The assignment was to design a book cover illustration with a limited color palette. The illustration is for a book that I am writing and illustrating called Steel Wool. The book is about a deaf boy and the people he encounters in an 1930's mill town in the U.S. state of Georgia.

I started working with chalk pastel on sanded paper using cut paper collage for the clothes and blanket shapes. I then used pen and ink on top of the cut paper to further render the shapes and figures. After scanning the image into the computer, I used photoshop to paint over the analogue drawing and apply textures. My goal was to create a dynamic image that would complement the narrative of the story.

The process of designing this illustration helped me to discover new ways to create imagery. The layered technique that I used to make this illustration is one that I plan to continue experimenting with.