The Empyrean
The Empyrean is a series of three dust jackets representing a dark fantasy novel series by author Rebecca Yarros. The books are emotional, action-packed, and mysterious, featuring battles, romance, and dragons. The main characters are humans with dragon companions, but I focused on illustrating the dragons alone as a way to symbolize the story and main characters in a more subtle way. Utilizing colors and vector-based illustrations, the resulting jacket designs are unique, beautiful, and colorful. Each showcases pivotal moments of the story in a mysterious way.
Conceptual ideation
I began conceptualizing with the first novel in this series, Fourth Wing. The story follows Violet Sorrengail, who had always believed she would be a scribe. After her mother forces her into a dangerous trial, Violet bonds with two dragons, Tairn and Andarna. For the moodboard, I focused on the colors of their scales, black and gold, alongside depictions of Violet and textures such as smoke and flame. I also conceptualized adjectives describing the story. The thumbnails tested different compositions and ideas, some showcasing Violet, others mostly symbolic, and some exploring different angles and poses of the dragons. Ultimately, I chose concept nine and then heavily altered it to make room for the title typography, author name, and other information.
The next novel, Iron Flame, has a much darker and more dangerous tone than its predecessor. Violet begins discovering dangerous secrets and uncovering buried truths while a violent war looms over her. The main villains and allies are both introduced in this book, so I included them in the moodboard, alongside key objects such as the wardstone, Violet's prison room, lightning, and red veins, which are characteristics of the corrupt Venin in the story. The thumbnails for this novel focus on the war with the Venin and the alliance between dragon and gryphon riders. I chose concept twenty, which depicts Tairn and his mate, Sgaeyl, looking over the wardstone.
Digital designs
The resulting designs show a sequence of color from red, blue, and purple. Fourth Wing features a stunning depiction of Tairn and Andarna, with the former dominating the scene in a protective manner as he looks over Andarna. This cover symbolizes the connection between Violet and her dragons. Violet's body is fragile and her bones break easily, so her dragons represent her inner strength, courage, and power to continue even amidst all of her physical pain and challenges. While she helps them find connection and purpose, they provide her with identity and strength.
Iron Flame depicts a beautiful and mysterious scene of Tairn and his mate, Sgaeyl. While Violet and Tairn are companions, Sgaeyl is companion to Xander, the main love interest for Violet. This scene symbolizes their growing relationship as the two grow closer amid turmoil. Between the two dragons rests a wardstone, which is a powerful generator used to keep their home safe from evil magic. The wardstones have large significance in this story, both as key locations and as symbolic elements. Lightning strikes the sky amid a full moon and connects to the wardstone.
While the previous installments feature a crescent and full moon respectively, Onyx Storm depicts an eclipse overlooking Andarna and Leothan. This story's theme is one of identity, grief, and knowledge. While Violet desperately searches for answers regarding the wardstones and venin, Andarna finds her tribe - only to discover that they have outcasted her. Leothan, a member of the tribe and a relative of Andarna, later accepts her as she is, reuniting the young dragon with her family. Andarna's search for knowledge and belonging represents Violet's own conflicts as she struggles to find her place among the other dragon and gryphon riders.
Visualization
After the designs were completed, I further explored the composition by mocking up the designs in Blender and photographing the novels in different angles to showcase different aspects of their designs, such as the covers, spines, and backs. The finished products are successful, unique, and beautiful pieces of dark fantasy artwork that serve their intended purpose diligently.
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