#lila bard
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“I’d rather die on an adventure than live standing still.”
“I’m not going to die,“ she said. "Not till I’ve seen it.”
“Seen what?”
Her smile widened. “Everything.”
― V.E. Schwab, A Darker Shade of Magic
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Happy to share 3 new papercraft artworks featured on the exclusive alternative dust jackets included in the Illumicrate Collections Edition for the Shades of Magic series in collaboration with V. E. Schwab!
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ADSOM:
The was such a weird-feelings concept to work on! I always had the image of Kell’s coat dissolving into the London skyline, but it was the detail of the transition I left until the very end of the cleanup as I felt it was too simple in execution. I fretted over it so hard, but when I finished a draft, I really loved it for its simplicity after all. (Just BE what you were meant to BE!)
❤️
Can I just say that I love the fact that since Kell’s coat has so many various sides and appearances, that every iteration of Kell’s coat in every ADSOM artwork is possibly canon? There’s a camaraderie there that I think about whenever I design a new version. Meanwhile, I still can get away from this crazy hair style. I actually came across a picture of a redhead with their hair styled this exact way, as if gravity was shut off. On Kell, it makes it look like he’s brimming with magic so much that his hair stands on end, like static.
❤️
Oooooh the Danes. These two were so delicious to design. But I must admit halfway through working on Astrid, I realized her hairstyle reminded me of Pokemon’s Jesse, and suddenly these two were cemented in my thoughts as a lethal (bleached) Team Rocket.
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AGOS:
This was the jacket that started them all! Very early on, I had a vision for Lila interacting with some physical image of magic. The streaks of color trailing her twin knives are what I represented to be the afterimage of magic (same with the little sparks of runes / letters; associated with the verbals used to spellcast). It gave me a great way to show her motion in this mid-air spin, notably in her tournament garb. Her mask, the colors, the sparks and flair gave off a dark Mardi Gras vibe, and I carried the same motifs through out the rest of the jacket designs.
❤️☠️
Alucard was also the first of the secondary characters to be added to the jackets! I loved highlighting the confidence and swagger he carries in his persona and magic. Another no-brainer to pair these two up! The friendship that matured between Lila and Alucard was one of the highlights of the series for me, especially in this book. They were like two big cats (…or three) gracefully circling each other, tolerant and curious, but always wary.
❤️☠️
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ACOL:
This is my favorite of the three covers! The stark black and white composition of this piece just hits me everytime! While Rhy was originally carrying the concept for this jacket solo, Holland was added in later to create a flippable artwork for the dust jackets. They were characters that both had amazing arcs in ACOL, so it was a no-brainer to pair them up for this design.
❤️
I wanted to accentuate the weight of Rhy’s mantle as he pulls it around him - the folds in the cloth revealed to be tenrils of dark magic, almost pulling it back or weighing it down further. The same tendrils break away from the mantle to wrap around Holland, who has little power to stop it. It’s just a touchy-feely piece in all the good and bad ways! ✨
❤️
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