Murugiah reimagines George Orwell's 1984 with psychedelic illustration and dripping paint

"For the hand-painted cover, Murugiah recreated his digital mock up drawings onto heavy stock watercolour paper with red ink. After the ink drawings were done, they were then taped to the drawing board where Murugiah dripped paint and moved the paper around, applying randomised brush strokes onto the paper. The result is a richly textured background wash, made in reaction to the natural dripping of the paint."

""Working in this intuitive way is an incredibly rewarding process that only a human being working by hand can do," says Murugiah. The cover was then finished off with black line work and paint. He scanned the painting, and applied it digitally to a template Faber provided, a proccess then repeated with the endpapers."

"Faber asked for the illustrations within the book's pages to be in black-and-white, in continuation with other books within the series, which include re-imaginings of The Bell Jar and The Great Gatsby. Working without colour gave Murugiah a chance to work outside of his comfort zone, leaving his typically brightly coloured style behind. Picking choice moments from the novel and translating them visually, Murugiah considered the illustrations cohesion with the endpapers using textures and mark-making to tie them together."

"Following the reader's natural journey - exploring the front and back of the book - Murugiah's illustrations serve as a visual guide into the book's core themes. The back cover sees protagonist Winston running in terror under the watchful eye of Big Brother, and this last internal illustration was important to Murugiah to get right. "It's haunting and fucked up!" he says."

Murugiah recreated digital mock-ups onto heavy-stock watercolour paper using red ink, then taped them to a board to drip paint and move the paper, producing randomized brush strokes and a richly textured wash. He finished the cover with black line work and paint, scanned the painting, and applied it digitally to a Faber template, repeating the process for the endpapers. Faber requested black-and-white internal illustrations to match the series, prompting Murugiah to abandon his usual bright palette and focus on textures and mark-making to create cohesion and guide the reader visually across the front and back covers. The back cover depicts Winston running under Big Brother's watch, a haunting final internal image. A solo show at the Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration is scheduled for May 2026.

Read at Itsnicethat