Tuesday 23 August 2016

Mama Can't Raise No Man




Mama Can't Raise No Man will be published with a huge launch at the Hackney Empire on the 27th September, and can be preordered - here. The details of the artists performing live at the event are on the same website. 





At first, I included some explorations of compositions, and different ways to show the idea. After one was chosen I fleshed it out, and after one more round of feedback, I began drawing the final image.






I cycled around Richmond for a while, taking reference shots from suitably knobbly trees, to evoke the idea in the brief that the character has grown up wrong in the absence of a father-figure, and settled on this Horse Chestnut. I also took some grass for the base. 

For the colours, my brief was to include the Pan-African flag colours of green, black, and red. This would be a little tricky, as the flag colours weren't very naturalistic, but after checking out what they symbolised, I figured we could use the figures and tree to stand for black and green, and the text could have the red. Here's the explanation from wikipedia - 


"The Universal Negro Catechism, published by the UNIA in 1921, refers to the colors of the flag meaning:[6]
Red is the color of the blood which men must shed for their redemption and liberty; black is the color of the noble and distinguished race to which we belong; green is the color of the luxuriant vegetation of our Motherland."

 It was an absolute pleasure to work on this cover. I really hope it helps Robyn get as much exposure as he deserves. He's an inspiring guy, not least because he's not one for waiting around for people to come and find his book. -




Finally, the back cover. This book sounds awesome!