The Making of a Book Cover
From concept, to color palettes, to final illustration. How it came together from start to finish.
Last summer I took on the very fun job of illustrating the cover, as well as over forty interior illustrations, for Birdy, a new middle grade book by N. West Moss.
Birdy will be out next Tuesday, the 17th, so this seems like a good time to pull back the curtain and show you some behind the scenes things about working on a project like this. Want to see?
You do?
Okay, let’s go.
About this time last year, an email landed in my inbox from my literary agent with a job offer from the folks a Little Brown and Co. They were reaching out because they needed an illustrator for a new book, and they were hoping I could sign on for the job.
Their initial offer included their preferred timeline, a description of what type of work they would like from me, as well as a summary of the story. I looked it over, looked at my upcoming schedule, and decided yes, I’d love to do it. After a bit of back and forth regarding payment, and contractual details, etc., etc., we were off to the races.
First things first, the editor sent me the entire manuscript, and I took some time to read the story, which felt like such a luxury. It’s about a girl named Birdy, and her younger brother, Mouse. After their mom dies from cancer, they move from New York City to the country to live with some relatives they don’t know very well. The tight bond between Birdy and Mouse is at the heart of the story, and ultimately it’s about finding a place to belong. It includes some lovable animals, a week at summer camp, and a creek where these two kids who only know city life discover the magic of being in nature. It’s wonderfully written, and as I got lost in the story I was transported back to the ten year old version of me, falling in love with reading chapter books.
As I was reading I was also imagining the characters, and how I would draw them. I had been tasked with making an illustration for each chapter opening, so there were a lot of scenes and moments that I noted as possible illustrations. And, of course Birdy herself was top of my mind. I wanted to capture her well, as she is the book’s title character.
First Sketches
The art director I worked with at Little Brown, Jenny, gave me some initial ideas for the cover that they wanted me to explore with my first round of sketches. She wanted to see a composition that featured a close up of Birdy in profile view - almost a portrait. She asked for me to work on a layout where Birdy is looking out her bedroom window to the landscape below, and she wanted me to include any other ideas that I was envisioning.
These are the first round sketches I sent to her…
The editorial team chose the first sketch, the profile portrait of Birdy, which I really loved as well. Inside Birdy’s sweater I added a scene showing the house in the country where she and her brother go to live. Parts of the other sketches ended up being used as spot illustrations throughout the book, so it was nice to have the effort I put into those come to good use.
Color Sketches
The next step was to explore color, and try and get a feel for the palette. I was asked to do some rough color versions of the cover design so they could see a few different options.
Before I dove in, I went to one of my pin boards where I’ve collected images of different book covers and illustrations that I really like. I wanted this cover to feel classic and nostalgic, so I thought it would be fun to reference some vintage illustrations.
I’m really drawn to older illustration styles where the color palettes are limited - three or four colors at the most.
These are a few I had in mind…
Then I spent some time exploring. I did quite a few color sketches. This part of the process is always fun. I love experimenting with all sorts of different color combinations, and sometimes I have to reign myself in.
After working for a while I sent over a few that I thought might be possible contenders.
The art director and I had a back and forth conversation about these palettes, and they ultimately decided they wanted a background color that fell somewhere between the first two options. Not entirely green, but also not entirely blue. I’d describe their choice as more of a robin’s egg blue.
After getting the go ahead, I moved on to creating the final art that would go on the cover.
Final Artwork
My final palette ended up consisting of only three colors, plus black and white. I used the robin’s egg blue that they requested, a coral-y orange, and a green. I’ll try not to get too technical here, but I approached the illustration just like illustrators did years ago when printing capabilities were very different from what they are today. I created a separate layer for each color.
The four layers looked like this:
When all four layers are stacked one on top of another we get the full range of colors. For example, where the green layer overlaps the orange it creates the brown of Birdy’s hair.
And here is the final design:
I’m so pleased with how it turned out. This was one of those projects that seemed to flow smoothly, which I can’t say is always the case. The art director and I were on the same page throughout the process, and we only had some minor speed bumps. Overall, a very fun project.
A couple weeks ago the physical hard copy of Birdy landed on my doorstep. It’s always a thrill to get to hold something in my hands that I had a part in helping to create. I think Birdy is going to look quite nice on a bookshelf.
When I turned the book over, I saw on the back they included a series of blurbs written by other authors, giving Birdy some well-deserved praise.
One of those authors is Ann M. Martin, who wrote the Babysitter’s Club series. I did a double take. Those books were my absolute favorites when I was a kid. I loved every one of them. I think I ordered them all at school, through the Scholastic book order, as they were released.
Life is wild. Ten year old me wouldn’t believe it.
A side note: This is for all my fellow illustrators. You may be wondering, how was I picked for this job? I had actually been wondering the same thing, and I got my answer just last week.
When I originally teamed up with my literary agent, Hannah, I mentioned to her that I would like to work on some middle grade chapter books. She suggested I put together some pieces to include in my portfolio that could market me as someone who would be a good pick for this type of work. So I did. I created a few images that I saw as possible book covers or illustrations fit for middle grade chapter books. Here is one, a cover illustration for a made up book that I called Runaway Summer…
Fast forward to a couple weeks ago. I finally got to meet N. West Moss, the author of Birdy. We had a fantastic conversation (over zoom) and at one point I asked her how I was chosen as the illustrator. She told me that the editors had shown her some work by several different artists that they thought might be good contenders. I was happy to hear that this Runaway Summer illustration stood out to her immediately, and she knew she wanted me to work on Birdy.
It worked!
The advice here is to make the art that you want to be hired for.
Birdy will be out on February 17th.
Congrats to the author, and thank you to everyone at Little Brown for choosing me to be part of the team.
Also, I’ve heard some rumblings that this book is getting a lot of early praise, and it is one to keep an eye on!
Congratulations on this book! Thank you so much for sharing and outlining your process in such detail—such a brilliant outcome.
I love reading all of these insights into your process. Your work is wonderful