Sketches: Stronger Than Spinach

Every so often, a project comes along for which I will find myself possessed with a clear-minded sense of purpose and determination. I know exactly what I want to do, and I can't wait to get to it.

The problem with a book about Popeye, particularly one being written and published without the cooperation of King Features, is that it can be difficult to find good art for a cover. The Author and I just about gave in to that conceit at the beginning of the process, and when he suggested "a can of spinach," I thought that was an idea that might be made to work — even better, I thought it might be made to work by photographing a real can and real spinach.

So I did a series of thumbnail sketches to work out how everything might fit together. (I did about twice as many as seen here, but this will give you the general idea.) At that point I didn't have the final title for the book, so I sort of made that up as I went along.

The Author and I agreed that the idea showed promise, so a week or so later (on a sunny day), I set up a small area to do some photography. This took place, believe it or not, in the Master Bathroom — there's a skylight, just above a sort of recessed shelf, which allows for lots of light. I had a roll of white paper that I put up to diffuse the light and to act as a backdrop.

I bought a few different cans (I wasn't sure which size would work best), a new can opener (that required an unanticipated return trip to the grocery store), and a large quantity of fresh spinach — much much more than I needed. (Yeah, I know, fresh spinach looks nothing like what you'd find in a can — but fresh spinach is easier to handle and much more photogenic. I'm not sure you can even buy spinach in a can these days. Can you?) So I set everything up, carefully selecting and placing the spinach leaves — then tore it all down and started all over again. And then I was ready.

This was the result. I'm sure it doesn't look all that promising, but it was exactly what I wanted.

One full rich working day later, I had cleaned and brightened the spinach (removing anything unsightly), removed the spinach at the bottom right (it didn't work as well as I had expected), put that spinach into the can, and added a label with the title of the book. (It might have taken less time, but I get incredibly fussy with projects like this in Photoshop.) And the result was something like this.

It's usually difficult to accomodate a book title this long, but it all came together quite nicely, don't you think? (I even found use for two fonts that were based on the sort of hand-lettered titles that often appeared in the Popeye cartoons.) I'm anxious to see it in print.

(And as a result of all this, my son has acquired a fondness for spinach, which can't be all bad.)