Recently I signed on to doing covers for IDW’s comic book adaptation of Peter S. Beagle’s classic, The Last Unicorn.
After reading the book, I felt that a more classical fantasy illustration approach might be appropriate. Specifically, I started looking at the work of Edmund Dulac and Arthur Rackham, who both worked primarily in ink and watercolor. Each of them tend to have an degree of realism, while maintaining the graphic quality I strive for in my designs.
Maybe this is just in my head, but for some reason I thought it would be my job to attract boys to a book with “Unicorn” in the cover, as it seems to be a given that girls would be willing to pick it up (sexist, I know). At any rate, it lead me to try to focus on making the unicorn much less cartoony while emphasizing the terror of the world around her.
And I haven’t done this since college, but I did a whole bunch of color comps trying to figure out what would look best for the final. I even did some in watercolor to see if that would give me any good ideas.
In the end, the color comps were helpful, but I didn’t wind up going with any one of them specifically.
The final is going to be sold as a variant cover for the first issue of the series, due out in April of this year.
For collectors, the original drawings can be purchased here. There’s also a prints section with some new additions.
Have a great week,
Frank
17 Comments
Add Yours →this is really lovely, it is one of my favorite books you really did a good job, i only wish you would have painted it in a real medium instead of the digital color
Frikkin fantastic. Just had to say that… Back when I was in school (recent grad), we were highly discouraged from drawing unicorns. But here you are w/ a published unicorn and I'm going to be doing one soon for work : ). Anyhow, I've been a fan of your work for a long time & wish you only the best!
You even make a one-horned animal look a little sexy. nice
Glad I stumbled onto your blog. This is really beautiful.
Aside from it's overall, oh, beautifulness, the combination of that exquisite line all the subtle texture you have tucked in there makes the color even more rewarding to look at.
Thanks for sharing your insight and process. Good stuff, I'd say…
Absolutely beautiful!! Fantastic work Frank!
A nice departure for you. Thanks for the wonderful insight.
Nicely done , enjoyed seeing your process too.
awesome..I love it!
beautiful colors…. thanks for showing all your different colorcomps and the process
Great post, great cover. Thanks for sharing, Frank.
Just found your blog—love your art! Your drawing skills are incredible but my favorite stuff is your use of value and color to really control the composition.
Nice work!
This is beautiful. The different components of this illustration flow really well.
This is one of my favourite books, and I've always been a disappointed by the cover art for every single version. At least the comic book adaptation will have a wicked cover design!
Thanks everyone! You're bringing a tear to my eye.
Actually, this is an earlier iteration of the Last Unicorn cover…I made some changes after I turned it in and asked them to run the newer version, but this is the one I saw in the Previews book, so I decided to post it.
George – You'll be happy to know that a watercolor painting is incorporated into this design.
Chrystal – Raised among many little sisters, I was never really a fan of unicorns, though they were ever-present. They seem to be trendy recently, along with Zombies. Check out Josh Cochran's site to see what I mean.
Matt – She's single, I'll introduce you.
Adam, RAWLS, Brian, Dominic, Erik, Kyle, Sam, Alex – thanks!
Britt – Yes, the cover of the novel was pretty bad. I hope I manage to produce 5 more covers you like equally as much.
Wow this Unicorn piece is great. The positions of all the elements really works. You work has really changed since your nucleus gallery days.
i love that you worked on this. unicorns are awesome!
Please change this!!!! I am saddened because the Last Unicorn is my favorite movie. But her head here is not beautiful and making a 😐 expression and kind of looks like a seagull. Please you need to refer the the movie likeness more!!!!!!!!
Anonymous – Ha ha, It's okay. The comic was actually based on the book, not the movie. I purposely didn't want it to look like the movie likeness for that reason. I hope you'll forgive my audacity!
–frank