Cover Illustration & Design – Death Rattle
As always, I got an excellent brief from both the publisher, Mirari Press, and author, Lebogang Matseke. Lebo's notes on characters and clothing were essential – even down to Kgosi's sneakers! Love those sneakers.
What set the tone for me was the description of the "storm goddess" Oya's dress – "ox-blood red blouse and a skirt composed of nine distinct coloured cloths, each panel carrying the memory of her lost children." This gave me the inspiration to use fabric textures throughout (including the frayed fabric for the "ground"), as well as challenging me to use SO MANY colours. This also meant the dress was going to add a visually dynamic, flowing aspect to the illustration – and using a right to left flow for Kgosi stepping from the real world into the Afterlife.
Get your copy (not yet!) and find out more at Mirari Press.
 |
| Death Rattle – 2026 Stephen Embleton |
As always, it begins with the roughest of rough design and layout sketch. You can see it holds the basics, in rudimentary terms, and yet gives a sense of the feel, flow, without spending too much time on its "perfection". Is it on the right track for everyone?
The Flow:
Starting with the raised machete top left, moving right, down, past Oya's face, title and the cow tail whip thrusting us down the warm right side, the magic then flowing left and walking with Kgosi as she steps into the Afterlife with mist rising into the starry sky and cool colours.
Then the fun begins with capturing the characters in their individual portraits.
 |
| Oya – Stephen Embleton (2026) |
 |
| Kgosi – Stephen Embleton (2026) |
 |
| Kgosi Walking – Stephen Embleton (2026) |
After approval, we then moved onto the "neat" rough layout, hinting at some elements, and using a stand-in font for the title design. Here I brought in the fabric texture and key elements. I knew the storm cloud would be a nice design element using flat pattern more that three-dimensional illustration.
As sketching, painting and rendering moved on (Oya's detail), I got a feel for the emerging style. I added very bright colour segments to the dress to show the colour range, right to left movement – bright warms to cooler tones, as backdrops to Kgosi moving from the real world into the Afterlife. Kgosi was still the rough sketch in position.
Then the magic really started with the cow tail whip's flowing energy. I also got a clear picture of the colour hues to use.
The misty flow was interesting and a lot of trial and error on each stroke! The paint splatter added the flair it needed and the overlapping aspect morphing into stars was great.
 |
| Oya detail |
The Dress:
I knew I needed to add more flow to the dress, with additional waves giving more movement, and the final details, shading and highlights to give depth and bring it out more in places.
The cow tail whip was a lovely piece to work on. Like the magic mist, it involved many strokes, testing, colouring, to get the feel of a real, hairy object. And working with the E behind it, rather than obscuring it illegibly.
Kgosi was so much fun to do. Her's was simpler (a black suit) but it allowed me to have some expressive fun with her, especially the sneakers. A simple swish of a line here and there on her suit gave it that slick feel.
 |
| Kgosi detail |
 |
| Kgosi detail |
 |
| Sneakers (and frayed fabric) detail |
The Cloud, Sun & Stars
All the key elements were done, and the final touch was going to be the fabric design elements of the cloud and sun. The cloud dictated the flowing pattern needed, while the sun had to be simple, angular and a stark contrast.
TITLE DESIGN:
Using Amagro Bold for the base font, I brought in the sweeping element of the machete into the horizontal strokes, as well as extending the conveniently, centrally, positioned A.
