The Awakening

This cover was always going to have a giant Malus face as the background - it's just such a great design with the grinning mouth, beaky nose and evil green-glowing eyes. In fact, I didn't anticipate the overall cover being green at first but those eyes kind of dictated it. With 'Warriors of the Deep' being green and 'Frontios' brown, I had expected to go for a blue or grey scheme for 'The Awakening'. But once I'd given the background of the main illustration a greenish tinge from the glow of the Malus's eyes, I really needed to carry that over to the full cover background. I kept it a paler and more muted shade than 'Warriors', however, to maintain a contrast.

I'd also always had that shot of Sir George in mind for the cover, if only because it's the only good photo of him I've seen. I had anticipated having him on the right, but with his being lit from the right and his head turned that way, he worked better on the left. This dictated the Doctor being on the right, but I was struggling to find a good picture of him from the story anyway. In the end I used a shot of him being held by two soldiers, which required the reconstruction of his jacket sleeves to remove their hands. The expression on his face fitted the composition well, I thought, and although he's lit from the left, opposite to Sir George, I felt that this worked with the Malus in the middle, suggesting the light was coming from it (those eyes again).

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