Saturday, March 10, 2012

Star Shard Week: A Precarious Perch

There may be minor spoilers for some parts of the story during Star Shard Week.

Welcome to Day Five (and Six) of Star Shard Week!
Sorry about the delay in posting! I should be able to catch up with a Day Six post later today.
Don't forget to check out The Star Shard author Frederic S. Durbin's companion posts over on his blog.
 
The September 2008 cover of Cricket Magazine: A Precarious Perch

I had completed illustrations for several parts of "The Star Shard" when my art director presented me with the opportunity to illustrate a special "The Star Shard" cover and the table of contents for the September 2008 issue of Cricket Magazine. The assignment was wide open. I could illustrate anything that had appeared in the story up through Part Four, the chapter waiting for readers in the pages of the September issue. There were a number of memorable scenes to choose from. I had so much fun coming up with ideas there were enough left over to repurpose into interior illustrations for Part Four.  Click here to go to Cricket's website to see all of my thumbnails for the cover.

The final sketch for A Precarious Perch.

Though it's been years since my Cricket cover was published, I admit the painting hasn't been displayed on my website. It's a large painting that was tough to scan, and I wasn't very happy with the original color correction I had done on the image. In the years since, we bought a better scanner, and I decided to invest more time in correcting the scan to better match the original painting. While I see a few flaws that I'd like to fix someday should I revisit the piece (I'm not sure there is such a thing as a perfect painting!), it was one of my favorite illustrations from "The Star Shard" and I'm pleased with the way it printed on the cover of the magazine. "A Precarious Perch" was also printed as a poster that is available on Cricket Magazine's website.

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to stop by for Day Six of Star Shard Week!

The Star Shard, by Frederic S. Durbin, is a fantasy adventure story about Cymbril, a girl on a journey of self-discovery.

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