Getting back into studio is rough business after two intensive years of school. Sometimes it takes small projects to remind myself why I’m even in this practice.
Awhile ago, I got asked by Jordan Shiveley of Grimalkin Press to create a cover illustration for Hive 5: A Somewhat Quarterly Comics Anthology. For the illustration, I stuck to basic concepts. I took some inspiration with the title “Hive 5″ sounding similar to “high five” the hand gesture. Since I had a nice ink drawing of a arm with a bee gracing the top, I took that as a starting point and progressed to the final draft of the image. Mark Leicht, Hive’s designer propose the possibility of a vellum dust jacket to separate the image layers to mimic the layering in my thesis prints. I’m excited to see the final design.
Started off super minimal and black and white. Placed temporary title design to work around the illustration.
Added some more atmosphere similar to my thesis prints.
Worked with color and nixed the title since that’s a design decision for Mark to handle.
The “final draft,” Mark Leicht will take the image and finish off the rest of the cover design.
I gave up on just using the arm and decided to include the figure that’s attached since it still felt so disembodied. I was stubborn about it since it felt overused in my thesis work, but it translates really nicely for the design.
Hive 5 will be on sale in the next few months, which I’ll be sure to announce along with showing off the final design. You can buy previous issues through their Etsy shop and see more of Hive/Grimalkin Press at their blog. They’re nice people, say hi.
