‘What ROSA Brought’ Cover Art Walk-through

For picture book projects the cover art is (usually) the last piece of art that I work on. It’s also the image that takes the most work and goes through a more rigorous vetting process — channeling through the Sales & Marking teams to make sure the image that will represent the book is the best one from the perspective of all sides of the process. 

I begin with thumbnail sketches of cover concepts and talk through them with the art director (Dana Fritts), editor (Ben Rosenthal), and author Jacob Weinstein. Authors aren’t always brought into this process, but in this case with the story belonging to Jacob’s family, we couldn’t create an image without his stamp of approval. And my agent Jen Rofe was also a vital voice through the making of this book.

The image we first went with was this one, with Rosa large and in profile, and I worked it up into a refined color sketch. When this cover design went to the Sales & Marketing team, it came back with the note that, while this design was striking, they feared it didn’t communicate the 1930’s time period and theme of immigration. This being a book that would need to appeal to educators, this was an essential theme to make clear in the cover.

We revisted the original thumbnail concepts and felt that the image of Rosa sitting on the steamer trunk would be the right choice to show the time period and theme. This 2nd direction was refined as a sketch and then a tight color sketch:

It was approved for the final art! Here are layers of the first washes of watercolors being put down first:

Here’s the drawing table in action:

And a close-up of the painting, and my hand-lettered title almost ready to be inked:

Final cover, back and front! 

The quotes offered by amazing authors–R.J. Palacio, Andrea Wang, Laurel Snyder–about the book were especially moving to read when the final printed book came in:

For artists working on book covers, I would advise embracing the “teamwork” aspects of creating cover art. Even though you’re the artist, the team is making and deciding on this image together, and so many considerations need to go into it that are beyond the scope of just one person. Lean on the team, be patient, expect changes in designs and directions (and even the book’s title), and most of all, don’t rush the final image. 

Thanks for letting me share my art process with you!

Share ‘WHAT ROSA BROUGHT‘ with your local school, library, or house of worship.