A few of the experimental sketches of Cardan Greenbriar, from ‘The Cruel Prince’ by Holly Black for LitJoy Crate.
They asked me to illustrate the tense scene where Jude holds a knife to Cardan’s throat and reverses their positions of power. I hoped to capture something of his emotions at that time: drunken disdain shot through with a growing genuine fear, and yet over everything a sort of reckless despair.
I also had to figure out what to do with a character who’s described as wearing fabulous makeup, a crown, *and* a mask - so the mask ended up in his hand. And then I had to pinch myself that I was officially being asked to draw a faerie prince with cheekbones forever by one of my favourite authors, bloody hell.
