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The Diving Belle and Lophelia's Council Chamber January 31, 2020 23:11

From Jess: 

Oh my cod, how was January SUCH a long month, and yet the 31st snuck up on me like this? I'd intended to publish the January blog way earlier than this, but my husband/co-author Chris has been wrapping up his live-action/CG hybrid debut, "The Call of the Wild," and it's been another weird month. Fortunately, the movie is in the can, and, after the premiere in less than two weeks (!!!), we can both shift our focus from the beautiful but harsh and snowy Yukon to the warm waters and sherbet colors of Miami Beach. Ahhhhhh...

To that end, I wanted to kick off 2020 with some fin-tastic artwork from Nicholas Kennedy. We commissioned Nick back in 2018 to create two layouts for our "Rescue Sirens" pitchbook; because we were pitching the property as an animated series, we were looking for something bold and fairly simple that would feel right at home as a background in a cartoon.

First up: the pool and cozy sheltered courtyard of the Diving Belle, the rundown little motel-turned-condominiums where our Rescue Sirens live while they're topside. Nick did an amazing job capturing the soft colors of a Florida sunrise, and illustrating the twin bell-shaped pool and Art Deco-inspired two-tiered diving platform.


Next is a peek into the secret mermaid community of Lophelia, specifically the grand council chamber/library that is first glimpsed in one of Genevieve Tsai's gorgeous black-and-white illustrations in our novel "Rescue Sirens: The Search for the Atavist." For this illustration, we wanted to pull back a bit to give a wider view and also feature the moody underwater lighting and glowing crystals inside the chamber.


Didn't Nick knock both illustrations out of the park? He's such a pleasure to work with, and fast, too! We really owe one to Gabby Zapata for recommending Nick to us when another artist left us in the lurch right before our pitch.

To see more of Nick's work, check out his Instagram!

I'll be back next month with more goodies (provided I survive this movie premiere, haha). Until then, I hope your 2020 is off to an auspicious start!