?
Dimitri
June 25th, 2008 17:58
Thanks for sharing that PJ.
Really interesting to see how you work….
Cheers
Una
June 26th, 2008 10:09
Thanks guys,
The painting is about 14 x 19 inches, but, as you can see that includes a lot of bleed.
There are certainly a lot of washes on there Ted.
Check out my youtube videos for more on the technique.
http://uk.youtube.com/user/pjlynch1
I spent about ten days on it, Dimitri, and as usual I was way behind schedule.
PJ
July 3rd, 2008 19:05
simply amazing!!! thanks for sharing you knowledge
July 10th, 2008 18:13
[...] 5. Illustrator PJ Lynch explains step-by-step how he creates one of his beautiful book covers. [...]
July 25th, 2008 17:03
Hi PJ, Ciara here (modelled for the character Della).
Googled the book title as I was wondering how it was coming along and was delighted to find this site. The pictures are so beautiful!! Can’t wait to see the finished product. Hope you and your family are all well. Best of luck with the publishing.
August 7th, 2008 03:40
WOW!!
I REALLY LOVED WHAT YOU CREATED IT’S REALLY NICE THAT SOME ARTIST STILL DRAW IN DETAIL THEY WAY THAT YOU HAVE!
LOVE IT
August 12th, 2008 21:59
I have to agree that I too was enchanted by the sketched version of the cover and thought that it ended there… both images are beautifully done, and I am glad that you continued tweaking the compositional elements beyond the original concept – the results are more than worth it.
Gorgeous… simply gorgeous.
August 26th, 2008 00:59
Thank you! I am currently involved in a book cover design project, and I found your article and process, as well as the comments, very interesting and useful.
November 7th, 2008 16:47
I’m very taken with your illustration for “The Gift of the Magi.” We are presenting a reading of this at this resort in December, and I am in great need of an illustration of the story for our newsletter. Would you consider allowing me to use your illustration for this purpose. I would of course give full credit to you as the illustrator.
Please respond as soon as possible.