The Great Gatsby

This summer I was asked to do a cover for the Great Gatsby for Penguin U.K. The idea was to reference old playbills from the twenties or thirties. I started out with very detailed portraits of 'the players' drawn from images I found of film stars of the time (Daisy here is Bessie Love, Tom is William Haines, most of the others are composites), the idea being that the drawings would recall vignetted, engraved portraits, also typical of the time.



Ultimately the piece called for something more graphic and simplified. following are a few variations, the last being the final accepted piece.