Uh oh…it’s that time again
It’s that time to break down the book cover process…I’m
gonna make this brief…Arm wrestling with the hands of time is draining …heck,
I’m surprised I have time to draw up this blog
The show MUST go on
Aight…so I wanted a frontal image of a plus size woman…the
illustrator for the original Thick book was missing in action for whatever
reason
Shout out to Zach…where ever you are…hope all is well with
you
Not getting a response from Zach through email had led me to
hit up another secret weapon…Joshua…
I was kinda hard on Zach during the process of my Nah’Sun
logo and the book cover to the original Thick…but hey…I want my shit done right
and exact on the strength of how I see things
Make a long explanation short, I told my new illustrator,
Joshua, what I envisioned for the one week assignment…he drew up a quick skeleton
before going all the way in
That’s the skeleton of the original figure…Joshua felt that the woman
needed more attitude…I’m not the type to put a lid on my illustrator's creative
juices…so I let him do his thing
I fell back and wondered what he’d cooked up
He came up with…
The drawing was dope…I told him to take out the purple in
the hair and parts of the body because this is the ORANGE BOOK of the
series…Thick When the Chances are Slim is known as the RED BOOK
I’m tailoring my book covers of the Thick series to the
Chakra…I might talk about the Chakra in a later blog when I have more time on
my hands
Anyway…I told Joshua to take out the purple, and take out
the black lines that separate the body parts…WIDER HIPS was also needed
Yep…I love wide hips…POW!
The changes were on point…I wanted a spaced out
background…since the woman is the Queen of the Universe, I thought an orange
spaced out background was fitting for her existence on earth (the black grass
in the bottom of the book represents the earth)
I wanted the book to have
an orange theme for the background…he went back to the drawing board and came up with…
Too red
Aight, chill…no worry
I told money about the red background…stubborn minds led to
this…
Leave it to me to help out the sport...this version kinda reminds me of Storm from the X-Men
I didn’t wanna stress my guy over a minor (but
major) part of the illustration…it’s not about getting angry or panicking over
the small stuff…it’s about helping those who are helping you
The old saying of “one hand washes the other” when you’re on
a team is perfect for a great outcome instead of acting like a dick at the
first sign of trouble
I searched around for some orange coloring I wanted for the
background…I found a few and sent the 3 bottom photos for him to work with
 |
| Color for the author header block |
 |
| Shading of the background |
 |
| main color |
He thanked me for the alley oop and slam dunked my vision for the background
Heads kept asking me “what’s her race?” because of the heavy
facial features on the drawing…Joshua faded out the facial features to leave
her vague…He also used blends and shadings to separate the body parts instead
of black lines to make the drawing appear more artsy
The black lines would’ve restricted the flow of the
illustration…he obliged and cooked up…
 |
| The Finish Product |
That’s what I’m talkin’ 'bout
As you can see, coming up with a book cover that reflects my
original intent is a process itself…I’m not a believer of
slapping anything on the cover just for the hell of it
I treat my book covers like artists back in the day treated
their albums
And guess what???
The book cover ACTUALLY has something to do with the
story...SHOTS FIRED!!!
Aight, ya’ll…I’m Audi 9G
Peace
Nah’Sun
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