World Youth Day Bookcover Mockup

There's a book about World Youth Day being written by three young people from the Archdiocese of Westminster -- Jo-Anne Rowney (former president of the UH CathSoc), James Kelliher and Paula Mendez. I am friends with Rowney and Kelliher, and the two of them personally asked me to draw a mock-up of the book's cover.

And this is what I came up with.

I'm quite happy with this picture -- it may be crowded, and some people may be bigger than others, but here's the thing: I wanted to capture the spirit of the events of World Youth Day.

And so while drawing this I remembered the hundreds of flags that were flown, the millions of young people who flooded the city of Madrid, the vibrance, the festive air, the sweltering heat, the joy of being a pilgrim, the awe at the multitude of young people gathered to worship, the applause and cheers upon seeing Pope Benedict XVI... I wanted to picture that every youth present there rejoiced at the fact that they were Catholic.

After returning from the evening out with Fr Mark Vickers, Rowney, Kelliher and friends, I sat down to work on this drawing. This thing took me a few days to complete it. I coloured whenever I had the opportunity. Now I am aware that this thing may not make it onto the cover, but if it doesn't, it'll at least make it into the book, and for that, I'm glad. ^_^

Sharpie markers and coloured pens on A4 card.
Digital touching-up done on Photoshop CS5.1.