Color out of Space

The above illustration will be printed in gold foil on the back of a leatherette book cover in a future publication (the large black space in the upper LH area is for text). When working on an illustration for gold foil, the tricky part is remembering to simplify the design just enough so it will print clearly in gold foil (but not too much since I think much of the visual interest in a drawing comes from the twists and turns of line as they describe the subject).

This image was inspired by a drawing by Virgil Finlay illustrating H.P. Lovecraft’s story, “The Color out of Space.” I think Finlay used scratchboard on his original illustration. It’s a great drawing — both in terms of technique and composition. The silhouetted figures in the foreground are particularly nice.