Lord of the Flies Sketches

Above are my sketches for starting to work on the book covers for The Lord of the Flies by William Golding.

I am creating book jackets for children aged between 9 and 12 years old and for teenage boys, approx. 13-17 year olds.

Both of my ideas are based around a pig's head, because on the island they hunt the pigs, and the dead pig's head they put on a stick becomes 'The Lord of the Flies' in the book. I feel this is important to show on both covers because it is the hardest part of the story to understand and might be difficult for the age groups, especially 9-12 year olds to interpret themselves. I think it will also attract them to the cover because it is not only showing the genre of adventure but horror (which also relates to the story).

Here are my preliminary sketches to begin to understand which materials/angles look most intriguing.

Catcher in the Rye Book Jackets

My book jackets for The Catcher in the Rye. The first is aimed at an adult audience, young adults upwards. I have painted the background using gouache paints and collaged relevant elements later using Photoshop.

The second is for a graphic novel, aimed at collectors or people interested in them. Again originally painted using gouache and collaged imagery was added later in Photoshop. 

I have used typewriter styled typography for the blurb because it signifies the time it was written, and it mentions typewriters in the book too. In both I have tried to keep the quality of the gouache painting because it creates a distinct feel to the work.

I might change parts of these slightly before the degree show, though I'm quite pleased with the way I have managed to show hidden elements from the novel, which was my main ambition from the beginning.

Palmer Hargreaves Brief

This is my completed design for the illustrative brief for Palmer Hargreaves after their refurbishment. The illustration needed to capture the company as a whole including the new changes to the office. 

As they are an international company I wanted to emphasise this, so began by painting the word and creating a tessellation. I then collaged on top other painted elements which are relevant to the company and their new look. Looking on their website they are very professional so I created illustrations for things that make a professional company, for example, reliability, security, strong ideas.

Painted with gouache.

Size = 1920 x 1080 pixels.

'A Calendar of Tales' by Neil Gaiman

This is the illustration I created for the month of July in Neil Gaiman's 'Calendar of Tales', a story for each month from people's past experiences that have inspired him to write. 

You can read the story here: http://keepmoving.blackberry.com/desktop/en/us/ambassador/neil-gaiman.html?CPID=E70C215#Jul

July is my favourite month so I was edging towards that story anyway, but I liked how the story described an igloo made out of books, so that's what I focused on. I thought about making a scene with it, however, a lot of the images already submitted were scene like and I preferred it without when it came to the final result.

Collage edited on Photoshop.

Size = 24cm x 19cm

Working on A3

I've started working on A3 pieces of paper as part of my development for the FMP. This gives me chance to brainstorm as I go along and will also add to a portfolio, which in the end will hopefully look organised! It also gives me a chance to breathe from working in my sketchbook which is quite controlled.

Here are some pages deciding on materials for the main character which will go on the book cover. The top image is aimed at adults and the second is for a graphic novel. 

I feel grounded with this project, I just need to keep up the pace and make sure I fit in my own style at the same time.