Copy covers for practice
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I didn't copy covers but I'd copy artists characters to warm up the old drawing arm.
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@Jeremy-Ross it is cool that you choose that one. Jennifer Bell lives here in MN and did a workshop at our fall SCBWI.
I haven't thought of copying covers but that is a good idea (especially of artists you dig.)
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@theprairiefox that’s pretty cool, thanks for sharing! I bet it was a great workshop!
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@Jeremy-Ross it was very interesting. It was focused on illustrating middle grade novels and that is pretty different than picture books.
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Hello SVS Community,
Albeit late, my personal Slowvember Project was to replicate a book cover that I really loved. I really like Dan Santat’s work so I challenged myself to try to copy the cover of Dude!
In case you’re wondering, I sketched via reference and did not use the color picker for rendering, which is why my colors vary from the original masterpiece.
I learned a lot by doing this. Candidly speaking, this was pretty difficult and time consuming.
Enjoy!
Thanks for checking this out!
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@Jeremy-Ross Looking good!
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Looks great! I've been doing something similar, although not book covers. My "copies" aren't exact either, but there's a lot to be learned from trying and experimenting. Keep going.
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@Kat thank you for your feedback! I agree, I felt like I was learning from Dan himself - although that probably sounds weird. There were a few times I wished I could call him and ask “how did you do this?”, yet the answer was always there in front of me!
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@Jeremy-Ross great job! This a fun way to do master copies!
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Jeremy, doesn’t sound weird. We learn from others, so it makes perfect sense. It would be great to be able to ask them how they accomplish something, but if we fiddle around by ourselves and try to imitate, we might develop (or stumble upon!) our own unique way of working. Either way, it’s a win, I think.
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@Kat thanks! I also challenged myself to paint each character on a single layer using the same brush for the entire piece. That was a lot of fun as it allowed me to stay loose with the brush strokes and painting over mistakes rather than using the eraser tool. Very hard but well worth the learning experience.
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Wow, that sounds like a challenge indeed! I did not challenge myself quite so much. I'm OK with erasing or making several layers so that I can back out of something. I need to make it as easy on myself as possible so as not to get discouraged!
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Hello again fellow SVS Community!
I’m back with another installment of; “Copying Covers For Practice!”
This time, I chose a page out of Peter Brown’s, Mr Tiger Goes Wild
I just love this page and did my best to recreate it without tracing or color picker (since I’m a student). Nothing wrong with tracing, but I wanted to really push myself.
Here’s what I learned:
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What looks simple doesn’t mean it’s easy! This piece was very complicated and I learned a lot from Peter.
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Everything is drawn differently, no copy and pastes of plants, trees or lettering.
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This was so much fun to paint! I stayed very loose and didn’t try to make an exact duplication, just tried to stay within the same room.
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I chose a color palette that I enjoyed more than the original (no disrespect).
Original from Peter Brown
My Remix
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This is a great idea!
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@Jeremy-Ross I like the colour block of the title roar of the original but I enjoy your colours more for all the rest.
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@Heather-Boyd thank you so much for your feedback! I was going for a raspy aggressive feel for the letters.
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@Jeremy-Ross no I like your letters just the colour of the block behind it haha
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Hello everyone, trying something new yet again. This is a copy of a page right out of Oliver Jeffers’ “Stuck”.
This was so much fun making. It took me 2 hours to do, very loosely.
Original Art
My Remix
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@Jeremy-Ross Doing copies of covers in this way seems like such a great way to practise! The full-colour ones you've been doing as of late are beautifully done, and it looks like a lot of work. I'm surprised they were done in about 2 hours. Also great to see you having fun with these.
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I'm doing this too, after being inspired by a post above. My first one is almost done. I'll post it this week sometime. I've spent the last few weeks working on it. Looking for covers, solving issues they had or you are having and learning new techniques to replicate their style has been a great learning experience. Both to get better at using a digital graphics monitor and helping to definine a personal style. I plan to do three, all in different styles.