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Sketches & cover ideas for Plank & Pancake I follow enough librarians on Twitter to know that it's really that book cover that wins a reader's attention. It's also interesting to know that the book COVER, (though the first taste to the overall book experience,) is usually the LAST bit designed to complete the story. It's the reader's first introduction - that first impression, so you want it to be a good one. As I work on my first picture book dummy, I am piecing together a cover to make my story feel polished. Then this morning I couldn't help but think what would Master Kidd do ? Chip Kidd is well respected as one of the "Kings of book coverings. Though the titles linked to his name are actually novels, his Ted presentation is an excellent example of how he deconstructs a book to build upon the story it encases.  All this can be applied to Picture Books as well. One just has to be consistent with the book's illustration style....

Been working here and there on a book (re-covered) project for the DoeDeMee cover project for illiteracy . Below are some of my sketches rendered as I read through my book choice, The Scarlet Letter . As of a few nights ago, I had my poster looking like so: ... But something was missing. I picked this novel for the sake of the story's message on identity. Upon looking at other covers throughout time, there were a couple recurrent themes: Hester & Child (Pearl) and the big red "A". These characters actually become what the "A" symbolizes and I wanted convey with the cover. I think I did this rather successfully transforming these two characters into an "A".  However, there's another character that's typically ignored for cover art, and I really wanted him to have at least a subliminal presence, because without him, there would be no Pearl and thusly no evidence for the need of that adulteress mark: Reverend Dimmsdale. He too...