Illustrating a Children's Book: Cover Artwork

Yes, I have coloured Swap!'s front cover! Do you remember I talked you through the process of designing the cover a while back? The winning rough was this one:

I left the pastelling until virtually the end (I still have the front endpapers to do), so I could be sure I was truly warmed up to the characters and properly motoring. I'm so pleased I was allowed colour for the text on this one, as I think it makes a real difference. Often the title text is black: it's been that way on quite a few of my other books. That's to save money on translations (all the translated text goes on together, throughout the book, in a single black, which is cheaper than paying for extra colours).

There's a massive bleed on this piece of artwork: you can see I have extended the illustration on the two sides and bottom. I always provide a 5mm bleed on my illustrations, which is standard to aid the printer, but covers always need more like 30mm. I'm not 100% sure why (perhaps to allow for the larger paper jacket the US editions sometimes employ). It will be cropped back, on the UK edition at least, more or less to what you see on the rough. The background 'triangles' will be created in Photoshop once it's scanned.

Right, those endpapers next...