Read a piece penned by Pippa Keel Situ, cover artist of Bear by Kiri Lightfoot.
Bear by Kiri Lightfoot is the powerful, humorous yet sensitive story of Jasper, a talented young artist, who learns to face his anger. In this piece, cover designer Pippa Keel Situ talks about the process of designing its gorgeous cover, and provides some fascinating behind the scenes images of how this stunning art piece came to be.
Bear felt, at times, like a magical realism styled novel, because Kiri had crafted the character/representation of the Bear SO well. It did feel like he/it would likely end up as the obvious choice for the cover - ideally shown alongside our main character, Jasper.
I delved heavily into the narrative itself to look for inspiration. In the process of working on the inner illustrations, I created rough characterisations for Jasper and the Bear. Jasper himself stood out to me as actually quite cheeky and humorous - but with it simmering beneath the surface. So he is depicted often scowling, or hiding behind his mop of hair (inherited from his Mum). The Bear is a bit of an edited grizzly bear - scary, toothy, with large teeth and a snarling resting face.
Initially I wondered about somehow representing Jasper’s tree through the cover, as it felt like an interesting way to speak to his loneliness. When I was first reading Bear, it felt like the tree was his safe place, but it almost gets to the point where it seems like a cage. There are moments when it seems clear he would rather leave the comfort of his tree, but he isn’t able to.
With this in mind, I explored some darker, more ominous, leafy covers, with an eye to creating a bear silhouette in the shadows created by the edges of the leaves. I also wanted to consider showcasing a typical house that you might find in an Aotearoa New Zealand suburb, but one with absolutely no neighbours (playing on Jasper’s intense feelings of isolation).
The other thought that jumped out at me was perhaps showing some of the key moments within the book - ie. the basketball scene, or even playing off like Jasper himself, a keen artist, had hand-sketched the bear that was on the cover. In the end though, this felt a bit trite, and the team agreed.
We settled on that early idea of the bear silhouette stalking Jasper from his shadow. It perfectly encapsulated the idea that he cannot escape the Bear by just ignoring it, but it also still shows his overall isolation - he’s not in a fun setting, he’s in an unsettlingly plain landscape. The Bear is his only company.
This pose for the Bear was also carefully considered. Upright, he looked a little too much like one of those squeezy honey bottles in the shape of a bear! But then his sweet little walk was almost Paddington-like. Up close, things got a bit too horror-themed and grizzly. His jaws open around or near Jasper were all-in-all, ‘a bit much’.
A quiet, plodding stalk; overbearingly large compared to Jasper’s young frame, were perfect. This was largely influenced by the book’s amazing designer, Kate Barroclough, who suggested we really play up the scale between Jasper and the Bear to enhance the drama. Her excellent example was ‘The Nickel Boys’ cover:
Once this was signed off by the team, I launched into colour exploration - firstly a violent red encasing the Bear (surely everyone’s first thought for anger and drama), with some cooler tones around Jasper. This softened when I moved to the final art phase!
For the actual drawing I used watercolour and pastels to try and soften out the shape of the Bear, keeping Jasper a bit more highly rendered in pencil to match the inner illustrations. I like that there’s a little bit of a dreamlike quality to the setting, as it does become a little confusing at times in the book figuring out what is real…
Looking back, it’s quite lovely seeing how it came together, with strong help from the Allen & Unwin team, and of course brilliant book designer Kate Barroclough. I was thrilled with her choice of type for the cover too - it works perfectly with the art. I hope I did Kiri’s story justice - and that the cover art gets it picked up off the shelf!
You can find Pippa on Instagram here!
Bear
by Kiri Lightfoot
The powerful, humorous yet sensitive story of Jasper, a talented young artist, who learns to face his anger.
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