Scene from Shattered Sky
An illustration of a scene from a YA novel.
Initial Design Concepts
The goal for this project was to illustrate a scene from a non-illustrated novel. The book that was chosen was Shattered Sky, a YA novel from the Warrior Cats book series published by HarperCollins. These are three takes on the antagonistic relationship between the characters Needletail and Darktail, which culminates in the selected scene where Darktail kills Needletail.
The third concept was chosen to move forward because its energy matches the scene best, while also incorporating visual metaphors relevant to the book series.
Final Character Designs
As the illustration concepts developed, designs for the two characters were refined and finalized based off of how the characters are described in the text.
Needletail (gray) is described as a lithe silver cat with a white chest and green eyes. Darktail (white and black) is described as a large, muscular white cat with black spots on his face, a black tail, and blue eyes. Below is another scrapped design for Needletail, which deviates a bit too much from her canon description.
Final Illustration
The final illustration, fully rendered. Finalized character designs have replaced the initial concepts, making the characters much more recognizable.
This illustration was featured in a collaborative Warrior Cats fan art zine called the “Ultimate Guide Zine,” which featured the talents of 35 illustrators and sold 228 copies during its 2-week run. The proceeds for this project were donated to St. Andrew’s Food Bank in Liverpool, UK.