by Anne Smith
The Objective:
Learn new skills and create beautiful book covers that will encourage people to buy the Wright Cousin Adventure books.
The Project:
Create new book covers for four of the Wright Cousin Adventures by Gregory O. Smith. Since these books are written in a realistic, action packed style, I needed to create a style that matches the tone of the books.
Challenges:
There were lots of challenges with this project. My computer crashed and had to be factory reset THREE TIMES. I had to develop new skills and try things that I never tried to do before. (Fun fact, rain is really difficult to make look realistic.)
Project Processes:
The first thing I did was meet with Mr. Smith to learn about the books and what he specifically wanted the book covers to look like. He gave me the storylines and excerpts from each of the books so that I could understand what the book covers needed to feel like.
I then drew up some sketches and poses that are exciting and interesting to look at. Once I had a sketch that I liked, I sent it to Mr. Smith and he would review it. He gave me suggestions and ideas to work on.
Then I took pictures of people and things and plugged them into photoshop to get the right layout and look. Once Mr. Smith approved the layouts, I went in and edited, painted, and airbrushed to make it cohesive. This was very time consuming, but also the most rewarding part, because it made the picture come together.
After I was done “sewing” the pictures and artwork together, I sent it back to Mr. Smith for review. He would point out things to edit and change. The editing process was the most time consuming part because there were a lot of nitty-gritty, small things to work on. I also used this step to fix the lighting and any environmental features, such as clouds, rain, water, and the mountains in the background.
Once it was approved by Mr. Smith, I sent him the finalized files and he was able to publish them.
Experiences:
One of the coolest parts of this experience was seeing the before and after book covers. The original book covers were real photos with little cartoon people/pictures drawn on them.
Insights:
Communication is key. I wouldn’t have been successful with this project without communicating with Mr. Smith.
Try new things and experiment once you have the rules set. This will help you be creative and innovative.