Creating a Book Cover

My sister and I have been very busy the last while putting together the next book in the Special Days series.  This one features all the Special Days in June, July and August.  Gathering all the photos taken over the twelve years since the project began was a huge challenge. But then I still needed to shoot a cover, and all the monthly header pages.

I made lists of all the props that were used in the photos each month, and gathered them on three big separate trays.  But the book cover was extra challenging because it needed props and dolls from all three months.

After choosing which props to use, and changing any dolls that needed different outfits, I set about putting a scene together. We had chosen pinks and purples to be the Summer colour scheme, so I started by ironing some light purple fabric, and pinning it in place.  Everything needed to be arranged around a blank spiral-bound 'calendar' page which would have the title added in post production later. Things could overlap onto the calendar, but they had to be solid objects, and nothing fuzzy - like hair or fur. And it needed to be roughly the proper proportions. It took me almost five hours of choosing, arranging, and moving stuff around in order to get something I was finally happy with.

And of course not everything I'd put aside ended up in the scene....

The final set up. Note the clown off to the right. I had dressed two dolls as clowns, not knowing which one would end up in the photo. I chose the taller one to fill the space between the flags and the pirate, but her hat with the red yarn wig blended into the Canada flags right behind her, so I switched the two clown hats. Just one of the dozens of things that had needed attention...

One of the final photos...

Then they went to my sister for post production, and she turned one of them into the book cover...

One down, and three more monthly title pages to shoot....