Over the holidays, I was asked to do a full-page feature about a series of books by Suzanne Collins called The Hunger Games.
Fortunately on this one, there was enough time for me to read the first book of the series before I had to turn in sketches.
The story is set in a post-apocalyptic future, in which every year, randomly selected teenagers from around the country are selected to fight to the death on national television. It’s like a cross between the book 1984 and the film Battle Royale (both highly recommended).
Here are the original thumbnails and notes that I sent to Evan Campisi (art director), a snapshot of the final sketch in progress, and the final illustration. 
Also, here’s a link to Scholastic’s page for the series (The covers were done by illustrator-extraordinaire Tim O’Brien).
Also, here’s a link to Scholastic’s page for the series (The covers were done by illustrator-extraordinaire Tim O’Brien).Anyway, if you are interested in some light & fun reading, the Hunger Games is a pretty good choice. But you don’t have to take my word for it…
Frank
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Add Yours →I love the gesture on the main figure; it's like you can feel her loping slowly… that dash of light on the back of the calf is choice. Nice work!
March 2012 cannot come soon enough!! Dying to see The Hunger Games movie already. The whole series was amazing to read I can't wait to see who's cast in the movie! http://on.fb.me/gXrImz
Wow, this is awesome!! That figure is fantastic. Love it.
Thanks, guys!
f.
I listened to the whole series on audio–It's a decent read, though it gets a little relentlessly bleak towards the end of the series. Pretty much everything horrible that could possibly happen to the character, happens, and after a certain amount of tragedy, I just sort of got numb to it. But it was still pretty compelling. I like Tim O'Brian's covers, but sometimes it's just fun to see someone interpret a scene from the book. It's a fun image! It's fun to see how someone else interprets a character vs. how you imagined them in your head. You made her so thin! But I like the litheness of her. All bones and sinew.
This is also just like Richard Bachmans (aka stephen Kings) short story "the long walk" in which teenagers are drafted to do a long walk, in which everyone must keep a pace of 5 mph and cant drop below 5mph more than 3 times an hour or else they are killed. After a few days, when people have to go to the bathroom it gets interesting how they try to maintain the speed.
This piece is really awesome! I was reminded right away of this piece: http://bit.ly/dG6tv7 by another awesome illustrator. 🙂
Nice one . Like the fluidity of the forms.
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Jed, Me, Jelter, Dominic… really nice comments and insight about the book. Maybe one of the reasons The Hunger Games is good is because it reminds us of so many other really good stories out there already.
Jelter, thanks for the comparison to one of the all-time greats!
f.
Fantastic work, Frank! The cover alone I think would make me read the book even if I had not already known the story behind it.
Hi Frank
Been a big fan of yours since I discovered your work. Truly inspiration for me.
I just want to know what is your tools for inking? Or more importantly is your main tool/pen for inking?
I tried mimicking your inking with a 0.1 regular drawing pen but my lines look dead so I double stroking some of the line but I felt uncomfortable working that way.
Thanks
Barnaby