Doing this book cover illustration was a unique experience, because about half-way through, something unexpected happened with other business I had to attend to, decreasing the amount of time I could spend on this illustration. I knew I wouldn't make the deadline, so I hired a few of my past students to help me finish it on-time. The students that helped me out on this illustration were: Laura Haapamaki, Emilien Rotival, Jorge Valentin, and Nicolas Demers. It was a fun and educational collaborative experience, where we worked on different areas in the scene, and I would do additional passes over their areas to unify everything.

Here's what the actual book cover looks like (I didn't design the book cover--I only did the illustration):

Here's a very early rough sketch laying out the illustration and how it would look on a cover:

The finalized drawing:

Blocking in the local colors: