Cover Art

The covers for The View from the Mirror Quartet were all done by Mark Sofilas based on concepts prepared by the author and others. The following sequence shows stages in development of the covers for the Quartet, which have been used worldwide.

Initial concepts were developed around Ian's kitchen table by Ian, Anne and Barrie Collins. An awkward early sketch by Ian is shown below (1996).

 

 

The cover for A Shadow on the Glass was inspired by a glorious coloured pencil sketch and graphic overlay by designer Barrie Collins (1997).

 

 

The Tower on the Rift cover was based on sketches by the author. The following image shows the author's rough pencil sketch for the tower of Katazza (1997).

 

 

The cover for Dark is the Moon is closely based on original Bryce 3D artwork by Simon Irvine, done when he was at high school (1998).

 

 

The Way Between the Worlds cover went through many drafts. The final cover is partly based on original Bryce 3D artwork by Angus and Simon Irvine while they were at high school. Simon did the volcanic landscape of Aachan and the Aachim buildings, while Angus created the portal and the landscape seen through it (1999).

 

 

The cover is also partly based on a rather amateurish coloured pencil sketch by the author (1999), proving that he's no artist.

 

 

The cover for The Last Albatross, by Simon Leong, is based on a computer artwork involving ice crystals growing over a feather by Simon Irvine (2000).

The Australian covers for Geomancer and Tetrarch were painted by Nick Stathopoulos based on suggestions by the author and design concepts by Cathy Larsen. The cover illustration for Scrutator is by Marco Nero.

Geomancer won the Galaxy Bookshop Award for Best Designed Fantasy/Science Fiction Book at the Australian Publisher's Association 50th Annual Book Design Awards.

The astounding UK cover illustrations are by Lee Gibbons.

 

 

Designs

All Ian's fantasy books were designed by Cathy Larsen of the Penguin Design Studio, Melbourne. The symbol on the Mirror, also by Cathy Larsen, is based on original artwork by Ian. The original image below was done by Anne in gold and silver leaf and crimson ink (1997).

 

 

The glyphs surrounding the Mirror on all four covers were created by Cathy Larsen, loosely based on designs by Ian, inspired by various South Asian scripts. The layout of these glyphs on the four Australian covers corresponds to the puzzle in The Way between the Worlds. In the Orbit and Warner covers, however, some glyphs have been moved and others added, so the arrangement no longer corresponds to the text.

The symbol for The Well of Echoes is based upon a 3-D minimal surface Scherk-Collins structure. For more on algebraic topology, see http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~sequin/SCULPTS/scherk.html

 

Most international editions of The View from the Mirror (eg UK, US, Dutch, Bulgarian and Czech editions) used the original Australian covers, and some other publishers who have never sent copies of their books to Ian many also have done so. These covers are not reproduced here.

Most of the covers using original artwork can be found on Ian Irvine's oldest fan site, Triune, http://triunelives.co.uk/gallery.htm