It is always a challenge to work closely with an author to create a book cover. I always ask the author to draw what they are thinking of, even if they can only draw basic shapes and stick people. This process helps me visualise what the author is imagining….and it is a good starting point. Often there are a few rough drafts until we reach the point where we both understand what the end result should be and agree on it! It is not a process that can be rushed…but it is very satisfying to design a book cover and artwork, that is what the author had hoped for and more!
Character Development:
I love working closely with an author on character development. Here are some characters I developed which were used on the cover of a children’s book entitled ‘The New School’ by David Tjader. (I also designed the book jacket.) This book is now available from Amazon and W.H. Smiths.
Main character 'Cyril' as seen in the early tonal drawing below
The main character 'Taurus'
The characters here were further developed from the early tonal studies, such as the one below. Before colour was introduced, these tonal studies were discussed with the author to make sure that these characters were what he wanted, and were more or less what he had been imagining….and luckily they were; he was delighted with them!
The author requested a watercolour look to the work and so the characters were painted before being scanned in and further painted in Adobe Photoshop. It is great fun creating clothes with creases, shadows and highlights in Photoshop.
An alternative way to work is to create characters digitally, which is challenging but also very enjoyable as I love working with Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop.
Tonal study - early character development
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