Domestika Projects: Junction - Graphic Novel

Nathan Jurevicius talks about the creative process behind one of his latest projects: Junction

My name is Nathan Jurevicius and I'm a multidisciplinary artist working in the field of illustration, fine art, animation, games and publishing. It can be hard to limit what I do to one thing but currently I'm focusing on concept art for tv and film. I began my early career as an editorial illustrator for a number of magazines around the world and then shifted direction to interactive storytelling during the early 2000's. It was around this time I was approached by a company based in Hong Kong to develop toys. The first series that came out was based on my Scarygirl designs and from here I started creating comics and games around the brand.

Junction: where did the idea come from?

There are many funny myths from Australia I was told as a kid. One of these being that if you make a weird face and the wind changes your face will stay like that. I wanted to change this myth and turn it into a positive tale of the changing of the wind being an exciting thing that allows everyone to look differently each year when the wind blows in a different direction.

I was also inspired by my own experiences growing up and my Baltic heritage. Included in the story are references to my father's pottery studio, Lithuanian pink soup and Sakotis (a tower-like cake).

This concept was pitched to Koyama Press in Canada who published the original hardcover edition.

Koyama Press were looking for stories that were suitable for kids and could be told in graphic-novel format. I used a combo of traditional children's book layouts with comic-style panels to tell the story. I learnt about balancing sophisticated concepts with a plot simple enough for children to understand. I really enjoyed drawing all the faces in this book. I'm obsessed with drawing people and it was a joy to create the illustrations.

Annie Koyama, the owner of Koyama Press is amazing! She provides a lot of support and freedom for illustrator/authors to express themselves and allows for risk taking.

Retro techniques and color palettes

At the time I had been using mechanical pencils a lot to create a number of detailed pieces for various projects and art shows. I wanted to keep this fine cross hatch shading look but then add a limited colour palette created in Adobe Photoshop. The colours were added as layers using the multiply effect.

For the colour palette and the flat colours I was inspired by the Spanish artist Victor Moscoso, famous for his psychedelic rock posters in the 1960's and 70's. I felt this juxtaposition of the detailed pencil sketches with the bold palette provided a different look for a children's book.

What's next for Nathan Jurevicius?

I've been working with my brother Luke on developing a sequel to our tv show 'Peleda'. I'm also in pre-production on an animated Scarygirl feature film.

Don't forget to share your projects with the community!

This article was written by Nathan Jurevicius (@nathanjurevicius), illustrator, director, toy designer, author and concept artist. Nathan teaches how to create original characters and envision the environment they inhabit in the Domestika course Illustrated Character Design and World Creation.

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