Continuing with my theme of “let’s parody every awesome line from Riddle-Master,” I give you my minimalist poster for the second book in the trilogy, “Heir of Sea and Fire”!
MINIMALISM, AHAHAHAH. Why the heck did I ever think I could attempt minimalism? MY FAVORITE ART STYLE IS ART NOUVEAU, WHICH IS LIKE MINIMALISM’S POLAR OPPOSITE. While settling on an appropriate design and getting to its execution was super frustrating, I am extremely pleased with how this turned out. It isn’t perfect by a long shot but I am GIDDY over those nice clean lines, especially the jewel in the center and the fire in the bottom right corner. Mmmmmm, fire.
All of the images and colors in this poster were carefully chosen to reflect elements from the book. The hand represents Raederle of An, who is the “Heir of Sea and Fire” of the title. Near the beginning of the book another character, Astrin, takes her to the ruined city of the Earth-Masters at a place called King’s Mouth Plain. The plain is scattered with artifacts from before the Earth-Masters destroyed themselves in a massive war, and Astrin finds a small faceted stone there and gives it to her. Later, Raederle uses the same stone to craft an illusion of light so powerful that it blinds several warships, and she and her companions can continue on their journey to find her would-be-husband, Morgon.
The fire factors into the story when Raederle begins to understand the full scope of her powers. Eventually she learns that she is descended from a shape-changer, the same creatures that are trying to kill Morgon, and therefore has power over both fire and the sea. For Raederle, shaping fire with her hands is an admission of her link to the shape-changers, and she spends much of the book struggling with what that power, and her wanting of it, makes her. After she shapes fire for the first time, looks down at her hand and finds that the pattern of the twelve-sided stone from Wind Plain has been etched into her palm:
She sat up abruptly, staring down at her hand, in which the fire had burned like an extension of herself the night before. On her palm, scored white, were the twelve sides and delicate inner lines of the stone Astrin had given her on King’s Mouth Plain.
McKillip has a knack for ending chapters with lines that knock you on your ass, and that’sĀ no exception.
It’s only much later that the connection between the shape-changers and Earth-Masters is, and I won’t spoil it for new readers. Overall, I wanted to convey the sea with the green color of the background, the blue stone in Raederle’s palm, and the flames she’s reaching towards to represent how she does long to claim her intrinsic power, and how that struggle becomes her main point of character development. I also wanted the font to be evocative of a fantasy setting, but subtle enough that it wouldn’t be distracting, and happily the Gabriola font was perfect. It even mirrors the font on the cover of the copy of Riddle-Master that I own, which is kind of neat.
Although this poster isn’t minimalist in the strictest sense, I’m still quite happy with it, and I’d love to try my hand at more minimalist designs in the future.