The Lost Photograph
“These days it was hard to imagine the quiet of our old home in Cork. Bridget and I strolled along with our arms around each others’ waists, the way New York girls did. We were no longer newcomers…now we felt like real Americans.”
~ Judi Curtin
My new illustrated cover was launched this week, as ‘Sally and The Lost Photograph’ was published on September 23 by O’Brien Press. I was delighted to work with them and Judi again for the second book in this fascinating series. The girls are now settled in their new lives in New York City, and as you can see their clothing has become more modern in this book. Their distinctively Irish shawls on the first cover have been replaced by second-hand American wool coats. As usual, I began the process by researching images from the early twentieth century such as fashion and hair styles in America, the NYC skyline from this period, and what Prospect Park looked like. By researching these photos, I could get a good idea of how the girls would look after living in America for a year.
After reading the story and researching photos, I was excited to begin sketching the composition. I wanted to create a whimsical, cosy and relaxed illustration to echo how the girls have settled into their new lives. The first cover was energetic, exciting and full of big tall buildings. However I wanted to show another side to NYC, and how the girls explore their new home. I included the main elements of the story - NYC, Prospect Park, and Bridget and Sally walking to the park to meet their friends for a picnic - carrying the all important ‘lost photograph.’ I like to create a nice ‘flow’ within my book covers, so the eye can move around the composition and piece together all the snippets of visual information.
When my sketch was approved by the publisher, I then progressed to the fun part, colouring-in! As always, I create a colour palette in Procreate on my iPad. As it’s the second book in a series, I had to pay close attention to the previous colour scheme. The Art Deco frame I created for the first cover was to be re-used, and the two girls Sally and Bridget needed to be identifiable on the cover. Therefore I used the same colour palette for their clothing and hairstyles, and built the rest of the colour palette from this starting point by choosing complimentary colours. I roughly paint the colours over the sketch to get an idea of how the colour scheme will look, and if I need to choose different colours which may suit better.
The printed book turned out so lovely, especially with the warm gold foil lettering - I love these extra textural details. I used a navy blue border colour for this book - a subtle nod to the blue of the American flag, as the first cover had a green border to represent their journey from Ireland. I like to add these layers of meaning to my illustrations, even if only I notice them! If you would like to see the whole process of illustrating the cover, along with tips and advice for creating cover artwork, please journey over to my YouTube channel, which is linked here. ‘Sally and The Lost Photograph’ is now available in all good bookstores. I hope you pick up a copy and be transported to a New York adventure! Thanks for reading ~ Rachel x
