A Mirror Image Cover
Thoughts on creating the cover for "A Mirror Image Storm."
Mirrors are mysterious things. It’s easy to forget that sometimes, but I was thinking about it again when I had to draw the cover for A Mirror Image Storm.
I looked at many other cover images different artists had created which depicted mirrors. There were characters bursting out from behind shards of shattering mirror glass or reaching into mirrors as if they were portals into another world. There were mirrors that showed distorted images or revealed things that otherwise would have remained unseen. So many possibilities!
In the end, the idea I chose was a very quiet one. It’s based on a scene in the story where Yukiko sees her father’s video game creations coming through the shoji sliding door. Then I sat down at my drawing board to sketch it out.
I like this particular cover because there is something mysterious about it. You could say it has what the Japanese call aimai, or ambiguity. We can see Yukiko looking out toward us and we can see the video game characters in the mirror… but are they real? Do they exist outside of her imagination? Or is she perhaps hallucinating?
Also, the figure in the leather jacket looks like Yukiko’s father, but can we be sure it’s really him? Why is he poised to combat the others? Is he protecting Yukiko from them or are they protecting her from him?
If the cover causes you to ask any of these questions, then it has served its purpose. Mirrors are like that, causing us to look again and wonder if what we see is real or not. And here we have a “mirror image storm.”
Let me just take a moment to thank Devon Chung, who worked hard to bring the image to life in vibrant colour. Since it’s the only image in colour in the whole book, it seems just a little extra special to me.
So this is the last image you will see of A Mirror Image Storm. I hope you’ve enjoyed this project and will invite others to read it as well. I’m currently at work on the second book of the Starr and Staff saga, The Dragon’s Amulet, a fantasy story set in the world that Yukiko’s father created for his video games. If all goes well, that should be ready to share on Substack sometime next year. Watch for it!
You’re reading: Starr and Staff: A Mirror Image Storm
Read the chapters in order:
What throws me off about drawing reflections is that the mirror doesn't see what you, the viewer, sees. It shows the back of things, so in order to draw it, you have to think all the way around whatever you're reflecting.
Yes, that's true! One of the cleverest uses I saw of a mirror on a cover is an example where the mirror showed the face of an angry character who, without the mirror there, we normally would only have seen from the back...