ARCHIVE–001 — The Making of a Cover
Updated: Oct 25
AUTHOR'S RECORD
Classification: Creative Origins
Subject: The Book One Cover
Recorded by: Robert Brazeau
Collection: The Making of Kaelithra
From Pencil to Publication: The Story Behind Kaelithra's First Cover
An author's journey through sketches, creative compromises, a little frustration, and a helping hand from AI.
When people look at a finished book cover, I imagine they assume there's a carefully planned artistic process behind it. Perhaps an elaborate series of sketches, colour studies, and carefully considered artistic decisions.
I'd love to tell you that's exactly how my cover came together. But the truth is a little less glamorous. And probably a lot more entertaining.
It started with a woman looking away
The first decision I made was to draw Kaelithra from behind. There was a very simple reason for that. I'm not particularly good at drawing faces. There. I've admitted it.
Sometimes you work with your strengths. Other times you find creative ways around your weaknesses. Drawing Kaelithra from behind meant I didn't have to worry about facial proportions, expressions, or whether she looked anything like the character I was imagining.
But it created another problem. What was she supposed to be looking at?
Why a landscape instead of a library?
I could have placed her in a library. After all, she's an archivist. It would have made sense to show her surrounded by shelves of books, perhaps searching for something. But that was precisely the problem.
If I drew her looking through books, the illustration would become about a particular activity. She would be searching for something, and the reader would naturally wonder what it was. I didn't want the cover tied to one specific moment.
By placing her on a balcony overlooking a landscape, the image could mean several things. Perhaps she was admiring the view. Perhaps she was contemplating something. Perhaps she was remembering a civilization that no longer existed. The interpretation would belong to the reader.
So I began adding a city in the distance, somewhere for her to direct her attention. And from there, the world began to grow.
Mountains, waterfalls, and an entire world
Once I had a city, it seemed rather lonely sitting out there by itself. So I expanded the landscape. Mountains rose in the background. Bridges connected parts of the city. Then, changing the outskirts and adding waterfalls and valleys gave the scene a sense of scale.
The drawing was no longer just about Kaelithra standing on a balcony. There was an entire world beyond her. And perhaps the nicest part was that I still hadn't needed to draw her face.
The hair was another convenient solution
Her long, flowing hair was another practical decision. Long hair occupies a considerable amount of space in a drawing. And if it's blowing in the wind, it doesn't have to be perfectly symmetrical. That suited me perfectly.
What I hadn't expected was how much the drawing would influence the writing. Once I had a visual representation of her hair, describing Kaelithra in the early chapters became easier. The artwork was helping me develop the character, rather than simply illustrating a character I'd already finished creating.
Her robes, however, were planned from the beginning. I wanted to borrow something from the imagery of ancient temple priests, but without building her identity around prayers, worship, or religious ceremony. I wanted to explore a different kind of devotion. A devotion to history. Archaeology. The preservation of knowledge. The robes felt right for that purpose.
Her silver hair came later. I couldn't very well have someone who had lived for thousands of years looking twenty forever. That would annoy even me! So silver-white hair became part of her appearance, offering a suggestion of age and experience without necessarily making her look elderly.
The mirror that became something else
The architectural framing around Kaelithra was originally supposed to be a large mirror. That mirror had a particular purpose in my imagination, but explaining it here would give away a little too much of the story. I'll leave that mystery for the readers. As the drawing developed, however, I moved away from the original idea and began treating the frame as part of the surrounding architecture.
Then came the flowers. And unlike some of my earlier choices, those actually had a deeper meaning from the beginning.
One of the ideas behind the Kaelithra series is that people aren't the only things the world loses and forgets. Consider plants. Many of our medicines originate in the natural world. What happens when a plant goes extinct? Could it have contained something capable of treating an illness? What if people once knew how to use it, but the knowledge was lost? How much of the natural world's history has disappeared without us ever realizing what we've lost?
I wanted the flowers to represent that possibility. Not just beauty, but the fragile nature of knowledge itself.
Why a white moth?
Then came the moth. Death and loss are difficult subjects. Some people find them uncomfortable, perhaps even morbid. But they're part of life. Eventually, every one of us must confront them in one way or another. I wanted an emblem associated with those ideas, but I didn't want something frightening or gloomy. I wanted something gentler.
A moth seemed fitting. Moths belong to the night, emerging from the darkness and drawn toward light. I liked the thought of that light representing something within each of us. And moths are, for the most part, creatures we simply leave alone. They're quiet and unassuming, going about their existence without demanding much attention. There was something peaceful about that.
Perhaps I could take something as difficult as death and loss and give it a symbol that was, in its own small way, beautiful. And so the white moth became part of Kaelithra's identity.
The part I couldn't get right
By this point, I had something I was quite happy with. At least in black and white. The problem was that my drawings were made in pencil and charcoal. They were dark, full of shadows and gray tones.
I tried adding colour. I wanted a sunrise, with warm light spreading across the landscape. I wanted the mountains and waterfalls illuminated by the sun. I wanted the kind of glare you see when light catches the edges of clouds and buildings. But I couldn't get it right. The lighting never looked the way I imagined it. Even after adding the lettering, the artwork still felt too dark.
And that's when I decided to try something different. I turned to AI for help.
Now, I'm well aware that the use of artificial intelligence in artwork is a controversial subject. Some people won't approve of that decision, and I understand that. But I also know my own capabilities. I know what I'm comfortable drawing, and I know what I struggle with. Or, to put it less elegantly, I know what I suck at.
I had the concept, the composition, the symbolism, and the drawings. What I lacked was the ability to bring the colour and lighting to life in the way I could picture them. So I used AI to help bridge that gap.
And suddenly, there it was
When I finally saw the completed artwork, I was genuinely amazed. The deep blue sky, the sunrise, the warm light across the mountains, the city, the waterfalls, and Kaelithra standing quietly before it all. It was absolutely beautiful.
And for the first time, I wasn't looking at a sketch or an unfinished idea. I was looking at the cover of my novel. That was it. That was Kaelithra: The Archivist of the Unremembered. What began as a practical decision to avoid drawing a face had turned into the visual identity of an entire series.
And without giving away too much about the other books, I'll say this: The design didn't end with Book One. You'll recognize some familiar elements on the covers that follow. Because once I found something that felt right for Kaelithra's world, I wanted that identity to continue.
One last thought
Looking back, I find it rather amusing that so much of this cover came from knowing what I couldn't do. I couldn't draw faces particularly well, so I turned Kaelithra around. I wanted to avoid illustrating a specific scene, so I gave her a landscape. I struggled with the idea of drawing symmetrical hair, so I let the wind do some of the work. And when I couldn't bring the colour and lighting to life myself, I found a tool that could help.
Somewhere along the way, all those decisions became something I hadn't originally planned. A cover that felt like it belonged to the story I wanted to tell.
Sometimes creativity isn't about being able to do everything. Sometimes it's simply about finding a way to bring what's in your imagination into the world. And for me, that was the beginning of Kaelithra.
Thanks for reading.
— Robert Brazeau
End of Record — ARCHIVE–001
Kaelithra: The Archivist of the Unremembered — Book One is available now on Amazon.
Explore the series: https://www.kaelithraseries.com/books
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