Sketching Ideas for a Cover Page WIthout Knowing What's Expected by the Publisher
/Since I don’t have an ISBN number for my book, I can’t use Ingramspark’s Cover Generator to make a template that can be used to plan a cover image. So…I’m just going to look at some books and make a cover. I’m using Maurice Sendak’s Where the WIld Things Are as my model. I know I’ll need some text for the title, author name (Doukat!), the image itself, a barcode, and some room for the spine. My book has 40 pages, not thick enough to print the name of the book, so the cover image will simply wrap around to the back cover. I’m probably missing some significant details, but I’ll add them in when I have access to the Cover Generator.
I pulled out my project sketchbook, which I haven’t used in 8 months, and did some quick sketches that show the front and back covers as one extended image. There’s one example that uses two separate images, one for the back and a family group picture for the back. I lettered in a rough title and place a mock barcode on the back. In one case my brain got twisted around and I drew the barcode on the front.
After months of drawing digitally, working with paper and pencil felt like coming home. There’s no icon telling me that I have a low battery, no layers, no crazy multiplicity of brushes. Just paper and marking tool.
I’m going to turn one of these sketches into a cover. See if you can guess which one.
