I'm due to get my feedback on the roughs for Baby Goes Baaaa! some time today. While I've been waiting for the final go-ahead, I've been taking another look at the cover design I began thinking about last week.
Sarah sent me some title text we could possible use, to help me get a feel for what space I had to play with, and I worked up the little sketch I showed you last time into this:
I then had a play around with some other thoughts, incorporating different characters from inside the book. My editor said he was very keen on the bears, and so I woke up the sleepy, baby polar bear I showed you before, and gave him a go:
Another fave of my editor, is a little mole I've drawn for one of the spreads (P is for Pee-Bo!). I'm also quite keen on the silliness of the slug on the skateboard (who you might remember, was originally a dog, and then a hedgehog...), so I tried them in a third idea:
Not sure which I like best, so I'll see what the guys at Egmont say. Any thoughts?
I usually have a policy of never presenting more than one alternative rough. This dates back to my days in editorial illustration, when I discovered that, if ever I presented two alternatives, the art director would say something like, "Mmm, I like this from this one, but that from the other... Could we please combine them?" And I would end up having to draw a third.
I'll let you know if it happens again!
I usually have a policy of never presenting more than one alternative rough. This dates back to my days in editorial illustration, when I discovered that, if ever I presented two alternatives, the art director would say something like, "Mmm, I like this from this one, but that from the other... Could we please combine them?" And I would end up having to draw a third.
I'll let you know if it happens again!
8 comments:
I'm really in to 'silly' and a lamb on roller skates is silly, but not as sillyly silly as a slug on a skate board! I love this 'Mole in a hole' cover best I think. Unless you have something sillier :0)
John's favourite is the swinging monkey. I'm really curious to see which one the editor likes best!
I like the monkey one because there is a difference in size between the two and it is simpler (not too much going on which could be confusing). The third is just so much fun too... totally unexpected (but maybe better on the inside.... it would be fun to continue her skating journey through the inside of the front cover and into the book! I think you probably instinctually knew the first one worked the best because that's what you created first. The problem lies in that all of your drawings are just so good... it's really hard to choose!!!
Ooo... now that's a really interesting idea Bethany. Don't know if we have endpapers or not (being younger,it's a 24 page picture book, so sometimes it's tighter), but that would be such fun. She could be skating in through the endpapers and then out the endpapers at the other end of the book, interacting with various characters as she goes. You're a genious!
All nice, however, I like the composition of the first, just the way the shapes all fit together. the third is a bit busy, the second too plain (i sound like Goldilocks).
So cute. x hivennn
I think slug deserves his own book!
Amazing work as always! Will be sending my niece a copy when it comes out. I love the monkey as a cover due to its simplicity. But I adore the idea of a book about an active exercising healthy slug (perhaps taking over the veggie patch) and agree with Tim that the slug deserves a book of his own. Love the idea about the endpapers too. Despite having read thousands, I'd never realised how much went into creating a children's book even after reading Mem Fox's comments on the same. Good luck with the publishers! I'm sure they'll love all of them.
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