A challenging commission came through for the Radio Times last week. Terry Pratchett's "Eric". An interesting story with lots of references to the Classics (from Faust to the Odyssey) + ancient civilisations, and a humorous take on the be-careful-what-you-wish-for tale!
Entering into Terry Pratchett's world is always a rich visual challenge, especially with the strong covers designed by Josh Kirby and Paul Kidby. I wanted to be as far removed from their work as possible so I tried to keep my design graphically simple but still retain a strong brooding atmosphere, with key references to the main elements of the book. Great fun depicting the Trojan Horse, pyramid and the talking parrot! Again as in the last RT piece, for speed and efficiency the image was almost entirely created in Adobe Illustrator with a tiny bit of tweaking in Photoshop. Out on newsstands today.
From the BBC synopsis:
"BBC Radio 4 returns to Discworld, where Mark Heap stars as Junior Wizard Rincewind, who is attempting to escape the Dungeon Dimensions. And the Demon King of Hell. Oh, and a parrot.
Terry Pratchett's many Discworld novels combine a technicolour imagination with a razor sharp wit. Also featuring Will Howard as Eric, Geoffrey Whitehead as Death, Robert Blythe as Archchancellor and Rick Warden as the Narrator.
Director/Jonquil Panting for the BBC"