G&S book preview

The cover took a lot of thought and multiple rounds of changes. I started with one idea that just didn't work as a cover image. I struggled making it too complicated so much that it wasn't communicating the title of the story and book. This front cover design goes very nicely with the back cover:

This book was a lot more fun and challenging to create. As I was creating the color renditions I was constantly thinking how I could incorporate elements that would tie in well with the lesson plans. Since the lesson plans for W&K are such a big hit with the target teacher market, we actually put in the credits page inside the book, a reference to the lesson plans. Even though at this stage they are still in a skeleton form, I created the illustrations of this book with the thought that we would have lesson plans for this book.
I have the turtle silhouette hidden on every illustration in the entire book, including the cover (on the back, in the curl of the wave). I also included the "critters" from the W&K as characters kind of following the story on every illustration as well.
I researched some of the native plant life that one might find along the shoreline of a freshwater pond in Hawaii. All of these things will be more interesting for students studying certain units in elementary school to discover through the illustrations.
Now on to a preview of G&S:

That's enough of those. They are only web shots, so they may not look as fantastic as the printed final pages on your computer screen. They are going to be amazing.
The one last thing I wanted to share on this blog today was the video preview, kind of like a movie trailer but for the book.




Stay tuned, I should have some printer photos tomorrow!