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see also: all about the book
Cover art by Dominic Harman
Dominic and I go back a long way, although it
was some time before we actually met. Through the late 1980s
and most of 1990s I was a regular short fiction contributor
to the magazine Interzone (under my other writing name,
"Keith Brooke"). And during that period Dominic
was a regular cover artist for the magazine. When a collection
of stories I'd written with Eric Brown was published, Dominic
was the natural choice to provide the cover art and interior
illustrations. Dominic also provided covers for a book I co-edited
(infinity plus one) and an issue of Interzone
I guest co-edited in 2002.
Puffin's invitation to Dominic to provide the
cover art for Incubus was a pleasant surprise for both
of us. Dominic liked the idea of the book and what might be
done with the cover, but he didn't realise it was my book
as he knew me by my other writing name. And when I learnt
that Dominic was to work on the cover I was thrilled, as I've
long admired his work.
I provided descriptions of the mysterious house-spirit,
Hodeken, who appears in the book, and then answered Dominic's
questions. He sent me some sketches of how he thought the
character might appear and I then gave him feedback, as did
the Puffin art department. Dominic refined his images until
we arrived at the final cover.
Here's the first set of sketches:
Numbers 1, 2 and 3 were great, but far too fierce.
Hodeken should be more of a well-meaning but mischievous and
confused character. Number 4 was much closer and this was
the version Dominic clearly preferred, too, as he used it
to develop the full-colour sketches. I love the idea of him
peering out of the shadows, which really summed up his role
in the story. And in blue? I never saw him as blue,
but ... somehow it worked! He still needed to be a bit more
friendly-looking, though, so that you don't quite know if
he's going to turn out good or bad.
On his preference for number 5, Dominic says:
"I felt that to be the closest thing in my mind to your
character. The first was too pig-like and the others seemed
too Orc-ish. This is not to say that they were bad designs,
but ultimately not quite right for this character. To bring
out and sharpen the features so that they became slightly
more witch-like helped make the character look more mischievous."
Here, Dominic has softened the edges and given
Hodeken a dreamier, less wicked look. This seemed like a good
idea at the time, but seeing it, I knew it just wasn't right.
I think it's the nose. Hodeken doesn't have a nose like that.
Dominic was less happy with this version, too:
"After the conversation I decided to soften the features
of Hodeken but that didn't work out, which in some ways is
good as we went back to the original version, and it re-affirmed
our first decision that the initial look was the right one."
Dominic uses a mixture of traditional and cutting-edge
computer techniques in his art: "I was working with pencil
and then I scanned the pencil roughs onto the computer and
so that I could flesh out the face in Photoshop with a basic
airbrush tool. I used some scanned texture for part of the
face and a few goat's teeth [from a goat's skull I have on
my wall] it was important not to make Hodeken too horrific
looking as Nick wanted the readers not to be sure if he is
good or bad, so final adjustments to the face were made to
bring a balance. I am pleased with the final illo - character
design is really good fun. It would be great if a film was
made of Incubus and we saw the character come to life
on screen!"
Artists are among the few people who can have
something like a goat's head on the wall and mention it in
polite company.
And here we have the final cover. The version
of Hodeken is closer to number 5 from the original sketches,
but a bit softer, a bit quirkier. And he blends more into
the textured shadows now. Puffin's designers have done a good
job with the text, too: good strong lettering. I think this
is the kind of cover that stands out from all the other books
around it on a display, and you can't ask for much more than
that.
To find out more about Dominic Harman, and
to see more examples of his wonderful artwork, see www.dominicharman.com
see also: more info about the
book
and
Incubus can be ordered through Amazon.
It's also available at BOL,
WH Smith's
Internet Bookshop and other online booksellers, and all
decent bookshops.
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