I’ve been using pinterest as my store of inspiration for covers. The cover for A Family War focusses on London, the City, as it’s called by those of us who live and work there both in Helena’s world and ours. I love the image by Jeremy Mann that I’ve used to headline my post. It’s glorious and a part of what I want to capture about the City in my story.
However, in working it through with Lawrence, we saw three others that helped set the tone.

The first is this one from the Art of Animation tumblr:

From the Art of Animation tumblr

We liked it because of the angle, the way that as an observer you’re not given to the normal flat view of the world, but are presented with an exploration of a strange place.

The second one we liked was this one:

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Daniel Dociu

What is amazing about this piece is how it captures the light and how that process tells the story. The darkness and shadow around the bases of the buildings, the purity of the light at their pinnacles. Imagine a city of spires whose bases are shrouded and without sunlight and the dank foreground in this image sets that tone.

Finally this one:

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mingrutu on Deviant Art

This brings the scale we love of grand cities down to the human. It picks up a story from the scale of the body and places it within the vastness of the cityscape.

All my pins are here if you fancy taking a look. It’s from this board that the cover is going to come.

Happy days!