Arturo's Island

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A collaboration with Steve Attardo of W. W. Norton & Company to create the cover illustration for Elsa Morante’s novel, Arturo's Island.

This project involved a lot of back and forth. It was a pleasure to work with Steve, but much of the direction was beyond his control. While I wasn't always in agreement with the parameters that were set, nor artistically content with the final product, I count it as a privilege to work with Steve, for a top notch publishing house, and to have been involved with such a highly acclaimed literary work.

I hesitated to showcase this because, from my perspective, it does not reflect especially well on me as an artist. One of the basic rules of marketing art is to only show your very best examples. But I think that this process is something that other artists can relate to. Every commercial project involves varying degrees of compromise, and this is a case in point. Although it's not my best work, I'm pretty happy with how it turned out with the typography added in.

As an illustrator, my goal going into every project is to apply my unique artistic abilities to serve the client. This means helping them to achieve their goals. There can be a tension between what the client thinks they need and what I think will be more effective visually to help them in their business. I gain satisfaction from strengthening their message. In this case, I hope that my cover art helps this translation of Arturo's Island to sell well.

In the preliminary stages, I played with the required elements and concept. The key components were the colorful fishing village of Procida, boats in the water, sunset, a teenage male named Arturo and a slightly older teenage female, the object of his affection. The trouble is, she is newly wed to Arturo's father and is longing for his return from extensive travels.

I found it visually intriguing to show her in his profile.

Archways could convey the feel of the region and provide a frame for the image. The eye shape was a flop.

Using a single archway to frame the scene

This became the direction to develop. A new parameter came into play. It needed to be a late sunset with stars in the sky and lights in windows of the city, yet be light enough to show up through a dark wall surrounding. The sides of the archway would have to be much lighter than the background scene to set it off from the dark wall. So it would be as if the inside of the arch were a different color from the wall.

The latest direction was to go to color, adding a large moon, heavily weathered wall and archway with plants growing out of cracks. The boy needed to be in silhouette, cast a shadow, and also include details of ragged clothing and dirt.

I wasn't wild about the change in color from the wall to the inside of the archway, but it seemed to be the best way to frame the scene.

The author's family understandably felt that the boy made it look too much like a young adult novel, so off he went.

I was getting the impression at this stage that the author's family may have been lacking enthusiasm for our current visual approach.

I don't usually do this, but I felt strongly enough about the idea of the image within the boy's profile to work something up to present as another option late in the game. To me, it was so superior conceptually and visually to the other direction that I thought it had a legitimate shot. Turns out it did not get approved, but I was glad I gave it a try.