Done for Harcourt Publishing Co. in 2003, I was commissioned through my agent at the time, MB Artists, to create the cover for a children’s textbook. I don’t know whether it was a book of science or of literature, but at that age, it hardly matters. What matters is colorfulness, good design, and lots of interesting detail.
What I particularly enjoyed about doing this cover was envisioning the distant landscape from the treetops and canopy of the South American continental rain forest. I hope that the American kids who had this book in school enjoyed daydreaming about the faraway vistas in these lands. I hope it inspired them to dream about creating a better environmental future.
In 2003, I began working on gessoed paper as a ground for painting. This was a new way of working and it was a sheer delight— much better than canvas because it created far fewer specular highlights than canvas did when it was scanned for printing. The gesso, when applied with a foam roller, made only a very finely pebbled surface texture on the slightly absorbent paper. After a “skin” of underpaint and alkyd resin was applied and dry, paint would easily glide over it. This painting, executed in this new way seemed to paint itself. :D
The sketch for this cover, showing the layout for the title placement is over the vista.