• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Sarah Rees Brennan

New York Times Bestselling Author of the Demon's Lexicon Trilogy

  • Home
  • Biography
  • Blog
  • Books
    • The Winx Saga
      • Fate: The Winx Saga: The Fairies Path
    • C.S. Pacat’s Fence Series
      • Fence: Disarmed
      • Fence: Striking Distance
    • The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina
      • Path of Night: Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, Novel 3
      • Daughter of Chaos: Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, Novel 2
      • Season of the Witch: Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, Novel 1
    • In Other Lands
    • Tell the Wind and Fire
    • Team Human
    • Lynburn Legacy Trilogy
      • Unmade
      • Untold
      • Unspoken
    • Demon’s Lexicon Trilogy
      • The Demon’s Surrender
      • The Demon’s Covenant
      • The Demon’s Lexicon
    • Collaborations & Anthologies
  • Extras
  • Appearances
  • Contact

The Art of Unspoken

September 14, 2012 by Sarah 3 Comments

So, I think you all know I love the Unspoken cover. And the thing is that before I received it, I didn’t know what ‘cut paper art’ even was, I just kept yapping about shadows and silhouettes and wanting my heroine to be DOING SOMETHING on the cover, and then my editor found Beth White and had a brainwave.

Cut paper art had to be explained to me, is what I’m saying.

LOVELY EDITOR MALLORY: So cut paper is when you do a sketch…
SARAH: Like tracing… yes…
LEM: Sort of, okay, but using black paper beneath.
SARAH: Yes! I understand.
SARAH: … Nope, just kidding, run that by me again.

So I thought it would be fun if Beth White, my cover artist, talked a bit about what she did for you guys!

BETH WHITE, ARTIST EXTRAORDINAIRE!

I begin by asking as many questions as possible as to what the art director is envisioning for the cover. Then I begin researching parts such as the iron gate and and the estate house to get the feel of what I want to draw. With just black and white, it is important to balance intricate detail with more solid black and to position everything just so …especially on the figure. Her face and hands especially need to fall in the negative space but not look contrived. I also tried to give her a sense of urgency and hesitation….wonder and a little fear….by the way she is standing and how her hands are positioned. I hoped that it gives the feeling of that. (SARAH: Yes it super does! Mallory and I had many a conversation about how we wanted Kami of Unspoken on her feet, bent on a mission, because we’d seen a lot of covers with girls who were not *acting*… often who were dead, and we wanted something different.)

I did probably 5 gates before I got the gate to look imposing because the cover space for the gate is actually a little narrow. I loved the idea of woman’s head with the flowing hair in the gate (SARAH: Yup, the ladies with flowing hair are in the book and are indeed a plot point, so I stuffed my hand in my mouth and giggled with girlish glee to see them so beauteously rendered) and ran with it….again the hair needed to work with the negative space…and there is a fine line between just enough and too many strands. The falling leaves were an overlay but added so much to the cover.

I sketch all the art on tracing paper because I can move things around and see the spacing etc. When the art is approved I reverse trace the image onto black paper. Then I cut the black paper in reverse which keeps me true to my line (because it is in reverse and not as I have been looking at it for weeks). Keeps me on my toes for the final cut :)…then I clean up hairs and cuts on the right side and attach it to mat board.

You can see more art at
Beth White’s agent’s website.

Holy God, y’all, I implore you to click on this link. There is some BEAUTIFUL STUFF here. So many beautiful things!

I have told you all of the trials of getting Unspoken cover art at all, and how my first cover artist ran away from me!

When I first saw that sketch, I practically burst into tears in an airport. I was quite overcome.

It was like a miracle to get such a beautiful cover: as I’ve said, I know it’s a super risky and different cover for YA, and I am scared stiff about that, but the stores who are behind Unspoken are super behind it (I already bragged about Unspoken being on display in Powell’s), it is AMAZING ART and I feel privileged to have received it.

And I got permission to show you Beth White’s first sketch, and then the cover that resulted!

Untitled 2
Bren_Unspoken hires cover
Bren_Unspoken hires jkt

My editor said ‘Kami wears kitten heels!’ and I said ‘That dude silhouette. More buff. Add jacket.’ (I didn’t think I’d ever sit around objectifying a silhouette, but there you go.) And we both said, BOTH SIDES OF THE GATE ALL LADIES ALL THE TIME.

And that is how the cover of Unspoken, out right now at this time, was made!

I hoped you guys would find it interessante. 😉

Also a couple more reviews of Unspoken! And some dreamcasting

In summary, Beth White is a genius!

Filed Under: General Blog Tagged With: cover, covers, unspoken

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. paroma says

    September 14, 2012 at 12:20 pm

    This was brilliant! I didn’t know what cut paper art was either, and this introduction was so engrossing. I love sketching shadow creatures and building and I didn’t know what I was doing! Hah!
    Thanks Ms Brennan and especially, Ms White!

    Reply
  2. Adina says

    September 14, 2012 at 6:23 pm

    Sarah, I loved Unspoken but that was a cruel ending. How am I supposed to wait till next June for book 2 🙂 It’s a really pretty cover. Interesting post.

    Reply
  3. Sandra Terry says

    September 14, 2012 at 6:47 pm

    Thank-you for sharing the secrets of the cover, its a gorgeous. One of my favourites of the year! Cannot wait to see what book 2’s cover will look like ^_^.

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

sarahreesbrennan

674

The rarely seen baths and puffy coats picture! ...

Open
The rarely seen baths and puffy coats picture! Gellért thermal baths and its Art Nouveau decor, only one of the aquatic delights offered by Budapest. We also saw the Parlament from a trip down the Danube river. My brother & sister put up with me mentioning Jonathan and Mina Harker of #Dracula got married in Budapest, and my insisting on eating chicken paprika like Jonathan. That and soup in a bread bowl comforted me when I was made to walk 300 steps at the Basilika and even more around Buda Castle while protesting I am a potato who sits on the sofa and writes the novels. Budapest was beautiful and so was seeing it with my sibs: I will remember this trip a long time. #draculadaily #budacastle #gellertbaths #danuberiver #ststephensbasilica #hungary🇭🇺

Writing to you live from Budapest! My gorgeous ...

Open
Writing to you live from Budapest! My gorgeous little sister surprised me with the amazing birthday present of a city break - and our baby bro came too. This is us at Szimpla Kert, the original of Budapest’s ruin bars: repurposed dilapidated buildings, filling old places with plants and art and music. More from Budapest soon… #szimplakert #budapest #ruinbar #bettyandbiddy

With changes over on twitter, I see many people ...

Open
With changes over on twitter, I see many people stressing over where and how they can talk up their writing and art. It reminded me of the difficulty I’ve had talking about a project dear to me. I’d see other writers talking about their word count or their plans, and be lime green jelly that I couldn’t, because it was so dear that talking about it felt weighted, because I didn’t have any confidence after being sick, because hope and fear pin down the tongue and keys. There are always challenges when talking about art, whether they come from within or without. But I do believe one of the hardest and most necessary things is to make art with faith it will speak to people when the time comes. So I wanted to put this up here as a way to say: be hopeful, fearful and courageous with your voice. When you can. The time will come. #authorsofinstagram #writing #sarahreesbrennan #srbrennan

Well beloved fairy folk and fans, I know you got ...

Open
Well beloved fairy folk and fans, I know you got sad news last week and I am so sorry! I also know @straffiiginio and Rainbow do have glorious plans for much in the Winx franchise. For now, I offer signed books as a little comfort! @Soraseilyn, @dutchwinxer and @blindchannxl on Insta, and ladygeeke & subtle-skipping on tumblr, please email me sarahreesbrennan at gmail to collect your winnings. My other cat (about whom more soon!) has been guarding them for you. For myself, I feel lucky to have been part of the journey to Alfea, to write fun books with great characters and to get to know you all: you’ve been so welcoming and kind to me. Thank you and I hope we stay friends. Who knows what is to come? 💕🧚#winxclubforever #fatethewinxsaga #abigailcowen #bloompeters #winxstella

For the end of spooky season! Cancer is about ...

Open
For the end of spooky season! Cancer is about loss: of hair, teeth, friends… and words. For a couple years before I was diagnosed with late stage lymphoma, I watched my writing go off a cliff in terms of quality and speed - sentences turned to nonsense, and I couldn’t finish anything. It was terrifying. So was trying to come back to writing and publishing after having a traumatic time with chemo. ‘Where was she last year?’ ‘Who’s that again?’ ‘Oh, I thought you were…’ My confidence was shattered, and being approached for Sabrina was a life raft to cling to: being remembered, having fun with writing again, falling for a wild strange fantasy world. It opened the door to other worlds I was honored to be invited into, their lovely fandoms, and to courage that I could perhaps write my own books again. Here’s #chillingadventuresofsabrina and #fatethewinxsaga in Feltrinelli in Rome, and me, because fantasy opens all the escape doors. Happy All Hallows’ Day, and hope you had a great #Hallowinx and you find the doors you’re hoping for 👻🖤. #feltrinelli #romeitaly #cancersurvivor #writersofinstagram #writing #fencecomic

I see many photos where the ‘after’ shows ...

Open
I see many photos where the ‘after’ shows someone thinner than the ‘before.’ Here’s a different version. When I’m feeling vulnerable, I cover it with jokes. ‘Hey, at least I was skinny!’ ‘Dr: Any unexplained weight loss? Me: I wish!’ It’s safer than saying: When people were telling me I looked great, I felt lousy, scared, and sad they thought I looked better when I felt worse. Once I was in recovery people kept telling me how bad I’d looked. That doesn’t help either. We all have uncomfortable relationships with our bodies, because of society, ideas about what health is, and the fact our outside self is all most people can perceive of us! I was diagnosed late: I kept being told it was bronchitis, pneumonia, a kiwi allergy (that one was weird…), I’d be fine, I was clearly healthy. I often think about what my life, relationships and health would be like if I was diagnosed earlier, if people hadn’t assumed I was lying and secretly dieting or exercising a lot. But I get why they did: I get why I didn’t want it to be a warning sign. Weight is a weighted topic. I wish it wasn’t, for all of us. I love and find beautiful (not that my opinion matters) people of a hundred shapes and sizes, but we always have the most tangled relationship to our own bodies. The body is a vessel that carries us through our lives. If we’re happy with however that vessel looks, I think that’s awesome—but sometimes positivity is difficult. Here are 2 full-length pictures of me, during chemo and a couple years after. Honestly, I’m not happy with how I look in either. But in one, I’m trapped at home with medicines around me. In the other, I’m outside with my sister, on her wedding day. In the end, it’s about where the vessel takes you. #twweightloss #cancersurvivor #wedding #twweighttalk #milestonecountdown

On Tumblr

  • Untitled January 31, 2023
  • Untitled January 31, 2023
  • Untitled January 31, 2023
  • biography
  • blog
  • contact
  • home
  • appearances
  • © Copyright 2007-2023 Sarah Rees Brennan. All Rights Reserved.
  • Site by Moxie Design Studios