How I illustrated the A Glasshouse of Stars cover

Shirley's Marr's UK debut, A Glasshouse of Stars, is a powerful and heartfelt story of kindness, resilience and imagination. The cover perfectly captures the dreamily magical quality of Shirley's writing. We asked its illustrator, Kathrin Honesta, to tell us about her illustration process and her top tips for aspiring illustrators.

Hi Kathrin, thanks so much for taking the time to answer a few questions. We’d love to start by hearing about your background as an illustrator! How long have you been illustrating for? What inspired you to become an illustrator? Did you go to art school, or are you self-taught?

I went to an art college overseas in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (I'm from Jakarta, Indonesia!) and took a diploma majoring in Graphic Design & Advertising for three years. I decided to take the diploma because, back then, illustration wasn't as popular yet in Indonesia (like, what? You could draw and make a living out of it?), so the diploma seemed a sensible option to make it easier to find jobs in the future. However, I've been in love with drawing ever since I was small. During my college years, I would draw and sketch in my free time, also often incorporate my illustrations with my design work. After I graduated, I worked in an Ad Agency in Kuala Lumpur for one and a half years, and it was there that I really decided Graphic Design was not for me. I made myself be brave and returned back home to Indonesia to pursue illustration full-time. I've been a full-time illustrator for almost five years now, and it was the best decision ever!

You always create the most stunning covers (we LOVED The Girl Who Speaks Bear), and you’ve done it again with A Glasshouse of Stars– it’s gorgeous! We’d love to know about your process – how do you go about illustrating a book cover like this?

Thank you! :) For both book covers, they started out easier than most of the projects I've done, simply because Katharine (Usborne’s in-house designer) already had a very clear direction of what she wanted. So I had this great kick start, that I could explore and add to from there. First thing’s first, I always start with a lot of sketches. After I read the script, I usually pour out all my ideas on paper first, and only when I'm happy with a few options, then I'll move to digital sketch and so on. Here are some early pencil and digital sketches for A Glasshouse of Stars:

How different does the final cover look from those initial sketches? Do you like that part of the evolution of design?

It's different for each cover. For A Glasshouse of Stars in particular, there were a few changes in the process and the final cover turned out to be quite different than what I had in my mind initially (but, I also like it all the same!), but I tried my best to be cooperative and to revise accordingly after receiving the feedback. Because after all, a book cover isn't merely just about the artwork or the aesthetic of it –  there are a lot of aspects involved, all of which lead to what is best for the project. So, I just enjoy all the evolutions that happen because it's part of the process :)

The colours on this cover are especially vibrant – do you have a specific colour palette you tend to use, or does it depend on the project?

It does depend on the project; I love to explore a new colour palette that I haven't use before. Actually, I don't really use the magenta colour on A Glasshouse of Stars cover on my other works that much. But when I tried it, I ended up loving it, and I want to try that colour combination more in my other works!

Do you read the books you illustrate? What did you think of Shirley Marr’s story?

Luckily yes, I got to read Shirley's book before I worked on it. However, it doesn't happen in every project. Sometimes, I am just given a short narrative about the book and I have to work from there, so I’m always happy when I can read the book first so that I can get a bigger picture of the overall story. I remember tearing-up reading Shirley's book! I felt that I could relate to Meixing; I am Chinese Indonesian too, and I experienced moving to a new town when I was just around her age. So Meixing’s struggles brought back a lot of memories too. I also love the magical touch in the story, and how it all happened in a glasshouse (how dreamy!). Overall, it's just a really beautiful book.

When you’re not illustrating book covers, what other projects do you work on? How do they differ in terms of your design style and process?

I mostly work on books, but I also illustrate for brands and their advertising campaigns sometimes. I have a side project too where I create picture books and short stories with my writer friend, Kay Jen Ong, and collectively we self-publish them under the name "Shadow Stories". The process is quite similar for every project, where I like to approach them with a fresh and clean sheet every time and work from there. In terms of style, I always make sure that my clients are already familiar with my style, so the illustration results are just as they expected.

Finally, do you have any words of advice for any aspiring illustrators out there?

As an illustrator, it's great to focus on our illustration skills and learn about them... But I find it more rewarding to really experience more of life in general! Don't forget to take a rest once in a while, catch up with family, old friends and meet a new one. Be inspired, visit museums, read books and watch a lot of movies. Be more reflective of yourself, and know more about yourself. Because skills aren't everything. There are a lot of great illustrators too out there, but it's how we interpret our point of view in our works that makes us different from the rest. And strangely enough, life will affect our skills, style, and our works overall.