WIA2022 Longlist Category Highlights: Book Covers – Professional

Rui Ricardo : Murder Under Her Skin

Commissioned by author Stephen Spotswood, to illustrate the cover of novel ‘Murder Under Her Skin’, Rui focused on circus themes in the book, particularly a tattooed lady, who is the victim in the murder case. They also made sure to include both main characters and each suspect taking part in the mystery.

The illustration began life as a pencil sketch on paper, and then colours were added digitally.

Rui Ricardo is an illustrator born and living in Porto, represented by Folio Art in London. He studied graphic design in the Fine Arts University of Porto.

Elsa Klever : Wie man einen Tiger fängt / When You Trap a Tiger

Elsa was asked by the publisher Dragon Fly / Harper Collins to create a book cover and lettering for an existing young adult novel ‘You Trap a Tiger’ by Tae Keller for the German book market. 

The combination of painting tigers, and incorporating lettering into the illustration, made this Elsa’s dream project.

The illustration was created using hand-painted acrylic and ink illustrations for background and textures, and the tiger and lettering were painted in Photoshop.

Elsa Klever was born in Berlin, and is now based in Hamburg, Germany. She studied Illustration at HAW Hamburg and HSLU Luzern in Germany.

Paolo Pochettino : Alice in Wonderland

To develop their personal portfolio, Paolo created this illustration as a book cover for the classic novel ‘Alice in Wonderland’ by Lewis Carroll.

They were inspired by pictures of the real Alice Liddell, who inspired the book, rather than the model offered from the more widely known John Tenniel illustrations.

The illustration was created in Photoshop, using a limited colour palette.

Paolo Pochettino is a self-taught illustrator currently living in Turin, Italy.

Clare Curtis : A Spotter’s Guide to Countryside Mysteries

Clare was commissioned to create this book cover design for Profile Books, following on from Curtis’s work on previous John Wright book covers.

The Illustration was created as a linocut print, which was then scanned and finished digitally.

Clare Curtis is an Illustrator and print maker based in Suffolk, UK. She studied illustration and printmaking at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art in Dundee. 

Xinmei Liu : The Wedding Party

Commissioned by Amazon Publishing as a book cover for the first English edition of Liu Xinwu’s novel ‘The Wedding Party’, this illustration depicts a scene from a wedding day in a Siheyuan in Beijing in the 1980s.

The illustration was used for the e-book as well as the print version of this novel.

Created with line work in ink with a dip pen, and then scanned and coloured digitally.

Xinmei Liu (Cat Mover) is a Chinese Illustrator currently living and working in New Jersey, USA.

Annette Saugestad Helland : How to Tame a Cousin

Having written and illustrated this award winning children’s book, Annette created the cover using a combination of drawings and painted elements.

It tells the story of little Jane, who is looking forward to a family party, but keeps being told she can’t help make the cake as she is too small. Her young cousin then arrives like a whirlwind and the story takes an exciting turn.

In creating these illustrations she wanted to create a playful, expressive style that mirrors the action and dynamics of the story, using multiple layers of painted elements to give association to the richness of colour in the textured coloured etchings.

Annette Saugestad is a Norwegian illustrator based just outside Oslo.