I continue to labor at the Legs of Izolda Morgan cover, kicking around various ideas. I think it’s safe to say that my wife is tired of being beckoned over to look at new directional sketches. Meanwhile, I’m not sure I’ve ever accumulated so much research for a project that will eventually result in just one single image (well, two, if you count back cover). I’ve certainly done much more extensive digging for larger projects… but this is like reading the amount of material associated with writing a dissertation, only to produce a haiku in the end.
Anyway, since I have book covers and related imagery falling out of my ears, here are a few more recently discovered (or, in some cases, rediscovered) images:
The bottom image here is a photograph by Dallas Sean Hyatt, a San Francisco-based photographer who happened to be having a show at Brainwash cafe that I walked into when I was there in April. I exchanged a few emails with him, told him that I like his work a lot. The above image strikes me as being in the same spirit as the second image on the Right Reasons web site (although his is considerably better for being a raw photograph rather than a jived-up collage).
Great stuff as always! Ignoring the great art for a minute, I’m also now inspired to steal your post title and write a story entitled “The Top of the Food Tube” Of course it will be populated with people who embody the other end!
You have my blessing!
BTW I really like the Dallas Hyatt photos too. Something like the one you’ve posted might be a good idea for the Legs of Izolda Morgan cover. A Marlene Dietrich face superimposed over some sort of bleak industrial montage. You could just use early 20th century images or if you wanted to make observations about how pertinent the story is today you could tweak the face–like have a semiconductor thing on the forehead or the hint of a keyboard or screen over the face. All that would hint at the story’s point about people and technology. Forgive me, just indulging myself here.
Tell Dallas you like his work– he’ll be glad to hear that it’s making the rounds.
Yeah, it’s tempting to try and impose the Dallas Hyatt and/or Right Reasons aesthetic on the Legs cover. But I’m really intent on not presenting a visualization of Izolda (or at least not her face) because she’s actually run over by a tram in the opening paragraph and plays almost no active role in the story. One of the many built-in booby traps with this assignment! Also, I know the publisher is dying to use a rough recycled paper for this that wouldn’t hold photo halftone well (although he could perhaps be swayed on this point).
Thanks for your thoughts, though– keep em coming!