Book Cover: Amish and Old Lace

Oh boy, I was so excited when I got the brief for this one.

This is a good example of how non-art hobbies and interests can enhance your artwork. Ever since I was a little girl I've loved evening dresses and wedding gowns. I used to draw them allllllll the time. I've also always loved interior design. I've spent way too many hours reading interior decoration blogs and making Pinterest boards of pretty houses. So when I got an assignment to draw a scene of a cute, trendy bridal shop in a vintage building, I was allllll over it.

This was going to be a cozy mystery book cover for Annie's Publishing. As usual, they had a list of specific elements they wanted to see in the scene:

• A sleeveless wedding gown on a mannequin, with a lace train, a modest v-neck, and a lace bodice
• An Amish buggy passing by outside (this is part of "the Amish Mystery" book series)
• A pair of scissors stabbed into the train of the gown
• An English bulldog peering at the scissors

I spent time on Pinterest looking at wedding boutiques. I found a lot of modern ones that were all white-on-white.

It's pretty, but I needed the wedding dress to really "pop" out of the book cover, so white-on-white wasn't going to work. After more searching I found some images of salons with some warmer accents of wood beams and brick walls.

This was some great inspiration. I made three sketches to send to the client.

The art director liked the third rough the best. She requested that I add a pair of shoes and a shoebox to the scene. Here is the color rough. I added a lot of warm lighting and rich colors to make the scene feel inviting and cozy. A bouquet of flowers in the corner reinforced the bridal theme.

The art director asked me to change the shoebox and hat box to a pink color. You really can't get too girly with these cozy mystery covers!

I really like how the textures turned out in this one. There's the shiny wooden floors, the velvet sofa, the lace dress, the rustic wooden beams.

The book arrived in the mail! Here it is with the full cover!