Katherine Roberts

My painting marathon has finally come to an end, with the final two Seven Fabulous Wonders covers. (The word "marathon" comes from the ancient Greeks, so it seems appropriate to use it here - even though painting these covers didn't take nearly as long as writing the actual books!) And now that I've done all seven, I thought you might like to hear a bit about the process. I needed three sessions for each painting: 1. First, I had to get the sketch/composition down on a blank sheet of paper (rather like the visualisation/outline stage of a novel). I then blocked in the main areas of colour with a large brush. Since these are watercolours, it is also important at this stage to leave some white paper, rather like the unwritten scenes of a novel... sometimes what you leave out is just as important as what you put in. For example, I had to resist painting over the pale temple in this scene for The Amazon Temple Quest. Lysippe, last of the Amazons, meets a gryphon a...

I know I promised you some more Seven Fabulous Wonders covers, so here they are... Colossus underwater after the earthquake The Colossus Crisis takes place on the Mediterranean island of Rhodes, just as a major earthquake topples the sixth wonder of the ancient world - the famous Colossus of Rhodes, which was a huge bronze statue of their sun-god Helios. The statue actually fell on land according to the ancient writers, but having Helios' head splash down into the sea made a much more dramatic painting. Here you see the heroine of my story, Aura who has "mermaid" blood, diving down to reach it. She can breathe underwater, which is a usefull skill since she is a sponge-diver. That blue thing in her (webbed) hand is a magical creature rather like a sea-sponge but linked to the sea-god Poseidon, enemy of Helios and the human race. Aura, having both human and telchine(mermaid) blood, is caught in the middle when the two gods clash. Here is the cover with the paint...

Today, I'm hunting dragons over at the History Girls (because my unicorn doesn't like dragons flapping around here, he says they make his horn itch). Click to visit the History Girls group blog Meanwhile, I'm still painting those Seven Fabulous Wonders, which is quicker than writing about them since a picture is worth a thousand words... more to see soon!