Images can say so much more than words and with the cover art we wanted to convey Sultan's larger-than-life charisma, while at the same time making sure that the little cat on his back (Charlemagne, of course) doesn't completely disappear from view. There's quite a size difference between an elephant and an ordinary cat. Preparations began with several elephant drawing for practice, which weren't worth publishing here. This early concept drawing was done with soft pastels.
The cat in this early sketch was a little crude and the red lines and paw prints didn't really work. So I switched to my treasured Colleen colored pencils to be able to show greater detail on our two animal protagonists.
The background was done with oil pastels (one of my favorite mediums). Here detail was less important than strong color.
I added lettering, just to see how the white on blue would look.
The finished illustration on the sketch pad. It was done in A3 size. We experimented with different fonts and even different colors for the lettering.
Would you have gone with the red lettering instead? At this point we decided to make Sultan's blanket a brighter red as well, which looks so much better.
The final version. From the first sketches to here took about two weeks. Don't forget, Sultan and Charlemagne and the Wild Winds of Time will still be available at 75 percent off on all platforms until 30 June 2026. Click the link below to go to the sales portal. (You know you want to!)
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