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:: Graveyard People: The Collected Cedar
Hill Stories, Volume One
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This was the first concept I presented to Paul and Gary,
just to get the creative juices flowing. I threw it
together in Adobe Photoshop. We had discussed in advance
that the cover would have some sort of "Welcome
to Cedar Hill" theme, I just had to work on the
setting.
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I think we all agreed that the original cover idea needed
some personality and relation to the stories. It was
mentioned that it would be cool if some of the "beasties"
from the book could be coming out of the woods. I figured,
why not go all out and show *lots* of beasties from
the book? So, I developed this sketch.
Once
we all saw this idea, we knew it was the right way to
go!
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I created the sky with spray paint. I masked out most
of the image with tape and newspaper, and left only the
area that I wanted to be the sky. I then used red, yellow,
orange and purple spray paint to create the sunrise. |
The landscape was drawn using chalk pastels. I masked
out most of the areas I wanted to keep clean. |
Here is a view of the landscape once the newspaper was
removed. |
I typeset the "Welcome To" sign on the computer
and distorted it to give it the proper perspective. I
printed it out and coated the back of the printout with
graphite to make fake carbon paper. I then traced the
letters so that they were transfered onto the illustration
board in the proper location. |
I started sketching out the characters using chalk pastel,
and I used acrylic paint to create the trees. I also completed
the sign, using a combination of watercolor and marker. |
More character development, added the road. |
More character development (notice the lion and the wolf
on the left are complete). |
This is just to show the level of detail in the characters.
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Again, showing the detail in the characters. |
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Final
cover, version 1. I submitted this to Gary and Paul,
and they offered their feedback on what should be changed.
The two most noticeable changes were to add more detail
in the foreground grass, and to add a graveyard in the
landscape.
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Final cover! The
color is more vibrant in this version because I had
a professional photographer shoot it (rather than shooting
it myself!).
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