The literary review of canada
I’ve been lucky enough to draw for the Literary Review of Canada over a dozen times now. It’s always such a fun project. It’s like a cross between editorial and book illustration, since most pieces I create accompanying illustrations for are reviews or essays relating to books. Below you’ll fine some of my favourites from over the years.
Starting off with one of my favourites, this piece accompanies a review of Swamplands: Tundra Beavers, Quaking Bogs, and the Improbable World of Peat, by Edward Struznik. The book gives the incredible and overlooked ecosystem the bog the respect they deserve. I highlighted the danger of losing them to development in my illustration, and I’m quite pleased with the mirrored silhouettes between the Whooping Crane and the construction equipment (and that crane/crane wordplay!).
This cover is of course based on the Ukrainian flag, a field of sunflowers occupies the bottom half of the space, and a bright blue sky fills the top, with a nightingale, the official bird of Ukraine flying across the sky. The nightingale sings a beautiful song that signals spring is not far behind. And with it comes sunshine, warmth, and rebirth.
This illustration on the left accompanies reviews of two Canadian horror books. The piece draws attention to how underrepresented horror is at the big fancy literature galas and awards shows and asks why monsters, ghouls, and ghosts have historically been left out of such events. The one on the right accompanies a review of The Beautiful Place, an unofficial sequel to Sinclair Ross’s As for Me and my House.
These animal themed illustrations accompany reviews about a book trying to understand the desire behind hunting, and a postmodern tale about humans inviting all kinds of animals into their homes.
These illustration the left hand side accompanies a piece about the re-designing of Old Sam’s label. We don’t know much about the curious label, but what we do know is that it’s problematic. The one on the right is for Dinner on Mars a deep dive into what food within a colony on Mars would actually look like.
