In Jessa’s words…
“This cover posed for Emmy and I a great conundrum, and it stumped us for a long time. We wandered down so many paths until we arrived at this one. The most obvious one.
Them.
It’s a new and sort of scary experience showing them to you in this way, but I hope that this cover makes you feel how I felt when I first saw it. Enraptured, in awe and a tiny bit nervous for some reason. (You should be.)”
First hearing about the project...
At the end of last year, in December 2024, I had flown home to Brisbane, Australia for Christmas to see my family.
That is summertime in Australia so I was out for a sunny walk along the river and I had a voice memo spree waiting for me in my text thread with Jessie. It was then that I first heard about the story that would go on to become Time Of Your Life.
Jessie started sharing her vision for this 90’s love story – and being born in 1990, it was instantly this incredible flashback to standing at the grocery store looking at the glossy magazines. That kind of chaotic but also kind of amazing time before iPhones and Influencers. As she broke it all down for me, our voice memo spree naturally went to where it always goes… what will we do for the cover?
The concept begins to form…
We explored so many options and landing on a stylized painting of the two main characters was daunting but in the end we are so happy with how it came together and I wanted to share a little behind the scenes of the process of how it all came to life.
The process..
I started with some rough sketches, some in pencil, some with watercolours. Then I did a few colour blocking pieces which were paint on gesso board. I’ve found colourblocking to be a great way to give Jessie and I sense of the overall vibe/feeling/aesthetic of the final piece will come together and it’s a good chance to make changes if needed!
Then I did my first portrait study which was paint on board to myake sure I had Ysolde’s features nailed.. I also knew that while Joah would have the bucket hat, her face would be in full view and be quite tiny in the canvas piece, so I wanted a version to draw from that had a little more detail. Then I painted the piece on canvas which I took into Procreate for final touch-ups. Hand drew the text.. Placed it on top and – ta da. There you go.
I’ll post more on my instgram/tiktok of this process in motion but there’s a lil overview!
If you have any questions on the process you can find me at hello@emmylawless.com.
Time of Your Life out July 15, 2025.
All my love,
Emmy xx
