![](http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_-mTuzE8-xIs/SspeOH1K-GI/AAAAAAAAA1A/K3riyi1691Y/s400/cover-final.jpg)
Above is the final artwork for a recent book cover assignment for Random House Canada. I was contacted by art director Jennifer Lum to illustrate the cover and 20 small interior illustrations for The Amazing Absorbing Boy, a new novel by Rabindranath Maharaj. I enjoyed this assignment very much, and working with Jennifer was a real joy. Like my last post, I thought I'd share here some of the process and roughs that led to the final art.
The book focuses on the culture shock experienced by a teenage boy as he immigrates from Trinidad to Canada, specifically to the Regent Park area of Toronto. With that idea in mind, I drew up 2 initial cover concepts, in colour like I usually do. Both the drawings below were drawn quickly and featured Regent Park, a distinctive area of Toronto, as a specific location:
![](http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_-mTuzE8-xIs/SspeOT4gw3I/AAAAAAAAA1I/kMaT_f1yB1g/s400/taab-cover-thumbnails1.jpg)
While I liked the first concept, I hated the 2nd one. But I sent them both to Jennifer, to get her suggestions. After talking with her and getting the proper final dimensions for the artwork, I drew up another round of cover concepts: some were slight tweaks to previous ideas, while others took the cover concept in different directions:
![](http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_-mTuzE8-xIs/SspegocrA-I/AAAAAAAAA1Q/sL4W_hjfvno/s400/taab-cover-thumbnails2.jpg)
After sending these to Jennifer, I was told that concept 6 was approved. She also sent back a rough mockup of the cover with all the copy in place:
![](http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_-mTuzE8-xIs/Sspeg7DQDKI/AAAAAAAAA1Y/aE3mIRl1tD0/s400/rough-approved.jpg)
That mockup formed the basis for the final cover illustration, which is at the top of this post.
I also drew 20 black and white interior illustrations, to be printed very small, as chapter openings. You can see a sampling of some of them below:
![](http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_-mTuzE8-xIs/Sspeh94nZBI/AAAAAAAAA1g/SzBlk_Eevp0/s400/spot-illos-finals.jpg)
All in all, this was another highly enjoyable project to work on. Jennifer Lum gave me a lot of freedom on this, especially with the interior art, and was a great collaborator to work with.
For more information The Amazing Absorbing Boy, you can check out the the listing on Random House Canada's website.