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 Marc Remus

  Children's Book Author

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Cover Development

MAGORA - THE UPRISING (Volume 4 of 6)

Here you will learn how the fourth Magora book cover developed.

It contains a white fort that is housed in the Museum of Time Travel, a giant underground hall that Holly, Brian, Rufus and Amanda visit.

Sketching stage:

Developmental sketches for children's book cover
Developmental sketches for children's book cover

Different layout options are being explored. This is just a rough pencil sketch that is being refined with each step, until it becomes a detailed drawing.

Drawing stage:

Developmental sketches for children's book cover
Developmental sketches for children's book cover

When the sketch is completed, a sheet of velum is placed on top of it. Then the lines are being traced onto the velum and the drawing is refined.

Developmental sketches for children's book cover
Developmental sketches for children's book cover

The fort in the background gets its details and the children are being drawn out carefully. The entire drawing is on a sheet of velum at this point.

Transfer stage:

Developmental sketches for children's book cover

Every line on the piece of velum is being transfered with graphite onto an illustration board.

To enforce the strength of the lines and to avoid smudging, all the lines on the illustrations board are being redrawn with a black prismacolor.

Once the lines have been completed, the drawing is ready for painting.

Color blocking stage:

Developmental painting for children's book cover
Developmental painting for children's book cover

Now the drawing is ready to get some paint. Starting with the basic colors, I am blocking in big areas with acrylic paint. I prefer using Lascaux Acrylics as they high amount of pigment and cover areas really well.

Rendering stage:

Developmental painting for children's book cover
Developmental painting for children's book cover

The painting is being rendered using traditional painting techniques such as blending, atmospheric perspective, and glazing.

Completed painting:

Developmental painting for children's book cover

Digital stage:

Developmental painting for children's book cover
Developmental painting for children's book cover

The completed painting is scanned. Then I start zooming in on specific details and rework them in Photoshop. Highlights and reflections are being added with a digital airbrush. At the very end logo is being added. And voilá, the cover is done!

And here you can get the book!

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