Junie Cover Illustration
Client: Penguin Random House USA
Role: Illustration
Art Director: Elena Giavaldi
It was a pleasure to illustrate the cover of Erin Crosby-Eckstine’s debut novel. A story inspired by the author’s maternal great-great-great-great grandmother, Jane Cotton, who fled enslavement in Lowndes County shortly before the Civil War.
The cover portrays Junie, an enslaved girl lost in daydreams of poetry and far-off worlds. At night, she secretly wanders the forest, her heart a mix of grief and flickering hope.
All approaches to the cover explored Junie’s connection with nature, focusing on the balance between the surrounding flora and Junie as the central subject.
Junie finds solace at a creek on the edge of the plantation at night. I explored various colour palettes to capture the moonlit atmosphere. However, I also wanted the cover to convey a sense of hope. While Junie falls asleep beneath the moon, she often wakes at sunrise. I proposed a sunrise scene to introduce warmth and hope, suggesting the possibility of change.
