For the Illustrated Book Cover series, I chose to create a character named Llarry the Llama. Llarry is a carefree llama who enjoys traveling to places, both domestic and international. He shares his travels with the reader and showcases items they may see or experience in the location he visits. I began by choosing the three locations Llarry would visit for this book series. I wanted to include a wide array of destinations so I chose London, school, and the beach.

My color palette choices were bright and friendly, to reflect Llarry’s sunny personality. Llarry Goes to the Beach and Llarry Goes to School use the same color palette, which is full of many primary colors. Llarry Goes to London used a different color palette due to the buildings I illustrated. To offset the darkness of the gray on London Bridge I created a bright red phone booth and also made a dusky sunset using pinks and purples.

I chose to add textures and gradients to create depth and interest in each illustration. To tie the book series together they share a common masthead and footer design. For each cover, the title of the book and the two bars framing the image change to match the cover illustration. Each book begins with the words “Llarry Goes to…” followed by the location Llarry is visiting.

For this project, in addition to the gradients and textures, I also used some custom brushes. One of the areas where a custom brush came in handy was the cover for Llarry Goes to the Beach. The custom brush was perfect for creating the crest of each wave. Similarly, I used a custom brush to create clouds for two of the book covers, and also to add some details to elements of all three covers. Brushes were used on the furnishings for Llarry Goes to School, the buildings for Llarry Goes to London, and the palm tree for Llarry Goes to the Beach. I once again used the vector textures for this project.