Holes Cover Final

Here is the final for the HOLES book cover assignment. Susan Sherman at Charlesbridge Publishing spent two hours critiquing our work on Tuesday. It was my final day with Rebecca's mentorship. Susan felt my character should have a younger look, shorter neck and generally fuller body since Stanley is described as being overweight. She gave me a great idea with the swirls on the background, suggesting that I make them more onion ring shapes. I scanned in several images of sliced onions and made a texture layer and lowered it's opacity. I will miss this class so much but other tasks demand my attention for the next couple months.

Holes Book Cover - Color Application

Printed the sketch out on watercolor paper after making the critique changes. Mounted it on a panel using acrylic matte medium and then put a transparent gesso on top. Sanded once and then started with washes of gouache. Felt it needed the complement of violet in the sky. I let that dry and then lifted out the lighter areas. Trying out colored pencil on top to pull out highlights and deepen shadows. Experimenting.

New Assignment: Book Cover for "Holes"

This month, our assignment came from Susan M. Sherman from Charlesbridge Publishing. We have been asked to design a book cover for Louis Sachar's Holes. It should be fresh and graphically strong. I thought it was interesting that she selected a book that was vastly popular as was its movie adaptation.She really challenged us to stretch and think about how to illustrate this story differently.

I began with the lizards because I'm a reptile lover but just couldn't get anything to work right. I tried it with the holes "raining" down on Stanley with a hot desert sun blazing down on him. Didn't read clearly. About 1:00 am,  I started doodling after looking at some of the artists that inspire me and came up with this sketch.

Played around with some filters in PS to make him look sort of mirage-like. As an after thought I added the lizard (which I need to redo).