Misc. Cover Art

During the last five years while working on my MFA, I regularly sought to stretch myself by taking on work outside of the school assignments.  I generally did one or two extra projects per semester, and the practice helped me grow as an illustrator.

Many of these projects used photographs instead of illustrations, depending on the function of the cover or flier and the amount of time that I had available for production.  Whenever I used photographs, I treated them as if they were illustrations.  I made sure the overall composition fit with the mood and message that the project needed.  Often I would change the photos.  Working with design like this has helped me create illustrations that interact with the project design in unique and meaningful ways.

As I have said before, when I create my covers, I keep four things in mind:
Meaning: What visuals are most appropriate and interesting within the content?
Audience: Who needs to be attracted to the content the most?
Fine Art: How can I raise the quality of this cover?
Clarity: The title must be readable and attractive.  Characters and situations must be accurate.  Period.
If time is a hindering factor, I still try not to scrimp on the above principles.  Many may wish to overlook the fine art principle, but a fine cover usually implies quality content, not mediocre content.

A friend of mine asked me to create the cover for her masters audio project.  She dramatized the life story of Richard and Sabina Wurmbrand.  The project was well received, and has been a mile-marker in my illustration journey.  I studied old pictures of Richard and Sabina, getting models with similar facial structures to pose for the characters.  I tried to capture their life struggle in visual form.  Through the project I developed a great admiration for the Wurmbrands.

The cover also signaled the end of an experimental style that I had developed.  I would create two color layers, a black one and a white one.  I would erase and paint in the mask of the top layer to create a monochromatic painting.  Then I would use multiple adjustment layers to color the painting in.  The style has potential, but can take a long time. 

A friend from Africa asked me to create the cover for his interactive DVD, the culmination of his communications masters.  For this he provided all the photographs, and I merely played with the design.  I wanted to make it look educational and interesting.

A Palestinian friend asked me to create the cover to her communication masters project, an audio documentary on Arab Culture.  The most important concept was to illustrate the traditional elements of society being mixed and contrasted with the modern culture.  I chose the yellow and blue colors, because those colors are prevalent within the culture, and because they are complementary colors on the RGB color wheel.  The effect is very powerful and engaging.

A good friend asked me to create this cover the day before it was due.  I worked it in around other projects and made it work.  While I wish I could have improved the images, it succeeds to capture the haunting emotion of his drama.

A friend created a documentary on abortion.  I emphasized the themes of attack and trauma with the target overlaid on the baby's head.  The harsh black, red, and white color scheme accentuates the difficult subject matter in the video.

At the end of the summer of 2006, I took a reasearch trip to New York, Pennsylvania, and Minnesota, to investigate the life and art of Eugene Iverd.  I knew a little about the man when I started, very little.  By the time I was done, I had seen three dozen of his original paintings and poured over records from his life.  At the end of the trip, I wrote a paper on him and other forgotten illustrators from the late twenties and early thirties.  This was the cover.

In 2006, I made a flier for the Campus Church's single's retreat.  The leaders created the theme and I fleshed it out visually.

The back of the flier continued the theme and presented the essential information in an interesting way.

This is the front and back for the 2008 Single's Retreat flier.  The front is a composite illustration, meshing together personal photographs and stock photography.

This year I am publishing a portfolio that comes out early in the holiday season.  I am using one of my favorite Biblical paintings as the art.  If you would like a portfolio, please feel free to contact me at matthewsample2@gmail.com.

A Beka Book Cover Art

This Wednesday's theme is book covers—specifically covers painted for A Beka Book.  I worked in A Beka for 6 years and had the privilege and honor of working on 15 covers for readers and song visuals.  I have included 9 reader covers below.

Everyone judges books by their covers, though they know they shouldn't.  A book can have a wonderful story or message and be trapped in a cover that does not attract attention or does not attract the right audience.  I try to bring wonderful messages to audiences who would want or need to hear them.  I try to make covers that do justice to the content.

When I create my covers, I keep four things in mind:
Meaning: What visuals are most appropriate and interesting within the content?
Audience: Who needs to be attracted to the content the most?
Fine Art: How can I raise the quality of this cover?
Clarity: The title must be readable and attractive.  Characters and situations must be accurate.  Period.
If time is a hindering factor, I still try not to scrimp on the above principles.  Many may wish to overlook the fine art principle, but a fine cover usually implies quality content, not mediocre content.

Sometime in the future I will upload several covers and fliers that I have done for friends and events not related to A Beka Book.

I love Song of the Brook's cover.  It is the sequel to Secret in the Maple Tree.  As I did on that cover, this cover mimics the cartoon characters inside the book.  However, I sought to raise the characters (and the Washington state scenery behind them) to a higher aesthetic level.  The cartoon style inside the book would not work on the cover, and neither would a photo-realistic painting.  Butterflies were an important part of the redemptive story line, so the butterfly was tied to the title with color.  The colors were adjusted to be bright, interesting, and evocative of both beauty and adventure.  I am very satisfied with how this turned out.

This was my first real cover, I learned a lot with this cover.

Windows to the World is the last cover I worked on and the most challenging.  How could I blend a five-point perspective view of the street on the front naturally into a normal-looking three-point perspective on the back?  I skewed the perspective to make it work.

I created this in half the time a cover is normally allotted in A Beka.  I did it to prove to myself that cover paintings could painted fast.  I also really enjoyed working with the grand craggy landscape.

A fascinating book about Mexican migrant workers in Washington state. I hope fifth-grade girls are intrigued by the cover and can't wait to read the whole story.

The illustration for Liberty Tree.  In the low-quality jpeg, some abnormalities might appear in the foliage of the tree.  Those abnormalities were in the original and helped the title stand out stronger.

I am a Photoshop painter, but for this painting, I experimented with Corel Painter.  I really liked the effect similar to thick paint.   However, I am most comfortable in Photoshop.  Maybe, after years of Painter experience, the differences between the two programs might diminish, but right now I am a Photoshop man.

Much of my work for A Beka was adapting older illustrations to a modern look.  The front of the Of People cover is about 40% mine (the non-essential 40%).  The back cover is my own work.

Growing Up Where Jesus Lived is another example of older art changed for a modern cover.  Title clarity is most important, then comes quality of composition, and afterwards justice to the original illustration's style.

Liftoff

At the beginning of any journey, I feel an energy in my heart: the anticipation of adventure. This marks the start of my adventures as a freelance illustrator.

I have just been paid for my first completed freelance job. The job was actually pro bono, but they very kindly gave me a gift--something pleasantly unexpected! I am finishing up another illustration job, banners for a new church building in California (a team effort between myself, fine artist Sarah Marina, and church graphic designer Sean Kent), and look forward to moving on to the next item. My digital portfolio is a couple weeks from being finished. I'm hoping to have a mini-demo on it . . . but that might be beyond my present powers. Until then, I will be building up my online portfolio here. Look for uploads on Wednesdays and Saturdays.

Someday I will have a full-fledged website, but until then this blog is quite exciting. Look out! There's a wild adventure ahead . . . .