Building Confidence in Picture Book Cover Design through Master Study Thumbnails

TLDR: when in doubt, do a master study!

One of the things that I was terrified of with my current picture book project with Enchanted Lion was the fact that I would be illustrating and designing the book cover. Unlike many of the things that initially struck terror in my heart, this one did not fade away after a few months. “I’m an illustrator, not a designer!” was a frequent thought. And, “what on earth am I supposed to do for the fonts and lettering?” was another. “It’s going to look terrible! I’m going to be fired!” was another common reoccuring fear, and not just for the cover.

I (mistakenly) thought that the cover was due on April 1st, so in March, with the supposed deadline looming, I finally decided to tackle my cover design fears head on. I had been told in art school and in the 3 point perspective podcast that the best way to improve your skills in a certain area was to do master studies.¹ So, I decided to start with master studies of hand-lettering in picture book covers. I picked out a few covers whose lettering I liked and copied them:

(It was at this point when I realized that I did not want to hand-letter anything on a curve!)

I then applied the lettering to the title of the book (not shown here, but there’s more below).

Then, I decided to do master studies of picture book covers about birds². I found these:

And I got to work!

I really liked the lettering in “The Paper Bird” and the movement of the bird, so this is what I came up with:

Next, I tried “Clara and the Birds.” I absolutely love the cover design and the lettering. Also, Emma Simpson was in the same Good Ship cohort as I was!

I really liked the bird’s-eye view perspective of “A Gift of Feathers”, so I gave that a try as well:

However, since the book isn’t about feathers, I replaced the feathers with birds.

“The Sky Painter” was one of the first books I looked at when I received the offer to illustrate THE BIRD I BECAME. I actually thumbnailed the entire book to get a feel for how the illustrator approached the composition of each spread. BUT, I hadn’t yet done a master study of the cover. Until…

I felt this one was getting close to what I wanted to do for the cover. Obviously, I couldn’t do this exact one, but I was starting to feel more confident at this point.

I adore this book about Florence Merriam Bailey (especially since the 2022 on-cam puffling, Flo, was named after her!), and thought I’d try a master study of the cover:

This was the first one that was a definite “no.”

I then looked at “Bird Count.” I’ve seen several bird picture books featuring a kid with binoculars on the cover, and was pretty sure I wouldn’t use this design for mine, given it was so common, but I figured, why not try a master study anyway?

I really like how there’s a bird standing on one of the letters. I noticed that in “The Best Sound in the World” as well, which I used as a lettering master study. (not shown)

I liked “To See an Owl” for its combination of a realistic owl with a stylized child. This is how our book will turn out as well - realistic birds with stylized people. So I tried a master study of the cover:

I chalked this one up to “another one that didn’t work for the story, but I was glad I tried it.”

Then, I did a master study of “Ruby’s Birds.”

This one was the closest to what I wanted to capture in the cover (in my initial sketch dummy that I sent to the publisher, there are plenty of illustrations of the child running after birds). It has birds, an active child, energy, nature - everything that THE BIRD I BECAME embodies. I couldn’t do this one, but now I had an idea for where I wanted to go.

In the end, I submitted four thumbnail sketches for the cover (none of which are shown here), and the publisher chose the one that was based off a spot illustration in my sketch dummy. As far as lettering goes, I ended up using my own handwriting for the title. I’m currently working on refining the cover and it will of course be revealed at a later date!

Doing these master study thumbnails helped me understand a lot about the process of book cover design: perspective, composition, lettering, letter size and placement, and so much more. I can’t say that I’m an expert, but I definitely feel a lot more confident now than I did when I first started this process! So, if you’re ever in doubt, try doing a few master study thumbnails and then substituting your own characters and book title in them. It will help you get clarity on your own picture book cover, I promise!

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What’s been going on…

I wasn’t able to get my once-every-two-months post out on time because May was completely taken over by my kids’ birthdays and their birthday parties, family visits, and the end of the school year - not to mention the normal illustration and business work. But I have been revising the storyboard for THE BIRD I BECAME, and have almost finished it except for one spread. I’m working on the endpapers (several versions) and will be refining the cover to send this coming week.

As many of you may have seen in the Notes section, I was a runner-up in the PB Rising Stars mentorship program! I was absolutely thrilled to hear this news, and met my mentor Ruth Forman for a one-on-one Zoom critique this week. (I have been a fan of hers for the longest time, ever since she came to read at my poetry class in college many years ago!) It was really helpful, especially since I’ve been feeling quite lost with this manuscript.

I also wrapped up the mini-mentorship I had with Rae Crawford from Scholastic (I received this as a finalist in the We Need Diverse Books art mentorship program). The sessions I had with her were incredibly helpful and I’ve been applying her advice to my newest portfolio pieces. If I have time (and if there’s interest), I will do a thorough write-up of this mentorship.

On the personal side, I’ve been enjoying watching the latest season of Doctor Who (Disney +) and Unicorn Store (on Netflix). Unicorn Store is so good. I can’t believe I didn’t hear about it when it first came out. It’s so full of hope, quirkiness, magic, and humor, and I think we all could use that in our lives!

1. I call my studies ‘master studies’ although they are more like master study thumbnails. They aren’t master studies in that I didn’t take them to full color, but they also aren’t exactly thumbnails since I copied them. However, for simplicity’s sake, I will refer to them as master studies in this post.

2. You can find these picture books at:

The Paper Bird by Lisa Anchin

Clara and the Birds by Emma Simpson

A Gift of Feathers written by Ken Schept, illustrated by Romina Galotta

The Sky Painter written by Margarita Engle, illustrated by Aliona Bereghici

She Heard the Birds: The Story of Florence Merriam Bailey, Pioneering Nature Activist by Andrea D’Aquino

Bird Count written by Susan Edwards Richmond, illustrated by Steph Fizer Coleman

To See an Owl by Matthew Cordell

Ruby’s Birds written by Mya Thompson, illustrated by Claudia Davila