Friday Flourish: Masque

Happy Friday and Happy Almost Easter everyone!

I've been celebrating Easter basically since February when my grocery store started stocking Cadbury Mini Eggs, the most delicious chocolatey-goodness ever invented. This weekend will likely consist primarily of massive chocolate consumption, but also some quality family time as well. I hope you all have a wonderful holiday!

Before I rush off to my date with Mini Eggs though, I have another of my recent cover designs to share with you. I've had an influx of requests for illustrated covers lately, and it's made me ridiculously happy. The design memo author W.R. Gingell submitted for her fairy tale/fantasy novel Masque had me giddy with excitement not only because it's a bit of a Beauty and the Beast retelling and that's my very favorite fairy tale, but also because she emphasized her love for typography. You guys are well aware by now how much I love type and finding the perfect font for any given project, so as with last week's The Broken Crown, I started my design process by searching for the right typeface for Masque.

It didn't take me long to find a front runner – one that had a great deal of character to help create a brand for the series, as well as one that had a regal quality to it befitting the Victorian-era setting. Given the title of the book and the fact that masks themselves play a pivotal role, it seemed as though it might be odd if the design didn't incorporate a mask in some way, so once the type was in place I worked on putting the mask illustration together.

W.R. included a tagline in the artwork form she submitted to me, and when I saw the words "bloody murder", the concept for the mask really fell into place. I incorporated blood drips into the mask itself and added little blood spatter to the background, creating a bit of dark contrast to the gold and glitter of the mask and title. I couldn't be more pleased with how the cover turned out, so I hope you guys love it as much as W.R. and I do!

Beauty met the Beast and there was . . . Bloody murder?

It’s the Annual Ambassadorial Ball in Glause, and Lady Isabella Farrah, the daughter of New Civet’s Ambassador, is feeling pleasantly scintillated.

In the library is Lord Pecus, a charming gentleman whose double mask hides a beastly face, and who has decided that Isabella is the very person to break the Pecus curse.

In the ball-room is young Lord Topher, who is rapidly falling in love with an older woman.

And in the card-room, lying in a pool of his own blood, is the body of one of Isabella’s oldest friends: Raoul, Civet’s Head Guardsman. The papers sewn into his sash seem to suggest espionage gone wrong, but Isabella is not so certain.

Lord Pecus, as Commander of the Watch, is of the opinion that Isabella should keep out of the investigation and out of danger. Isabella is of the opinion that it is her murder to investigate, and that what a certain Beast-Lord doesn’t know won’t hurt him. . . .

Will Isabella find the murderer before Lord Pecus does, or will she end her investigation as a bloody spatter on the parlour floor?

Find Masque:

Amazon • B&N • Goodreads

Find W.R.:

Website • Facebook • Twitter

You can check out more of my cover design work at Seedlings Design Studio!