Hello and Welcome to the next stop in the TMI Blog Tour, hosted by Walker Books UK! I'm so thrilled to be apart of today's celebration for the re-release of Cassandra Clare's The Mortal Instruments series in the UK. This week the series was re-released with the new stunning cover designs. Each day this week one Shadowhunter fansite will be featuring a newly designed cover from the TMI series. Yesterday the cover for City of Bones was featured here, and today I'm thrilled to be spotlighting the new design for City of Ashes.
The artwork was created by Míla Fürstová, an award-winning internationally exhibited artist, who has shown in 20 solo shows in many countries, including Britain, USA, France and the Czech Republic over the last decade. During this time she has won 14 prestigious awards. Her work has become part of important private and public collections, including that of Queen Elizabeth II and the V&A Museum in London and has featured in numerous publications. She also designed the illustration for the CD cover of Coldplay’s Ghost Stories, a big reason why Walker Books commissioned her for these new covers.
- She draws the illustration with a metal needle, exposing the bare metal
- The plate is then immersed in acid and the acid bites into the metal, where it’s exposed, resulting in lines on the plate
- The plate is inked all over, and the ink goes into the lines
- The plate is put through a high-pressure printing press together with a sheet of paper and the paper picks up the ink from the etched lines, making a print
Below is a snippet of the illustration briefing for City of Ashes
We could have Clary and Jace as central characters in this illustration. They are both fighting to stop Valentine from getting the Mortal Instruments and destroying the world.
Valentine is hidden in a ship and the climax of the story is a fight in it. The ship could be illustrated in the background.
There could be one of Clary's sketchbooks on the illustration. Clary discovers she has the power to create new runes, and she will use the opening rune to escape from Valentine.
Míla first sent in sketches with her initial thoughts. Then there would be a bit of conversation about the sketch, before she produced the final etching on the metal plate to make the print with. Below is an example that shows the process. Cover Illustration © 2015 Walker Books Ltd.
ENTER TO WIN
Thank you to Walker Books (UK), I've got an awesome giveaway! 1 winner will win the newly redesigned set of The Mortal Instruments. I personally think the new covers will look stunning on a bookshelf. If you'd like to enter to win, please fill out the form below. Please note this is for residents of the UK only.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Good luck!