New Year - and lots of News!

lots of book news this spring!

Greetings and apologies for not staying on track with my news in the past year! I have been busy working on some wonderful books and I am very excited to share what's been going on!

The cover of "Yvain"

YVAIN - First of all, I am so happy to share that my first graphic novel, "Yvain - The Knight of the Lion", written by M.T. Anderson, will be published in March! This book was 3 years in the making and took me on a big journey of research, experiment and trial and error. I am so proud of the finished book and so thankful to Sherry Fatla and everybody at Candlewick for their support and the wonderful collaboration! Here is a sample spread from the book. I will share more in the coming weeks!

a sample spread from the graphic novel 

THE THICKETY SERIES - As you know, the third installment of The Thickety series written by  J.A.White is in stores now, and the fourth and last installment will be published in April! I still owe you a peek at the artwork from book 3, so let me start with that (I am trying to avoid spoilers here, but I am hinting at some places Kara and Taff travel to, so if you would prefer to remain completely in the dark just look at the pictures and skip the text here):

cover for "The Thickety - Well of Witches" with the silhouette leading into the background

In "The Thickety - Well of Witches", Kara and Taff at some point find themselves in a world entirely made of paper, which posed an interesting challenge for me: how do I show that the world is made of paper in black and white silhouettes?

For the cover , I decided to create a silhouette that has a 3-dimensional quality to it, leading into the painted image in the background. I thought this would be a nice hint at the fact that this time Kara and Taff would actually traverse into a world of paper.

detail from the cover of "Well of Witches"

For the world of paper, I decided to work with outlines and angular shapes, to suggest the flat white surfaces and origami structure of objects.

Kara and Taff in the well of witches

Another challenge was representing ghosts that appear in one place Kara and Taff visit at the beginning of the book. Since they appear in a fog and slowly materialize I used that fog to suggest the transparent quality of a ghost.

the unghosts

And of course, Rygoth reappears, this time with a mysterious wagon that has a structure strangely reminiscent of bones and skin…

Rygoth on her wagon

Book 4, "The Thickety - The Last Spell", concludes the series, and it's such a thrilling finale! The book comes out April 4.

cover for "The Thickety - The Last Spell"

I will share more about work on this book soon!

Cover für "Zwei Schwestern" von Petra Oelker

ZWEI SCHWESTERN (TWO SISTERS) - I was thrilled to work again last year with the wonderful Petra Oelker, for whom I illustrated the christmas story "3 Wünsche" (Three Wishes) back in 2012. Back then it was so much fun and so interesting to work closely together to choose scenes, bring live to some of Petra Oelkers well known and beloved characters in illustrations, and ensure historical accuracy as much as possible. So I was thrilled when Rowohlt publishing house approached me again to ask if I might be interested in working on another book by the author. 

a landscape of Hamburg around 1530

Once again I enjoyed working together so much! This time we went hunting for reference material from Hamburg at a time shortly after the reformation. I learned so much about another chapter in history from the specific standpoint of two women living in the same place under very different circumstances. 

Zwei Schwestern - Reimare und Anna

The book will be published on March 24. If you would like to meet the author in person and hear her read make sure to sign up for one of her book readings that are already scheduled for the book launch. 

cover of the German edition of "The Boneshaker"

THE BONESHAKER - the first book I illustrated for brilliant author Kate Milford back in 2010, is now finally also available in German! 

a peek inside the book

I am so happy that both The Broken Lands and The Boneshaker have been translated now, and both by the wonderful award-winning translator Alexandra Ernst!

This is all my news for now, I will post more about the upcoming books soon!