Sam Weber

I named this after a character from Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake. Although the figure depicted bears no narrative resemblance to the aforementioned, there is something about the pose and colour that evokes themes within the novel that I found fitting. I’ll do this often, try to conjure the sense of a character I have read or heard about, even if it does not directly relate to the problem at hand. I think part of it is about satisfying certain artistic compulsions, and part of it is about creating something that feels convincing.

I recently finished a book cover for Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game. You can read more about the whole process over at Tor.com, I’ve excerpted a little below:

There’s a great interview with Orson Scott Card at the end of the Ender’s Game audio book. I remember listening to it only moments after those haunting final words call an end to one of my favorite books of all time. In the interview, Card talks about his theatre background and how writing plays affected Ender’s Game. For a book that is so incredibly evocative, there is surprisingly little in the way of specific physical description. Like theatre, it is the language and dialog, the characters that evoke the world in which Ender exists. In most ways that is what Ender’s Game is about for me. The characters. Although the situation is thought-provoking and unique, it’s Ender’s struggle that grabs you and breaks your heart. The weight of the actions he is forced to take in the name of both human and personal survival is crushing. It’s a personal and emotional struggle that feels relevant and timeless, completely independent of the set pieces and stage that Card has nonetheless so beautifully crafted.

A new book jacket for Simon and Schuster.

I did an interview over the holidays with the great folks at Sidebar. You can listen to it here. Thanks Dwight and Swain.

Tor is rereleasing the Wheel of Time series as ebooks, with a different illustrator creating a cover for each novel. I was lucky enough to be asked to work on The Shadow Rising, book four in the series. I’ve been reading Robert Jordan’s novels since I was about thirteen(many years ago), it was quite an experience to work on something that is so deeply situated in my consciousness and memories of childhood. There’s a nice post on Tor.com about the whole project, along with some process and a short video of me talking about what it was like to work on this picture. If you have the time, take a look at some of the other great covers by the likes of Donato Giancola, Kekai Kotaki, and David Grove.