The original cover idea for issue 6 is something I’ve had in mind for at least a year. I’d seen a picture of the singer Nikka Costa and I loved the body language of it, so I wanted the Diva issue to look like that.
So the time came to draw it and I spend a looooooong time on it… I reckon it was almost a month. And of course, then I decided it wasn’t right for the issue (plus I hadn’t captured what worked in the original picture). Damn.
I put it on the Facebook Spandex page and it received a great response, but it wasn’t what I wanted any more.
Pretty much before I’d decided to dump that cover, I saw a photo of the singer St Vincent in Q Magazine – it was on Boxing Day this year – and it gave me an idea for a new version of the cover.
Plus it played to my strengths – I love drawing hair – so the thought of drawing all that blonde hair appealed to me.
So I sketched it, and then drew it – the first version I drew was the one I went with. Then I had the dilemma of what version to go for – a black and white version (with just the eyes coloured), a red version with a white Diva, or a full colour version.
After a few days of carrying the images around on my ipod and looking at them, I decided the colour version was the one to go with (it was a close call with the red one though!).
So there you go! The story of issue 6’s cover!
