Work in progress . . . Audiobook Cover

Thought I'd post some sketches and working images of this illustration-in-progress. Initial ideas were sent to the client via text message attachment. I was at Barnes & Noble sipping coffee and working on ideas. I used my cell phone to snap a few photos of sketches and sent them to the client. He called me back and we discussed the sketches and agreed on a concept. The story is narrated by the sister of a boy who dies of cancer. Baseball plays a central role in the story, and the glove is an important linking element.

This is the concept we agreed on.

This is the cover comp. It's a rough idea of how the concept will look in color, in place with the title & text. This is also where I begin to work out the composition, lighting, etc.

This is the final sketch of the concept. I scanned this and brought it into Photoshop for painting.

I colored the background and began blocking in the window and curtain, working my way to the rest of the background and then the figure.

More work on the background and window.
Reworked the face and decided to add some filtered shadows in the lighting.

Here's a detail of the face. I think this part's done.

A little more work on the face to warm up some of the skin tones. Worked on her left hand & arm ... still awkward, needs more work. The glove is finished, except for final once over when everything else is done. Added more contrast between the figure and background.

Finished! Several projects in between the last entry and today. Here's the final illustration and the cover with the artwork in place. I painted a lot that wouldn't be seen in the final crop to allow me some flexibility when it came to positioning the image on the package cover. 

This was painted in Photoshop CS3.

click images for larger view