The Rise

In 2006 I was offered my first illustration job to produce a book cover for an author by the name of Chantal Ellen. The name of the book is The Rise: Where Neighbors Are Sometimes More. A special shout out to my Uncle Dominique who referred me to her. Good looking out Uncle D. So here are the sketches I did when I got started. The author kind of wanted figures without faces in front of some buildings on the cover to represent the characters of her book. This kind of thing has been done before with other books so I was free to try out new ideas. I wasn't sure what to do, so I thought it would be fresh to add lips, beards, and mustaches to some of the characters. I loved the idea, but unfortunately it was decided to be left out. Perhaps I will use that idea for another illustration. Now I lost the final sketch to this, but I ended up with two finals for the author. One mostly colored with vector shapes.......


and another rendered with a bit of texture. The rendered one was the one selected to be published.


I read the book and it's really good. It's like what the author said, "it will leave you feeling good". It kind of reminded me of some of my favorite old romantic comedies like Lovejones, but that's my own personal opinion. NBC in Washington reported that critics say it's like Sex and the City but in Washington. You can view the interview with the author here. Overall I enjoyed it very much, and I recommend those interested to give it a read. You can get a copy of it @amazon.com link
Enjoy.