The New Kid
The process of making a speculative book cover
You follow the secretary to your first class. The smell of paper, pencils and glue pervade your nostrils with an undertone of dirty gym socks. It is strange that every school you have attended has this smell. Sometimes it is tempered by whatever strange concoction is being served in the cafeteria that day, but every school smells the same. They tend to look the same too. It is almost like they came out of a box marked “School- some assembly required.” Complete with painted cinder-block walls and peppy posters plastered here and there. This school doesn’t has as much graffiti on the posters as your last school. The principal must be the strict kind. She seemed nice enough- but you know that it is just “Isn’t our school just the best” act you get at every new school. The shine wears off, fast.
The kids are the same as the kids in your last school. And the school before that. There must be a factory somewhere that creates them. An assembly line of children, made to a specific mold. You can buy different accessories to make your child “unique.” You are certain you came out of a mold, too. As you round the corner to the first class, you feel it more than ever.
The line of desks face you, each one holding a kid with an expression of boredom or maybe even outright hostility. The secretary smiles at the teacher. “Here you are, Mrs. Sneckton, your new student!” The secretary squeezes your shoulder momentarily as she leaves. You stand there, taking up the patented NEW KIDtm stance that you have been forced to take in every school. All eyes spear into you, making you want to squirm. The teacher smiles at you, and gestures for you to introduce yourself to the class. You take a deep breath and recite the list. It is best to get this over with, so you can sit down. Every eye scrutinizes you, measuring you up. What group will you be shoved into at this school? The art nerds? The weird kids? What weaknesses will the bullies pick on this time? As you watch them watching you, there at the front of the class, you feel like an action figure wrapped in packaging- just waiting for someone to pick you.
You wish you could break out of the box.
Hello!
Thanks for tuning in to my first newsletter!* In this one, I’m going to be walking you through my process of making the illustration above. (If you want to skip the reading, feel free to drop down to the photos and videos below!)
It started with a prompt that was generated by the marvelous writer, Megan Emmot. I’m the Illustrator Coordinator for the SCBWI Montana region and Megan and I have developed a fun monthly prompt and co-working session to get everyone in the region (and outside- you can join too!) to make more work. The plan is to have an exhibition at the end of the year where we showcase what we have made during these sessions. We are calling this the Montana SPARKS! Show. The illustration above was created for our January session. The prompt was simply “New.”
I will admit I was a little stumped by this prompt at first. It was so simple compared to our other prompts. So far we’ve had “There’s something spooky living under the stairs,” “An alligator goes stargazing,” and “In memory of ice skating.” So this one was on a different vein entirely. Megan wanted to leave it open to us. So I sat down to brainstorm and came up with some really intriguing ideas, but the advice I’ve heard over and over- about putting yourself into your own work- kept coming up for me.
Growing up, I was a chronic new kid. The longest I stayed at any school was about 3 years. My family just moved around a lot (and no- I am not a military brat. We just moved a lot). So when I thought of the word “new” I thought of being a new kid.
It is always a funny feeling, being the new kid. You are always trying to fit in, but because your environment changes constantly you never really know HOW to fit in. You sort of feel a little like a toy. In my experience, people were interested in me until the newness wore off and then there was always a period of invisibility and loneliness until my REAL friends would somehow find me and adopt me. (These are the friendships that have lasted until today- all the way into my 30s!) So that thought led me to this concept.
I’m trying to rebuild my illustration portfolio to get more work in book covers and middle grade so this felt like the perfect concept for a middle school book cover about a kid that is trying to fit in AND stand out at the same time.
I wanted to explore paper cutting and dimensional artwork because I LOVE how it looks. It feels like theatre, more than illustration, so I wanted to build a dimensional box that my character would break out of. Here is a look at the process:
Sketching
Color and value sketches
After this stage I printed everything out and transferred it to watercolor paper. I built the box out of cardboard, with a painted front and inside that I glued to the box once it was built (but I didn’t document the process of that because I struggling to figure out how it would all work and sort of forgot.)
Painting
(No sound on the video below)
Finishing touches
“Some assembly required”
So that’s it! This one was a fun one and a frustrating one all in one go. I still need to work on photographing the final work, but it will do for now.
Thanks for reading this great big honker of a first post! I’d love to get to know you so if you wanna leave a comment, that would be marvelous! If we are both new kids, it won’t be as awkward. :)
Cheers!
-Jeanne
*I actually started a newsletter a couple of years ago, but didn’t quite get the hang of it. This is a bit of a reboot.
If you liked this, you can find more of my work on my instagram here!
I loved watching this come alive, Jeanne. The boy kicking out of the box is so clever and innovative. Looking forward to whatever you have planned next!