My Cover

Today I started, and finished, the front and back of my book. I had designed a wireframe version on Illustrator with sketches from online, and so, last night, I went out to draw the illustrations I needed. I decided on two hands holding because the book is about supporting people who can't cope through times of loss. I used watercolour brushes to create an artistic look to it, rather than completely realistic.

Today, I brought that to Photoshop, and I first designed this cover. I didn't really like the uncentered title, and my name being so near to the bottom. Also the shadow wasn't natural at all, as it was the wrong colour and made it look like a halo.

From this, I decided to change a few things. Firstly, I removed the halo, because it didn't look too great and didn't make sense. Next, I decided to switch the positions of the text. I preferred this as it look more natural and you could see the author clearly.

Next, I decided to change the actual background colour. This meant that I could cast a black shadow where you could see it and it looking natural. One thing pointed out to me was the look of the shadow and how it could be distorted to be even more natural. I decided against this because I did want it to have a 3D effect, but more like it was layered close together.

Last thing I did was move up the hands and title so it was more centred, as I didn't want any of it cropped or missed out.

I also designed the blurb, and I wanted it to be simple and link to the cover, so I cast shadow under the title, and just added the text itself and my logo, as, with seven pages, I probably wasn't getting a spine at all.

Overall, I'm really happy with the outcome.