Blades

The shadow

In this rendition, one of the swords casts a shadow that is the shape of the other sword. Clean, clear, and easy to add text, or background elements.

Reflections

This one could also be beautiful with the curved swords only as the backdrop like a giant fan. It could easily be expanded to be larger in scope as well, to create a mandala effect.

As above so below

Here we diverge from the literal, and without knowing the story, I took a guess and decided to play with the dual nature of the blade. I’m not married to the flowers, it could be any simple object more relevant to the book, but I think its nice to have something there to balance out the other shapes, and I like the idea of “cutting though.”

Infinity

Here we are playing with reflections. The ephemeral nature of the blade reminded me of a mobius strip, the shape with only one edge and one side, forever.

Trash Polka

This one is the trickiest of the bunch to “thumbnail”because it has a few kinks that need to be worked out to be effective. The idea is to use geometric shapes to create “bubbles” of different realities. In some places the sword is a woodcut, in other more realistically rendered. The style is borrowed from the tattoo “trash polka” style and does well with grungy graphics and lettering in an urban setting. Splashy black ink can add hints and secrets.