05/11/2026
get a peek behind the process of illustrating a book cover from start to finish! this cover for .juliana.smith's new YA western romance "spur of the moment" was a ton of fun! swipe for the highlights, and read on for the nitty-gritty:
✏️ round 1: concept sketches - 3 is my sweet spot for covers, though sometimes i do just 2 (or even 4) depending on the budget! i like to present plenty of options in this stage, so you'll notice the figures move around, are presented in different poses/outfits, and i typically do 2 different title treatments for the lettering. this way, i am addressing the same brief but with different solutions so the AD can do a bit of mixing and matching if they wish for round 2. in this case, my AD also had really specific examples for the concepts, which really helped me stay on track 💕
🎨 round 2 (and 3): color - usually, the art director picks one sketch and i develop 1-2 color palettes, but in this case, she loved all 3 concepts so much that she asked me to create color options for all 3 ideas so she could do a little market research. we negotiated the budget to accommodate this, then i created these 3 options. she followed up with one more exploratory round combining the palette from concept 2 with the composition from sketch 3 (switching the carnival from night to day) but ultimately they still selected concept 2 🧡
📐 final round: the details - once the color draft has been approved, the AD shares the revisions they would like to see as i refine the final draft (noted in the slide). these revisions were all really minor and are so helpful to ensure the final cover meets everyone's expectations. sometimes, at the very end there can be another tweak here or there but this is pretty much it!
📚 once the final cover is approved, the AD takes the reins and does the rest of the cover design, and the book makes its way out into the world!
i love how this cover turned out, and i am so grateful for the opportunity to work on this (and the rest of the willow creek series, coming soon). if you have questions, please feel free to ask! i always love seeing others' creative process, so i am happy to share 💕
