✶📚 Book Cover - Process Breakdown 📚✶ (Patreon)

Hello Patrons!

When I'm not working on personal work, I work on book projects for clients! I thought I would take you on a little journey of how I created the book cover for "Best Wishes" by Sarah Mlynowski  

The process is quite different from personal work since working on projects like this is usually divided into 3-4 stages:

1. Sketches
2. Revised sketches/flat colours
3. Final work
4. Revisions (if requested)

When I was approached to create the cover for Best Wishes, I was very excited since the premise of the book is full of friendship, whimsy, and magic! ✨

Capturing the magic and hints of the story were critical elements to creating the cover, so I had to make sure to include that. Besides the overall look/mood of the book, I also had to include the main character and magical box! 

Usually, when they hire me to do the illustration, it usually means I am only responsible for creating the full jacket or cover for book covers. The designer handles the book cover's typography, titles, and format. Since I was working alongside the designer, she suggested incorporating the magical bracelet integrated into the logo/title of "Best Wishes"

So these were the sketches I came up with:

A. I wanted to highlight Becca (main character) holding the box and friends/classmates in the background!

B. A flat lay of all the things that highlight critical elements of the story: including her school, phone, pictures of her friends, etc

C. Highlighting Becca caught in the moment when she opens the magical box.

D. Another variation of A but combining elements of B integrated within this composition

After hearing back from the team, they all decided to move forward with A!

They suggested moving Becca to the floor and adding more decorations around the room to indicate her personality and give a peek at her location (the story is located in New York.) So I included the following:

• A window where we could see the skyline and buildings.
• Polaroids of her friends.
• Cute hanging lights.

After seeing the sketch, they felt the decor might be too busy, so I had to take out many things to simplify the drawing and did a colour pass to set her in the scene with a cooler palette. I chose a cooler palette, so it will help highlight the glow coming out of her box.

However, they also wanted to see other colour palettes of the cover, so I also sent pastel variations. They ended up going with the first colour palette. It's essential to have duplicate copies of your files so you can always make changes.

After seeing the colour variations, they felt the cover was still too busy, so we had to remove everything around her except the rug and the window. I was a little sad when I had to remove the decor since I thought her room was cute, but I understand their decision! Besides removing the decor, I also had to make several changes to her face, lighting, and clothes.

Then, when it's time to move on to the final work, I can continue to render the details and finesse the illustration.

Creating this cover was quite a challenge! Since the book is the first of the series, it was essential to nail the mood and look they wanted to go for hence why there were a lot of revisions. When creating covers, you always want to highlight the story and think about how it would look in the store and its target audience.

Since the book is for middle-grade readers, showcasing a colourful and vibrant cover was essential.

Highlighting the main character was also very important! I have to break the rules a little with the lighting by adding a rim light around her to bring her foreword; I also made the city a little flat compared to the rest of the room, so the silhouette of a metropolitan city is easily recognizable from afar.

I always enjoy the process of creating covers because I love the challenge of finding ways to invite the viewer into the story without giving away too much. ✨

I hope you enjoyed this process breakdown! Let me know if you'd like to see more in the future! 🥰

Thank you so much for supporting me! It really means a lot to me! 😊💞

Love always,

Maxine