Don't Fear the Reaper

Abby Lawson's debut novel proved a tricky challenge. It told quite the epic fable and I initially struggled with knowing just what to depict on the cover to properly capture what the tone of the story. I initially presented 6 or so sketches to Abby to get her thoughts on it, and with her help I was able to flesh out the idea you see before you.

I drew inspiration from the particularly haunting passage about slimy hands reaching out to our protagonists while they were in a dark cave. And combined that with an idea of the powerful villain acting as a puppet master pulling the strings above them.

I think it makes for a particularly striking composition, and most importantly it nicely captures the dark epic fantasy of Abby's story. It's just a shame that the wide version showing Diondran's decrepit fingers is only visible in my promotional art!