Once Upon a Midnight - Illustrated Title Type Process

One of my hush hush projects is in the final stages and with permission from the author, Kelly Morrison Handerhan, I thought I'd give you a sneak peek by showing you how I designed the illustrated title type.

I could've used type that's available on my computer for commercial usage But the title of this project is very evocative, ONCE UPON A MIDNIGHT. OOH this title is begging for some special treatment. So I begin to doodle and refine. And Hem and haw. Type Style - small caps, all caps, upper and lower case?  Should I add crows? Will they read as crows or just look like blobs?

Decided against crows - too busy. Went with All Caps as I felt the small caps had too much white space between the lines and lowercase letters didn't seem to work as well.  Refined the sketch. Enlarged sketch, transferred to paper via my lightbox and then the inking begins. I use a rapidiograph pen for inking and scan.

Voila - here it is in place on the wrap-around cover art. Once Upon a Midnight is about Andy the Pug on a midnight romp. We just loaded this book project to CreateSpace.com and we can't wait until it's in the marketplace.

Once Upon A Midnight Book Cover art for a story by Kelly Morrison Handerhan
 with cover and interior pages illustrated by Diana Ting Delosh.
Copyrighted material!!!!
For info about Andy please see www.facebook.com/andy.pug.9
You may Now order Once Upon A Midnight on Amazon

NEW - CBIG Blogzine!

Have been busy working on the official blog for CBIG. As usual nothing is as simple as it seems and it all takes longer than expected. BUT it is up and running and after a S-L-O-W start it is all starting to gell.
Please visit CBIG-nyc.blogspot.com, where members will be showcasing their illustrations and announcing their professional children's book publishing and related industry news.

Peeping Zombies!

How's this for an eye catching title - Do Dead People Watch You While You're in the Shower? Can you imagine? What a concept! Yes, this is a real title of a book I saw while browsing the shelves of a bookstore. It's non-fiction. Definitely stopped me dead in my tracks and made me look. No I didn't buy it. Now if Hitchcock's movie, Psycho didn't creep you out about showers, here's this lovely thought.