Custom Illustrations for
"All Of This was Once Under Water"
(Poems by Natalie Young)
2023, Quarter Press
Concept
The goal was to create delicate illustrations suiting the melancholic yet beautiful mood of Natalie Young‘s poems.
Central to my visual concept for this project was its color scheme of warm orange, dusky pink and khaki. Inspired by the books setting in the Utah mountains, the color scheme reflects the unique atmosphere of light and colors of a sunset in Capitol Reef National Park.
The illustrations themselves consist of hand drawn lineart in ink and were later digitally colored. I created 10 full page illustrations, supporting key scenes in the narrative, and 6 small embellishments, showing themes of local wildlife and nature, for the book.
"The abundant illustrations by Maximiliane Spieß are perfectly suited to the book: weird yet warm; toned in rock-red and agave-green; physical yet supernatural. Young and Spieß have not created a collection. They have created a world."
- Dana Delibovi
Full book review at psalterandlyre.org
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