Behind the Design – Cover of Sweet Mountain Music

by | Jan 8, 2014 | Books, Cover Designs, Remember When Wednesdays | 22 comments

Quick note ~ Don’t forget I’m running a giveaway of The Wyoming Heir!
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Last week I was in a designing groove, so had some fun with the next WhiteFire historical, due to release in May. Sweet Mountain Music is a really fun story set in the Pacific Northwest in the 1890s. Chloe Williston is determined to make a name for herself as a journalist and earn her father’s respect–and thinks the way to do it is to tag along on a handsome naturalist’s expedition. His search–for the legendary Great North American ape (a.k.a. Sasquatch or Bigfoot).

In a time when gorillas had just recently been discovered in Africa, the idea of a giant ape in North America was downright reasonable, and I just love the comical voice author Suzie Johnson employs as she combines history and romance with whimsy.
But here was my challenge as a designer–how do I capture the allure of the adventure but also convey the historical era? How do I make it look fun and compelling without crossing over into silly? And how in the world was I to find a model that would let me accomplish all this???
Well, I’d been browsing the stock image sites for a few months, trying various search options until I finally found a model that looked promising.

She has the right look for Chloe–honey brown hair, the old books in her arms are great. But I wanted a bit more quirk. And blue eyes. And the costume sure isn’t right–the shirt could pass, but that skirt is way too slim.

And Suzie specifically requested a pith helmet. So.

I took a public domain photo of this bustle-era dress:

and copied the bustle part onto Chloe. I tilted her head a bit to give her a more playful look, and also added a helmet.

The result was this model:

Definitely the look I was going for–I loved the contrast of the helmet that screamed “Victorian adventure!” with the bustle. The books speak to her ambitions, but also add to the contrast.
Next came the background. I toyed with quite a few before my hubby said, “You need something green. Somewhere where Bigfoot could be hiding.” So I searched for leafy pictures of the Cascade range, and this one really worked with my model picture.

Plugged it in behind her, adjusted some lighting, a layer for texture,

and voila. I did the usual dance while trying to find the perfect fonts and frame to offset the title, played with positioning etc. I landed on a combination I liked after just a bit of trial and error.

I just needed one more thing. Purely for fun. =) Something to harken back to that Sasquatch search. Something…something like this.

Nowhere too noticable, mind you. Sasquatch is a hard fella to find, after all. But I bet you can spot it. 😉 Here’s the final front cover.

I have to admit, I loved it as soon as it came together–it felt like “it” to me. So I sent it to Suzie, who agreed that it captured all the elements we wanted to capture. She loved it too, so there we go! The final cover!

While I was at it, I went ahead and built the full cover too. Back copy may yet be tweaked, and that endorsement is obviously a place holder, LOL.

Overall, I gotta say I love how this one turned out–which is all the better because it had me stumped for so long. But you know, for two days’ work, this was a lot of fun. Bring on the next, WhiteFire! 😉

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22 Comments

  1. Roseanna White
    Roseanna White on January 8, 2014 at 7:48 pm

    Aw, shucks. =) I suppose I have gotten that job, though a bit by accident, LOL.

    Reply
  2. Naomi Rawlings
    Naomi Rawlings on January 8, 2014 at 7:33 pm

    Awesome, Roseanna! I really like that cover as well. 🙂 You so could have gotten a job as a graphic designer . . .

    Reply
  3. Melanie
    Melanie on January 8, 2014 at 7:18 pm

    Love the cover!! 🙂 This was a fun post to read. 🙂

    Reply
  4. Heather Day Gilbert
    Heather Day Gilbert on January 8, 2014 at 7:00 pm

    Love it! Pretty.

    Reply
  5. Andrea Cox
    Andrea Cox on January 8, 2014 at 6:14 pm

    Such a fun cover!

    Reply
  6. Roseanna White
    Roseanna White on January 8, 2014 at 5:39 pm

    It's such a fun story! So happy to add it to our lineup. =)

    Reply
  7. Roseanna White
    Roseanna White on January 8, 2014 at 5:39 pm

    LOL. Had to put that fun bit in. =)

    Reply
  8. Roseanna White
    Roseanna White on January 8, 2014 at 5:38 pm

    Thanks, June!

    Reply
  9. Roseanna White
    Roseanna White on January 8, 2014 at 5:38 pm

    Why thank you, flower. =) And more posts like this sounds fun!

    Reply
  10. Roseanna White
    Roseanna White on January 8, 2014 at 5:38 pm

    Thanks, Normandie! Maybe I'll make this a series and give a play-by-play of all our covers. 😉

    Reply
  11. Debra E. Marvin
    Debra E. Marvin on January 8, 2014 at 5:10 pm

    great post. I love this story!!! Congrats Suzie and Roseanna!

    Reply
  12. Unknown
    Unknown on January 8, 2014 at 3:54 pm

    Love your covers and loved reading how this one came together. I completely missed Sasquatch's footprint in the lower right hand corner the first time I looked at it! Good job!

    Reply
  13. June Foster
    June Foster on January 8, 2014 at 1:42 pm

    Roseanna, Enjoyed this step by step design. Great job.

    Reply
  14. Joanne Sher
    Joanne Sher on January 8, 2014 at 1:40 pm

    Now this was a SUPER fun post to read – and watching this cover come alive is VERY cool. Hope you do more posts like this. Cover is PERFECT. What fun!

    Reply
  15. Normandie Fischer
    Normandie Fischer on January 8, 2014 at 12:21 pm

    Such a good cover, Roseanna! Loved hearing how you built it.

    Reply
  16. Suzie Johnson
    Suzie Johnson on January 8, 2014 at 12:18 pm

    You never know! 🙂

    Reply
  17. Roseanna White
    Roseanna White on January 8, 2014 at 12:08 pm

    Well you just never know–he could totally be there! 😉

    Reply
  18. Suzie Johnson
    Suzie Johnson on January 8, 2014 at 11:48 am

    Thank you Rosanna! I love this cover so much, and it's fun to learn how you created it. I showed the cover to a lady yesterday who said she can see a Sasquatch hiding in the trees. 😉

    Reply
  19. Roseanna White
    Roseanna White on January 8, 2014 at 11:35 am

    Thanks, Abbi! And yes, the book is so much fun. =)

    Reply
  20. Roseanna White
    Roseanna White on January 8, 2014 at 11:35 am

    Mostly from iStock and Shutterstock. These came from a combination of those. The public domain one I found from commons.wikimedia.org, and the texture I don't remember, LOL–I did a search for free Photoshop textures and found it on a blog that lists lots of freebies like that.

    Reply
  21. Jillian
    Jillian on January 8, 2014 at 11:31 am

    Wow, this is so cool. I love the cover! It's always fun to learn how book covers are designed. I can't wait to read the book 🙂

    Just out of curiosity, where do you get your stock images?

    Reply
  22. Abbi Hart
    Abbi Hart on January 8, 2014 at 7:19 am

    Great job on this cover! The story sounds like such a fun one!

    Reply

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