Earlier this year, I started a personal project where I designed and animated covers for some of the books I had recently read. I really enjoyed the process of finding new ways to visualize the story, and then using motion to add more narrative to the illustration. I only did this process for two books at the time, which you can see here.
I'm hoping to start up this project again, and the book I chose this time was "The Song of Achilles" by Madeline Miller. I have yet to animate it, but here's the initial illustration:
It's a love story between Achilles and Patroclus. The beginning is very sweet and idyllic, but then the Trojan War happens and things go south. I think if there were a movie based off of this book, it would be a combination of Call Me By Your Name and Troy. Overall, I wanted the design to reflect the sweetness of the love story, but then contrast that with the helmet and pinkness of the figs to suggest the violence that comes in later.
The top illustration has my original color choice, but I'm also considering moving forward with the version below because I like the metallic gold of the helmet here, rather than the kind of dull gray above. But then I think maybe the gold brings too much attention to the helmet.
I hope to post another blog update soon with the finished animation.