The Evolution of The Unknowns cover

About the book, THE UNKNOWNS.

In a trailer park called Adjacent, next to the Folsom Energy Plant, people have started to vanish, and no one seems to care. At first Lady Di and her best friend, Tom Jones, barely notice the disappearances—until their beloved math tutor, Mrs. Clarke, is abducted, too. Mrs. Clarke has left them clues in the form of math equations that lead them all over the trailer park, through hidden tunnels under “Mount Trashmore,” and into the Folsom Energy Plant itself, where Lady Di and Tom Jones and a gang of other misfits uncover the sordid truth about what’s really happening there.

Benedict's sketches from 1st pass Manuscript.

Sketch I made before book was acquired to help acquire the book.

I had been a fan of Joshua Middleton's work for sometime and as luck would have it he was perfect for this unknown. Here is Josh's first sketch showing a wraparound jacket.

Only one problem. As beautiful as the image was when you separated out just the front cover. It didn't hold up. So in hopes of saving the image I reworked the composition. So that the front cover would work more effectively with the wraparound idea.

To make the cover have a bit of a science fiction, mystery edge I took Benedict's geometric sketches from the interior and add them floating on the jacket to add another layer of visual interest.

After a couple of revisions Josh delivered a color final.

But the colors where to vibrant which lessened the mystery angle of the image.
Thus darken the composition to help highlight the key action to help the viewer.

Next step I started working up type samples. All along keeping in mind,
"how do you make a math story visually interesting." Also at this stage the title changed
from FOLSOM ADJACENT to THE UNKNOWNS.

However we ran into a speed bum. The cover wasn't working as well as it needed to for the book. Again the mystery angle. With the current cover it wasn't working as we wanted it to. The cover was to character driven for what the story was asking for. So we quickly went back to the drawing board and re worked the idea. Here you my sketch revision. Which is totally not a Jame Bond influence . . . uh yes it is.

On last thing just to make sure the mystery angle was working. Marketing placed the text " A Mystery" on the cover. Which turned out nicely.

Next and final step place the cover copy in place. I like to place text in a way that fits into the world of the art. Complementing rather than intruding.

Bonus Math Problem!

Jonathan Beckerman NEW site

My brother just updated his photography website. He is an LA based fashion and book cover photographer. He and I have worked on numerous book covers together.
For example,
Struts & Frets,
The Girls,
Troy High,
Such a Pretty Face,
My Life in Pink & Green,
Anahita's Woven Riddle,
Car Trouble,
Rock Tease,
Hell Phone and
Breaktime to name a few.

Note: Give it a moment to load we are working on the loading time issue. Thanks

NERDS Site launched!

WWW.TEAMNERDS.COM

BEA is Coming "BRACE YOURSELF"

The banners are up at the Jacob Javits center here in New York. They display our new logo and the new slogan for the upcoming WIMPY KID 4 book due out in October 2009. "BRACE YOURSELF" The title will be revealed soon.

NERDS PREVIEW BROCHURE—SAMPLE CHAPTER

http://issuu.com/hnabooks/docs/nerds

Interior Art Preview of NERDS

Evolution of a NERDS cover

"I imagine people will be surprised at how much work goes into this
type of project. I'm surprised, and I participated in it!" —Ethen Beavers

Illustrator: ETHEN BEAVERS

The following shows the process Ethen and I went through working on the cover for Michael Buckley's latest series, NERDS.
I wish I could have better descriptions but I don't want to give away all my secrets.

Step one find an Illustrator.

To find the perfect illustrator I teamed up with Michael and headed down to our local comic store, Rocketship on a cold January afternoon. We shifted through comics and graphic novels , compiling a list of ten names that we would present to our editor Susan Van Metre. In the end Ethen Beavers was the nerd for us. I tracked Ethen down by leaving a message on his art message board since all other searches came up flat. He responded which was a welcomed surprise.

I then sent him Michael's 2nd draft manuscript and a brief summary.

NERDS book description:

A secret spy ring of nerdy elementary school misfits

Combining all the excitement of international espionage and all the awkwardness of elementary school, NERDS, featuring a group of unpopular students who run a spy network from inside their school, hits the mark. With the help of cutting-edge science, their nerdy qualities are enhanced and transformed into incredible abilities! They battle the Hyena, a former junior beauty pageant contestant turned assassin, and an array of James Bond–style villains, each with an evil plan more diabolical and more ridiculous than the last.

Step two begin sketch phase

Ethen's first sketch

My first alternate compositional sketch. The idea was to introduce the all the characters.


Here the idea is the same but a little more realized. We added braces in the type. I add to a nerdy style as well as to highlight the main characters nerdy quality. This would be repeated through out the series. Only there was something still not quite working.

We where forgetting the Spy angle to the NERDS story.
here are some additional sketches working out new compositions



The idea of and official seal came up.
Finally a font was chosen

Here we begin to work out color and how it will be used throughout a 6 book series

Next how to treat the type. I wanted a techie feel to the type as seen below.



Final type

But the seal still is working correctly. So we tried to nerd that up as well.
In the end it proved to be to much.

At last the color and composition is worked out.
Only something is still not working.

Again we needed more spy imagery. So I research James Bond and Mission Impossible imagery.
Ethen worked up these great sketches reworking the characters.

Ethen then combined the two ideas in to a final sketch



Then we took it to a cover meeting to see if we were on track.
Turns out we were!

Final art with out text.

Final Cover with text

DAWGER features John Hendrix and Adam McCauley

Drawger.com!

Adam McCauley ( June and August )

http://drawger.com/atomic/?article_id=7867

Here’s John Hendrix’s article ( John Brown )

http://drawger.com/johnhendrix/

JUNE AND AUGUST trailer

Illustrator Adam McCauley put together this great trailer for his and Vivian Walsh's upcoming Fall 2009 picture book JUNE AND AUGUST. Check it out!

MUSIC VIDEO OF THE DAY

WITH RAIN

With Rain from takcom™ on Vimeo.

Track by aus from the album Curveland.

Video by Takcom

Thanks Erik Price at http://awwhellnah.com

MAMA, IS IT SUMMER YET?

Nikki McClure works in her garden drawing from life.
Here she is working on the cover sketch for her next book
MAMA, IS IT SUMMER YET? ( Coming in Spring 2010)

Scholastic Paperback Edition

MY LIFE IN PINK AND GREEN