Invented Images

So the pencil roughs for Fur & Feathers were finished (and shipped by the due date of July 20) and now it was time to turn my attention to the cover, which was due by August 15 (and when i say “due” i mean – finished color by August 15 – not just rough pencil ideas).  Sylvan Dell needs cover art before the interior illustrations for marketing purposes, but they like to have the illustrator start thinking through the entire book first, so that’s why they ask for the rough sketches before the cover.  Presumedly, while you’re busy working on the individual pages, cover ideas are already starting to gel.  But not necessarily.

Some book covers just come easier than others but usually (at least in my case) the process takes a little more time and creative energy, with the added complication (again for me, as i described in a letter to a friend) “the cover has to be colored and finished before i’ve even actually finalized the look and style of the book illustrations.  If i put the main character on the cover that character has to look the same thruout – meaning not only do i have to design a cover i also have to fully realize whatever character or characterS are shown.  Plus nail down the color technique (i can’t do the cover in paint with a realistic look and then decide the illustrations should be in cut-paper abstract collage for example).”  [NOTE:  As that excerpt suggests, many times my rough sketches are VERY rough, and i polish the images up before i actually go to color]

Also F&F was a bit more complicated in that i really couldn’t come up with an easy,  explain-the-story-in-one-image-without-giving-away-any-surprises idea.  The story itself is really kind of hard to describe without pretty much telling the whole thing.  “Because of a wind storm, a little girl has trouble falling asleep so she and her mother count animals, and in her dreams the animals and the wind get all smooshed together and the storm winds up blowing all the animal’s fur and feathers and coverings off, so the little girl has to fashion new ones using materials from her grandmother’s sewing box – after discarding the idea of using her own clothes.”

I thought of using the swirly vortex image, but i wanted that to be a surprise.  Nor did i want to give away the cute whimsy of Sophia dressing the animals in her own clothes.  There was also the dilemma of there being 8 featured animals besides the little girl which could get kind of cumbersome for one picture.  You do have to leave some subjects for the interior after all.  In the end i decided to concentrate on Sophia and the first two animals met in the story – the polar bear and the duck.

The whole story takes place in Sophia’s bedroom, and there is something just kind of funny about animal’s butts (what can i say), so that is what prompted the first idea.  I should also note that while i had the p bear and duck “dressed” in Sophia’s clothes i had every intention of coloring them as if they still had their original fur and feathers (to avoid the whole “naked animal” dilemma of an earlier chapter).

The polar bear just naturally lent himself to posing as a bear rug, so that inspired the second idea.  With the addition of the quintessential feather – a peacock plume.

I like extreme close-ups, and the idea of this huge polar bear beside the little girl struck me as funny. It also conveyed a bit of mystery about the nature of the animals and what they had to do with the story (and i could introduce the grandmother’s HUGE sewing basket).

Rough idea #4 is obviously a variation on idea #3, just in case the image of a headless bear was unnerving or struck anyone as odd.  He’s carrying the book i kind of invented (to explain why the little girl and her mother were counting animals) mostly to give him something to do with his paw.

And – finally – i kind of went full circle and did a variation of the first idea, having Sophia face the reader (thinking that might make it feel more engaging, as opposed to looking at everyone’s back).

I sent everything off to Sylvan Dell and awaited their thoughts and feedback:                                  “Sketch 1 – people didn’t like having the backs to us. Omitted as cover option… but several staff commented on what a great piece of art it would be for the back of the book.   Sketch 2 – Lee liked this one best but wondered about the rug.  But I don’t know what else you could use for them to be on.   Sketch 3 – This was another favorite and one thing that the staff kept saying that they liked were the variety of feathers… That led to a conversation about what if there were more feathers in #2.   Sketch 4 [NOTE: Idea #5 isn’t mentioned because it was sent later] – Like better than one for sure for cover but let’s see #2 with more feathers.

Which prompted …

And…

And in answer to the question of what to do about the rug, in the original sketch proposal, i decided to move everyone to the bed.

August 7 i got the news –  “I think we should go with this one.”

Of course that’s how it looked when i finished it, obviously i still had to color everything in.  But that – and the whole coloring process in general – will come in the next chapter.

This entry was posted on Saturday, April 24th, 2010 at 4:52 pm and is filed under Fur and Feathers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.