We’ve had a lot of interest in our latest book, STORI time, by Richard Eccles, and one of the main talking points has been the cover and the internal illustrations. So, we thought we’d bob along and ask the incredibly talented artist, Steph Towell, to tell us a little bit about herself and how she came up with the idea for the book’s amazing cover and also about the process of making something that looks so clever and complicated and yet so full of personality!

‘I’m an illustrator who’s constantly building on my style, trying new things even when I haven’t perfected the thing I tried last week. I’m happiest when I’m experimenting, whether that’s sketching my D&D characters, learning a new craft, or attempting (with mixed success) to grow vegetables. Outside of art, I’m a dog lover, a PlayStation completionist, and a “give‑it‑a‑go” kind of person in every creative direction.

The cover artwork for STORI time draws directly from my background in character‑focused illustration. I naturally work with expressive, slightly fantastical figures, so I leaned into that strength to capture the chaotic, humorous energy of an open‑mic night. The crowd of onlookers performers and is built from the same visual language I use in my fantasy and goblin‑inspired character art using exaggerated silhouettes, lively poses, and a sense of personality bursting from every figure.

I planned the composition digitally, using Repaper to record my pencil sketches so I could rearrange characters, props, and stage elements before moving into procreate studio for drawing the line art adding the cross hatching. For the final colours I moved again into photoshop to add in colours inspired by the lighting used on the open mic nights.

For the interior poem illustrations, I shifted intentionally away from my usual character style and into a loose, charcoal‑sketch aesthetic.

This was a creative decision agreed with the author, chosen because the poems themselves have a raw, immediate, spoken‑word quality that suits a more stripped‑back visual approach. The rough lines, smudges, and broken textures give each sketch a sense of movement and honesty, echoing the unfiltered feel of live performance.’