Interview with Jeff Minkevics, artist

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Jeff Minkevics

cover artist for Mik Murdoch: Boy Superhero

not nearly as bad-ass as this photo would indicate, in fact a Really Nice Guy.




One of the books we're really excited about is Michell Plested's Mik Murdoch: Boy Superhero. We commissioned Jeff Minkevics to do the cover, and netted him recently to discuss his artistic vision for the cover.

Lorina: Tell us a
bit about yourself and your background in visual arts.

Jeff: I'm a
graduate of the Drawing program at the Alberta College of Art and Design, with
a few Visual Communications courses under my belt as well as having spent a
brief stint at the University of Calgary. Currently I'm a graphics developer
for a Telecom-focused software company, where I do everything from photography
and illustration to logo development and corporate identity. I also do the
occasional bit of freelance design, illustration, and Photoshop work, so my
stuff ends up in some fairly unexpected places. In fact, I was once interviewed
by both National Geographic and Science Magazine over a photo hoax I created
that went viral a few years back.

Lorina: Was the
present cover the first concept, or were there others? If there were others,
what were they?

Jeff: It was the
first concept I imagined when presented with the idea of a boy superhero - the
classic 'Superman' opening of the shirt that reveals the super-secret and
iconic superhero identity. I'm pretty certain that every kid's imagined
something similar when growing up, and the mere gesture of opening a shirt like
that has become virtually synonymous with the notion of a superhero identity.

There were a couple of other concepts for it as well. One
featured a complete shot of a boy who had dressed himself up in a makeshift
costume that was very obviously low-budget and thrown together with what was
available around your typical house . . . rubber washing gloves, ski-goggles,
striped bed sheets tied as a cape, and other things like that. However, while a
visual gag like that might be okay for a single cover, it didn't seem like
something that could be built upon for subsequent covers featuring Mik, so I
decided against it.

Lorina: What were
the basic concepts and images you wanted to communicate?

Jeff: Well, there
was the 'Superman Reveal' pose, which I figured would get across the super-hero
element we were after. I also wanted a plain but colourful outer-shirt that a
typical boy might wear, but that wasn't specific to 2012 or any particular
year. The marker-style font for the writing on the shirt sort of suggests that
he's written it himself - an impulsive and child-like attempt at creating some
sort of super-hero identity. Aside from that, I just wanted to create a bright,
clean, summertime-based look and feel.

Lorina: The
lighting in the cover is fairly fresh, without high contrast. Was this a
conscious choice and why?

Jeff: It was a
choice based on the background elements that were decided for this one. I
wanted the cover to be set in an area where the story takes place, if not
depict an actual scene from the story. Since Mik lives on a farm and the story
takes place in the summer, Michell and I decided that the background should
probably have something to do with blue skies and the outdoors. The actual
photograph for the cover was taken in the bright sunlight in the early
afternoon, with some of the shadows softened a bit post-shoot. The background
elements were added post-shoot as well.

Lorina: You’ve
almost created the primary colour palette in the cover; was that also a
conscious choice and why?

Jeff: Half of the
reason for the colours used in this one is another indirect superman reference
- the red and blue in the shirt. The other half relates to the colours used
during the golden age of comics ... straightforward contour line drawings
blocked in with lots of blues, reds, yellows, and greens. As comic books and
printing techniques became more sophisticated, so did the palette and shading
that got used. So, within the comic genre at least, primary colors tend to be
associated with a time back when everything was young and fresh and new. This
also being the case for young Mik, who aspires to become a super-hero, it
seemed appropriate.

That style of line-drawing was also a factor when it came to
the above lighting decision, since heavy shadow and dramatic lighting were
rarely utilized back then as well.

Lorina: Why the
typeface you’ve chosen?

Jeff: Denne
Marker was picked to lend a hand-written feel to the writing on the shirt,
suggesting that Mik was the one who put it there. I wanted something that was a
little haphazard as well - not carefully considered writing, but something more
impulsive and excited, so that the words themselves seemed like the sort of
thing a young boy might consider a good idea and want finished as quickly as
possible.

Michell's name is done up in Myriad Web Pro, because I
wanted a simple, bold, block font that would be easy to read against a busy or
patterned background with very little outlining. As it is, I only needed to add
a tiny bit of drop shadow to give it enough punch to hold its own against the
pattern of the shirt.

Lorina: Where do
you plan on taking the visual concepts for the subsequent books?

Jeff: The nice
thing about this whole concept is that the pose can remain the same for any and
all future covers, while individual elements can change slightly in order to
illustrate character growth - more grown-up clothing, a different font, a
carefully drawn and colored logo, and other things that suggest the maturing of
the character. The background scene can also be changed to fit wherever the
future stories take place - a classroom, summer camp, vacationing in Hawaii,
you name it. Likewise the actual clothing Mik is wearing can be changed to fit
in with the story elements particular to that book ... a heavy parka if it
takes place during winter, a Hawaiian shirt if he and his family go on
vacation, endless variations. If the pose and the 'secret identity underneath'
elements remain virtually the same for each cover, people will easily recognize
each book as part of a single series, all about a very specific character.




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Mik Murdoch: Boy Superhero

Available August 1, 2012

ISBN print 9781927400111 $23.99

eISBN 9781927400128 $4.99