My Book Jacket.....

      I'd like to share with you how the cover art came about for  my new book. In an effort to encompass the main themes of this story within the book jacket, I designed the art to show the reader  the following: My 2 main characters, the time of year, and what Mamsey's special talent is. 

I've used Autumnal colors to represent the fall and the coming of winter,

with acorns (still green), rosehips  burnt sienna mushrooms and little squirrels.

 The carved wood is repeatedly used throughout the book, along with birch bark and much rusticity.

  

On the jacket, I have used "stitched" birch

bark along the spine of the book, as well as the little section used for author text.

  With the use of needle and thread, a basket of twist, a needle in Mamsey's "pocket" and  embroidery throughout, it is easy to see what particular talent Mamsey has, and it is a skill she uses throughout the story,

till the very end. It is, in fact, the very heart of the story... for this is the tale of a mother's love expressed through a million tiny stitches.

I think my needle working friends will adore this story, and relate to it's premise, completely.

You can see the mode of transport on the BACK of the jacket, surrounded by Mamsey Bear's embroidery.

The two main characters are seen here and on the front cover.
The book flap needed only to be painted once, even though it appears on both ends of the jacket as a mirror image. We were able to duplicate it on the computer for the opposite side.

 I'm really glad, it saved me a lot of time and work.
 This is the back of the jacket, unfortunately, a bar code will take up about 3 vertical inches along the left bottom corner and obliterate the image of the needle worked "oak leaf". I really dislike those ugly bar codes.

  When designing a jacket, you must add at least 1 1/2 inch of extra artwork along all the edges. This edge artwork will scarcely be seen but is necessary for folding around the inside "board" of a hardback book. I learned that the hard way when when I designed my first book cover.
 This is a large book at 12x12, so the full jacket is around 13x34 inches.

 Above, you see the entire jacket minus book flap on left side.

 And beneath, my Book Cover.

 I am actually pretty pleased with it. I think it is much better than my previous book covers.

 
It seems like a long, long time since I first drew this image....
 SO GUESS WHAT??!! I have approximately 4 square inches to paint and my book will be finished. All the artwork has been scanned and copyrighted and I am SO close to sending this on to layout and printing.  I know there are a few people who will be very happy to hear this!
Almost time to celebrate!