About the project

“Joshua of Gaia: The Lost Elderzamia” is the first published novel of Monica G Russell, a West Australian author. A fantasy story for kids of all ages (but aimed mostly at 9-12 year olds) it follows the adventures of a young orphan boy, Joshua. The story revolves greatly around the theme of journeying from one world to another, and as such I have tried to reflect that in the cover art. Glow worms, caves and magic are all very prominent parts of the story so it was important to feature them in the image. Monica requested that the main characters face was not too obvious on the cover art, leaving readers to imagine their very own Joshua character from the text alone. I created a rather dark scene with a heavy backlight so that I was able to cast quite a lot of shadow over his face and hide detail…it also helped to add to the mystery of the story.

The book is my first published cover, so I am quite excited by it! It is available to purchase via Amazon.com as well some local W.A bookstores (please contact the author for details). There will be a sequel, of which I will also be illustrating so stay tuned for that!