To start my final piece I decided to add in the images that I wanted to use, which included one of the watercolour image of the main character and part of an image i had taken of a piano. To give the image of the piano more of a hand-drawn feel i changed the threshold and used the lasso tool to cut parts out, so that there were definite lines. At first I put the piano image side on, but after adding in some of the text, i realised that rotating the image would create more space on the front cover.
I started to add in the text, which I had already drawn out. I tried to keep these parts of the text small so that they did not over-power the main part of the title.
After this I added in the text for the authors name. I thought it would be wise to try and keep the typefaces fairly similar, as many different children's books i have looked at do this. I kept it quite small so it wasn't the first thing the eye sees when looking at the front cover, and aligned it to the right.
When I was adding in the word "Big" for the title, at first I used one of my own typeface images, but quickly realised all of the ones I wanted to use were not giving me the effect I really wanted for my front cover. I searched on DaFont for a type-face that looked similar to my own typefaces, but that would look the way I wanted it to. When I found the one I wanted I typed out the text, and changed the size, so that it was the one thing that stood out on the page the most. I then decided to change the colour of the word "Mr" so as to make sure it was clear that those 2 words were linked, and that the smaller text was not separate, making sure that the text flows well together.
I then added in a colour for the spine, by selecting part of the colour from my watercolored image and pasted it onto the spine, making sure it fit properly. At first this colour looked too dominant, and so I decided to lower the opacity.
I then made a start on the flaps of the book, and because I wanted to keep the blue theme running, and decided to copy part of the water-colour and fit it onto the flap. At first I added in just the text, again using lorem ipsum, but i noticed that it did not stand out enough on the page, and knew i had to change it or add something to the flap to make the text be easy to read. I added in a white box around the text to do this, but soon realised that having it at its full opacity was too much, and blocked the watercolour image, so I lowered the opacity of the white box until it made the text readable, but didn't block the background image.
On the other flap I added information of the author, Ed Vere, and an image of him which I found off the internet. I started off by aligning each text box to the left, and then warped the right side of the text box, so that the text would be aligned in some way to the arm of the character, which overlaps from the back of the book to the flap. After doing this I thought it would be a good idea to try and make the arm look less dominant on the flap, and to do this i selected the whole flap and added a white rectangle on top of the image, but made sure it was below the text and image of the author, I then lowered the opacity of the rectangle, so that you can still see the arm, but it is less obvious on the flap.
I realised that the front cover was lacking something, and so I had the idea the add a large hand onto the cover. To do this i took the original watercoloured image and used the lasso tool to select the part of the hand i wanted, and copied and pasted it onto the front cover. I enlarged the image and placed it right at the bottom of the page, so that it gave the full effect of a man with large hands playing the piano.
From my research into children's books, i knew that a review was usually always featured somewhere on the book cover, and so i decided to use one on mine. I found a review of the original book, and added it onto the back cover. I then added a small background, that was a light red, so that it contrasted with the main colour blue throughout the piece. I also decided to use large speech marks to create a contrast from the thin type.
Finally I added in the smaller things that are usually seen on a book cover, so that my design looked more like the real thing. I found out that Puffin were the original publishers of the book, and so i took and image from the internet of their logo and placed it on the front and back covers and the spine. I also added in the website for puffin, the price of the book and a barcode. Although theses are small details, they are pretty important on a children's book, as without them the book doesn't look like an authentic book cover.
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