Final Piece

Mock Exam

This is my front cover for the child book 'Arctic Life'.

First, I drew the front cover on my sketchbook then scan it in, and I start to do some editing on Photoshop.

I used brush tool to colour the two characters, and the 2 ice burgs in icy blue as the base colour. I then place several triangles in different shades of blue colour on the ice burg, in order to create the sharpness of a ice burg and make it a little bit more realistic.

After that, I make all the layers invisible, then added a new layers with the foreground colour black, the reason I made this layer is to create a starry night sky effect and use it as the background of the front cover. 

I used the noise tool and blur tool to create the starry night sky effect that I wanted. I tried to keep it subtle not to be stand out, because the main focus of the front cover are the characters.

Once I finished with the background, I made all the layers visible and layer it on top of the starry night sky, it turns out that the characters and those 2 ice burgs look too bold, so I adjusted the opacity.

As for the book title, I want to make something similar with the experimental typography that I made, as it has the icicles effect which it relates to my child book theme. So I opened a new document and typed the book title, then I added numerous green and purple small triangles onto it, which this is similar to what I did to the ice burgs.

Once I'm done with the book title, I placed it on top of the book cover, as it is the common position to put a book title on. And this is the final look of my child book cover. 

  

As I finished my book cover I then proceed onto the double page spread. 

I decided to use the layering technique for my double page spread, I drew the double page spread on my sketchbook with colour pencils, because it is easier for me to do the layering later on. 

I then used a light box and to trace and fill it in with an ink brush pen. For this technique I used multiple layers of paper with a separate colour on each piece of paper, for example I coloured the boat (which is brown in colour) on the brown layer piece of paper.

So once I finished with all the layers, I scan it into the computer and open it on Photoshop. I used Magic Tool to select the layer and colour it.

However, the above page seems a bit dull and not colourful enough for children's book, so I used other colours instead, for example I used yellow and blue to colour the boat and set the colour to 'multiply', so it then turns into green by combining yellow and blue together. After that, I inserted the texts and place it at the bottom of the page, which it allows the children to read it easily. 

And I did the same thing on the other page of the double page spread, by colouring the selected layer  and 'multiply' the colours in order to let them blend together. Then I placed the texts on top of the  page and it also enables children to read it straight-forwardly. 

Once I finish these pages, I then open a new document in Photoshop and put these pages in it.

So thesis my final double page spread.

Since I finished the front and the double page spread, I then started to work onto the back. I made a new Photoshop document and used Ellipse Tool to drew 3-4 circles at the centre of the page. After that I coloured the areas outside the circle blue busing the brush tool, and moved my star illustrations into tieback page.

I copy and paste the star, then put the stars all around the circle and edit it into different sizes.

On the other hand, I already drew an illustration of the character (Eskimo boy) and his Husky beforehand, I scanned it in and colour it with brush tool. 

Once I finished with the colouring, I dragged the illustration to the back page and placed it inside the circle.

 I inserted the blurb underneath the illustration, and I placed the tagline on top of the illustration, I edit it into different font size and types in order to make a contrast. 

With the remaining stars, I decided to enlarge all of them and set it to 30% opacity also change it into different colours, such as yellow and purple (to create a contrast). And put all the enlarged starts at the back of the blurb and illustration.

For the final touch, I put a barcode and the publisher logo at the bottom right corner, so it looks more like a child book.

In order to do the whole book cover, I opened a new document in Photoshop and added some lines in it to create a book cover template, which includes a book cover, back, spine and the flaps.

Once I'm done with the template, I then scan my drawings for the book flaps into the computer, and open it in Photoshop.

 I select each item with Lasso Tool and move it onto the book flaps.

Since I want to make this book flap look like the snowflakes hang down from the top, I put these snowflakes into sequence so it looks more spread out.

As for the other book flap, I placed the Husky dog illustration at the bottom, in order to contrast with the other book flap (since the snowflakes were at the top).

I then go back to the snowflake book flap, and used brush tool to connect the snowflakes to the top, so it looks like the snowflakes are hanging down.

I dragged the front cover and put it right next to the Husky book flap, as this is where the front
cover normally at.

For the spine, I colour it into pastel purple and then placed the book title and publisher logo onto it. The book title font is actually the same as the book title font on the front cover, but I only changed the back colour into black.

 After that, I dragged the back onto the template and placed it to where it should be.

As the flap looks empty, I put the starry night sky on both flaps as the flap background spit won't look dull.

 Last but not least, I inserted a list of 'other books' onto the Husky flap as they normally have it in children's books.