Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Jackets as far as the eye can see

Since I'm taking a little creative break at the moment, I thought I'd fill this empty blog time with some oldies but goodies. Issues that I didn't really have the time to blog about whilst in the midst of painting like a madwoman. So I thought I'd show the sketches leading up to the final jacket for Bea!

Here are the first 3 sketches that I sent in:

I liked #3, and so did my publisher. But, as a book designer I know as well as anyone that these tides are ever-changing. A few months later, as I'm heading into the thick of things, I was asked for some new jacket sketches. One reason (which I suspected myself) was the problem that hand-drawn type nestled in with a bunch of art could create. If, say, my book were to be translated into 17 different languages (fingers crossed), the jacket art would be a problem. Plus, they wanted to see Bea & some sheep up close, for some more personality to show through. Here's what I came up with:

Not so good, right? What's up with that Brady Bunch version? I don't know why I was so adverse to putting the type in the sky- it was the obvious solution, and one that required the insight of my art director & editor to point out to me.

Round 3 of sketches:

This last one was the one everyone liked. With some final discussions about Bea's wardrobe & the facial expressions of the other sheep, here's what I did for the final:

...and the back cover.


And there you have it! For now, anyway!

7 comments:

Lauren Castillo said...

Hi Vicki!
So great to hear from you today (thanks for the note on my blog)! And was really nice meeting you last evening, too. I was just browsing your blog and website, and feel like I am already familiar with your work--maybe I've been to your blog somehow already! Anyhow, I love your paintings--your characters are very charming and animated at the same time :)
Congrats again on your first author/illustrator book! I will look forward to seeing those cute sheep on bookshelves next summer. Any new projects in the works right now?
p.s. apologies for the longest blog comment ever!

Paul Hoppe said...

Hi Vicky!
Thanks for visiting my blog– it was great to meet you guys! Hope the trip back was not too painful.

Great to see all your work and the titles you have designed, too. The sheep are very cute and I look forward to the book. It's fun to see how the cover evolved – always interesting!

And perhaps we can do some Bohnanza on a cozy fall day

Donna Farrell said...

looks great! thanks for sharing your process. congrats!

Vicki said...

Thanks, everybody!!

Anonymous said...

these are great! I love the knitting sheep!

Tracy said...

These look GREAT! Can't wait 'til the book is out :)

Adam said...

Thanks a bundle for so bravely posting this entire process. Covers can be such a stressful epilogue to the story-telling process, and it's neat to see your evolution of fleecy flockrocker ideas play out with such clarity and insight/hindsight.