Designing the cover for ‘My Dead Bunny’

One of my favourite parts of illustrating a book is helping to design the cover – you get to sum up the whole story in one image.

Here’s how the cover for My Dead Bunny came about.

The first step was brainstorming. Here’s a bunch of little sketches (called ‘thumbnails’). I sent these to the team at Walker Books, and they picked their favourite 5.

I sketched up the 5 ideas in a little more detail and added some quick colour.

Walker wasn’t sold on any of the 5, but wondered if a combination of version 3 and 4 might work. So I combined those two to make version 6:

… which became our final version. I was really happy with how this one turned out.

Buy ‘My Dead Bunny’ now

Booktopia (Australia)
Readings (Australia)
Dymocks (Australia)
Angus & Robertson (Australia)
Book Depository (UK)

Author: James Foley

James Foley makes children’s books for children who read books. If you’re a child and you’re eating his books, you’re doing it wrong. His books include Brobot, Dungzilla, Gastronauts, Chickensaurus, Toffle Towers, My Dead Bunny and There's Something Weird About Lena. James lives in Perth with his wife, 2 kids, and a labrador. He is a massive Marvel movie nerd and comes from a long line of queuing enthusiasts. Follow him on FB/twitter/insta/youtube @jamesfoleybooks, or at www.jamesfoley.com.au . View all posts by James Foley