Paul Garland Hides His Concept in Plain Sight in a Series of Illustrations for RCSLT Bulletin

Paul Garland’s cover series for the Spring 2026 issue of RCSLT Bulletin is a slow reveal. The subject is frailty, and the butterfly is a natural metaphor. At first glance the cover reads as a peacock butterfly resting in cupped hands. Moments later something starts to shift. The patterns on the wings become speech balloons. The idea of speech and language therapy is built right into the creature’s anatomy. The cupped yellow hands underneath aren’t just holding a butterfly. They’re holding a voice. Frailty, communication, and care all sit inside one image, and the image waits for you to find them.

The slow reveal keeps working as you turn the pages. The speech balloons reappear throughout the series, hiding inside the same butterfly anatomy in new contexts. One spread shows the butterfly perched on a spoon, sipping a small pool of liquid. Another spread shows the butterfly lifting off from an open hand. Across the three illustrations the butterfly is held, then fed, then free, building a quiet arc that only registers if you’ve been tracking the hidden idea across the pages.

The butterfly is rendered with precise linework. The secondary elements drop back into nearly flat tonal yellow, almost dissolving into the background. The takeaway for editorial illustrators is in how much space Garland leaves around his central idea. The concept hides in plain sight because everything around it stays quiet.