So as I mentioned before, our next assignment in the mentorship is the cover to Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (I much prefer that over the American Sorcerer’s Stone!!). I made A LOT of thumbnails (for me). I never do thumbnails. Usually I have 2 or 3 and I’m set. But there are so many scenes and things to choose from… and I really want to nail it. Hopefully one of these thumbs can make an acceptably awesome cover. They are all wraparounds, by the way. I put stars next to the ones I liked. Click the image to see them larger. Tomorrow is our critique!
My thoughts on the cover – the first HP book was super whimsical and happy. I heard a lot of complaints with the later books and movies about them getting so dark and they lost some of that really cheerful magic from the first book that people fell in love with (I loved them all, so it was no matter to me). I want to make sure that I show that in the cover, though. It’s not a dark book. It’s a happy book. No one has any idea the extent of horror that is going to happen in later books. The original cover artist, Mary GrandPré, would have had no idea. I want to base it thinking I never read the other books. Where I WILL show dark is the back cover. I want the front cover to be magical, happy, colorful, as it would have seemed to Harry, and the back to be dark and mysterious.