Frogged Cover

Frogged by Vivian Vande Velde

I'm so happy to share the cover I illustrated for Frogged by Vivian Vande Velde, published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, with art direction from Elizabeth Tardiff.

We started by exploring a few different approaches to show a princess turning into a frog, as well as an illustrated frame approach. At one point in the story, there's a funny disagreement between two characters, as a boy steals a female role in a play (ala Shakespearean plays where boys play the female roles), leading to the only time I've ever sent a children's book publisher a character in drag.

Such a beautiful "Lady"

But in the end, this was not the sketch we picked. I tried another variation on the illustrated frame approach, yielding this sketch-

Also, Darkbeast goes on sale today!

You can see more of the wraparound cover here. I actually had a chance to read this one as I worked on the cover, and I think it's a really beautiful story.

 Thanks everyone!