Judge Her By Her Covers: Virtuoso Sweeney Boo on Crafting Imagery for Blasfamous & Time Waits

Sweeney Boo's imagery simply demands attention. Kinetic, lush, and uncompromisingly singular, the Canada-via-France talent has paved a path through her own touching genre work that she's written and drawn (Over My Dead Body: A Witchy Graphic Novel, Eat, Love Yourself) to her striking eye candy for mainstream superheroes (Punchline, Harley Quinn), her work fits a rare Venn Diagram of conveying transportive emotional weight and neon fever-dream cool. 

After revealing her cover for Chip Zdarsky, David Brothers, and Marcus To's upcoming Time Waits #2 issue, writer Ernie Estrella asked her some questions about her art process, her cover inspiration for her two Blasfamous covers, and if she potentially has any interior art plans over at DSTLRY. 

Sweeney, I would love to go behind-the-scenes, into the process of creating a cover. With a cover, you are working with maybe a minimal description of someone else’s book, maybe you have/haven’t read the first issue, or the script isn’t even done on the issue you’re doing, but you’re having to encapsulate an entire story with one image. Do you have a different brainstorming process before you come to that final image?

Sweeney Boo: Totally! I usually try to grasp the story’s main theme; this will have an impact in terms of the composition I’ll be sketching. Are we focusing on a character or more a feeling? Maybe both?

Sometimes if there are many subjects that can be explored, it’s good to sketch out multiple options!

There are those pretty splash page covers, and then there are covers that give a hint, or thematically summarizes what happens in that issue. Is there a type of cover you prefer doing?

Sweeney Boo: A good balance of both is very nice! You gotta keep things versatile and I definitely try to approach every cover I work on as “What could I do differently with this one?” Every cover is a nice new challenge to take on!

You've done an oversized wrap-around cover for the Sagas of the Shield Maiden, which looks similar to the larger DSTLRY format. Could you share with us what it's like working at that size, and does working in that larger format require any hard drinks to get you through it?

Sweeney Boo: It’s a lot of fun, you get to think about the actual book and what it will look like in someone's hand. It’s beyond working on a classic illustration, you can tell a story with a wrap-around. There is the front cover you will first see in the bookshelves, and once they grab it they get to discover more. It’s a gift that keeps on giving. 

You’ve also shared with us your DSTLRY variant covers, some of which are step-by-step. Some of them change dramatically from one step to the next. In the Blasfamous #2 cover, Clelia’s pose is nailed down but then by the end, you’ve added loads of textures and layers. Is there anything that tells you when you’re “done”?

Sweeney Boo: It’s hard to know when you are done. More often than not I have to step away and take small breaks when working on a cover because if I look at it “too much” then I start being unsure, doubting some choices and more. But truly I’m never really done done. I could always do “more”, but I just have to tell myself “stop!”

Blasfamous #2 Cover Art Process by Sweeney Boo

Could you walk us through the evolution in the Blasfamous #3 cover? Your thumbnails start out with candles, which turn into a lip pillow, satin pillows and sheets, then finally clouds. The colors also evolve and by the end, you do get the sense that, ‘yeah, that’s it!’

Sweeney Boo: If I can be honest, every time I start working on a cover I think 'I hope I still remember how to draw.' It’s silly but I think most of us think that. You just have to get started. Once I do, often it’s like the drawing makes itself, I stop thinking and I just do. And not to sound to cuckoo but it’s like the art evolves on its own. I try things, and sometimes it doesn’t work so I change, I experiment, or I can also get a complete other idea in the middle or drawing, nothing that would change the cover entirely of course, but little details in a sketch that once worked, don’t really make much sense in the final step of the creation.

Blasfamous #3 Cover Art Process by Sweeney Boo

You’ve shared even more steps in your Time Waits variant. You start off with just the main characters Blue and Grace. In the second step we see more flats (colors) added, along with Duke and the rest of their bodies fleshed out along with the background. You then play around with dramatic lighting in steps 3 and 4. Each of those could be finished pieces, but when you see the final cover, you did a lot between steps 4 and the final.

Sweeney Boo: Playing with the lighting is always the biggest step for me, it’s usually where the artwork will tell me where it wants to go, and for this cover it was exactly that. I focused on the main light source, and really pushed the atmosphere, but because of that our main characters didn’t pop as much anymore. So I had to find a way to bring them back up in a natural-unnatural way that wouldn't overpower the established ambiance. I work with bold colors, and went with red for this to complement the blue. It’s of course a visual choice, but red does represent passion, love, but also anger, which was a perfect fit for the theme of this story.

Time Waits #2 Cover Art Process by Sweeney Boo

Has there been any DSTLRY cover (regular or variant) that you're a big fan of, and why?

Sweeney Boo: Oh my gosh yes, so many. Rossi Gifford’s variant for The Big Burn #2 was absolutely stunning, it’s full of details, and each little piece tells a story. It’s smart and the rendering is perfect. I couldn’t stop looking at it! 

Your Blasfamous #2 Cover made me pause a little and think back to your terrific breakout graphic novel, Eat, and Love Yourself. What have you learned about yourself as a storyteller since then?

Sweeney Boo: A lot! But also not enough? I’m learning more and more with every project I work on. But I would say I’ve definitely learned more about storytelling, pacing. When to rely more on the words than the visuals and vice versa.

I am familiar with your interiors from Eat, and Love Yourself, Punchline, and What’s The Furthest Place From Here? But a few years ago, there’s been this evolution in your work from Over My Dead Body, the Wonder Girl Annual, and Harley Quinn where you’re playing around with size, scale, and laying out a page. Have you noticed that shift or knowingly been working on it as you grow as an interior artist?

Sweeney Boo: I have definitely noticed it myself, but it happened very naturally! I truly love working on backgrounds, and they are incredibly important to a story. The setting is everything. So is a good layout. I love traditional panels for a page, but I also absolutely adore when the panels are a complete part of the artwork and not just “boxes” to fill in. 

Any chance we might see new work, perhaps with your interior art at DSTLRY in the future?

Sweeney Boo:: * Wink Wink * maybe sooner than later!