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ON THE WAY TO MEXICO BOOK by JACOB THORNBURG BOOK COVER ILLUSTRATION
buy on amazon PROJECT OVERVIEW This was my first book cover illustration. I was approached by local Author Jacob Thornburg to illustrate the cover, and he already had an idea for the imagery of a gun with a skull on the handle. I sketched the gun in pencil and inked it in black and white, then added the pool of blood in black to create more visual contrast. 
I then edited the image and added the text in Adobe Photoshop. METHODOLOGY When Jacob first contacted me, his book was about halfway finished, but he already had a vision of the cover, and the title. He said that he wanted a gun of some type that had a skull on the handle, which is the M.O. and symbol of the lead character. I read the first few chapters of the book so I could get a better feel of what type of gun and how to present it. I modeled the illustration of the gun from a Browning 1911-380, but altered the casing and handle to give the gun a more custom and unique feel. The gun was sketched by graphite pencil and then inked. I added the pool of black across the bottom of the page to add contrast, give a visual of a yin and yang, as the lead character struggles as an anti-hero, and to symbolize blood. For the Typography, I wanted a decorative font for the title and can across Octynaz, which I felt fit the theme. Town 10 Display Thin was used for the author name at the bottom of the page in white to try to create more visual balance within the cover. The color palette was kept to black and white to help symbolize the pull of good and evil. typography
Octynaz Aa Bb Cc Dd Ee Ff Gg Hh Ii Jj Kk Ll Mm Nn Oo Pp Qq Rr Ss Tt Uu Vv Ww Xx Yy Zz
town 10 display Aa Bb Cc Dd Ee Ff Gg Hh Ii Jj Kk Ll Mm Nn Oo Pp Qq Rr Ss Tt Uu Vv Ww Xx Yy Zz
color palette
000000 FFFFFF
The Final Cover design
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