As the illustrator for Things That Are—a magical, inventive exploration of the universe through essay by the wonderful writer Amy Leach—I wanted to share some of the sketches that I created in putting together the book’s final illustrations. The first image I completed for the book was the cover, so here I’ll explain that image’s progression.

At the time I began working on the cover for Things That Are, I was looking at a lot of prints from the Works Progress Administration, because a student of mine was doing a project on artists from the Great Depression. The first image below is a close rendering of a bookplate from that era by Rockwell Kent. I often begin an idea with a reference of some kind; sometimes it is another person’s work, sometimes a photograph, and sometimes a life sketch. As I progress through an idea I often return to the initial reference as a way to guide my decision making later on. The second image pictured below is an attempt to distill my idea down to its essence. In this case the sunrise felt like the right symbol for the reverent tone of Things That Are that I was trying to capture.

Things That Are is filled with quirky animal descriptions, and it seemed fitting that the cover should reflect them. (Also the first sketch of the mountain was too busy for me and the second was too simple.) The penguin was a first attempt to find a happy medium amidst these different conceptual aspects.

This next sketch is the first that I sent in for feedback. As you can see the penguin became a goat. (Actually, there was a fire hydrant in there for a while as well.) I believe that great ideas come from collaboration with others rather than from an individual. I am lucky to have a strong community of trusted advisers who have helped me avert artistic disasters many times, so when they said the penguin was a bit heavy handed, I went with a goat instead. In the end it was the right choice, though the penguin sunrise has a certain appeal to me still. The elaborate decorative pea shoots in the sketch below are inspired by a previous project that I did for Milkweed. Though they are fun (especially to draw), it made the image too busy. I am a detail lover and there is a sort of personal dance that I have to do when creating: to include the necessary details, but not to add ones that distract from the core idea I am trying to convey.  Eliminating the pea shoots was an important decision in the cover’s direction, as my original concept was much more decorative.

This is the second goat, and another example of how important feedback is. At the time that I drew this image, I was pretty happy with the simplicity of it. In fact, I thought I nailed it. But other folks felt like it was a little too masculine, and in hindsight it seems obvious to me that it evokes the old Burlington Northern Railroad logo way too much (though I love that logo).

This is the final cover. It is fun to look back at all the sketches that led to this one and to see how each one—and the problem it presented—is part of this final product. I have a hard time deciding when something is completed. The technique that I have arrived at is that when any additional work appears to be making things worse, then I make myself stop. It probably goes without saying that I have a conflicted relationship with my completed work, however I am happy with how almost everything turned out here.

Related Post: Don’t miss our interview with Nate Christopherson that covers more of the technical and conceptual ideas behind his illustrations for Things That Are.

Nate Christopherson is an illustrator and print maker based in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Learn more about him on his website, from which this post was adapted.