“Richard Papen arrived at Hampden College in New England and was quickly seduced by an elite group of five students, all Greek scholars, all worldly, self-assured, and, at first glance, all highly unapproachable. As Richard is drawn into their inner circle, he learns a terrifying secret that binds them to one another…a secret about an incident in the woods in the dead of night where an ancient rite was brought to brutal life…and led to a gruesome death. And that was just the beginning….”

An entry in to the Penguin Book Awards, my aim was to create an illustration that captured the mystery of the book, encouraging the reader to be the explorer.

Illustrating the spooky atmosphere in the woods where the unnerving incident happens, inspired by German Expressionist Ernst Ludwig Kirchner’s powerful use of colour.
Confident, use of the paintbrush to capture the moving mist between the trees. The deer, which appears in the story, is painted using the same colour palette but a darker tone, letting it merge into the background. The trees are produced using kitchen towel stained with coffee grains to create an interesting texture, pen and ink marks were then added to show the details of the beautiful nature. Twisting inbetween the trees are Greek letters symbolising the Greek songs, which could be heard in the forest.

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An illustrated book cover design for the Penguin Book Awards, please read the following extract from the book “Perfume”.

“Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, born with a superior olfactory sense, creates the world’s finest perfume. His work, however, takes a dark turn as he searches for the ultimate scent.”

For the background of the cover I created a vibrant, soft blanket of roses, capturing the flowing petals an element of the perfumes, which “Jean- Baptiste” yearned for. These are not painted with every detail as I wished to show them as a flash of beauty, overwhelmed when looking at, smelling the real flowers.

The main focus in the whole book, therefore a strong element of the cover, but if you look at the top of the design there are hanging figures with an akward, unnerving positioned. They are semi transparent to show as the girls in the book were discreetly murdered for their scents. I wished to communicate the mystery and unnerving nature of the novel as well as the beautiful scents, which flow through the novel.

The design if layout and text is simple and the message in the illustration is not distracted by it. Acrylic paints, brown paper, Photoshop and Illustrator were used to produce this cover.

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