In the early 2000s & 2010s, I was an occasional cover artist for a series of books in the Okal Rel Universe created by Lynda Williams, and published by Hades Publications in Calgary. In 2019, after Ms. Williams had broken ties with her publisher & experienced a subsequent false start with self-publishing, the two of us started a project to rebrand & re-release her content online.
2020 Edition Covers
The main series books were originally painted by various artists. When Ms. Williams & I started releasing the 2020 editions on Wattpad, we agreed that they would all have the same artist (myself). Because there are 10 books in the main series & numerous spin-offs, there needed to be a consistent style that instantly tied them together. I tried to preserve the protagonist-centric composition & distinct colour schemes of the original paperbacks, but re-interpreted in a graphic novel style. The first task was to redesign her logo for the Universe. Lynda had created the so-called "Rel Symbol" as a kind of logo as well as religious symbol in her universe.
