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Wyrm King Cover

March 18, 2009

I am excited to unveil the cover to the third, and final, Beyond the Spiderwick Chronicles book. This is also the grand finale to my favorite faerie series.

wyrmcover

This arrangement, of a character facing off with another, is a composition I’ve used throughout all of the Spiderwick books starting with book 1. I thought it would be fitting to use it here as our hero, Nick, faces the “big bad” of the trilogy – a creature not described in Arthur’s Field Guide…

cover-sketch

The preliminary sketch was done in pencils, and a tonal study followed which was rendered digitally. Once the sketch was approved, it was enlarged and transferred to bristol board where the final painting was rendered in Holbien acryla guoache.

covertonal

The art director and I thought the scene would read more dramatic if Nick was reduced in size, giving the creature a more ominous presence. This change was done in Photoshop, and you’ll be able to see the slight difference once the book comes out this September. Below is a quick draft with the scale change:

2p_cvr_wyrm-king

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Never Abandon Imagination Tony DiTerlizzi: Never abandon imagination.

Imagination is a world of possibility that exists within each of us. It is what makes us uniquely human. It is our creative fingerprint that touches and influences the world around us. Imagination is essential to art and science; to innovation and prosperity. It gives us hope, calls us to action and leads to change.

Whether it’s fairies, dragons, robots or aliens, all of my children’s book characters are siblings born of my imagination – an imagination strengthened through years of encouragement from family, teachers and friends. While so many others abandoned it during their transition from childhood to adulthood, I fiercely held onto mine, hoping for a day when I could share it to inspire the next generation of dreamers. Innovators. World changers.

Imagination empowers us to envision and create a reality of what could be. We must hold it dear, foster it and never abandon it.