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Challenge!

Week 1:  July 3, 2023
Prompt: "And that's when the Pirate realized they had taken a wrong turn"
Specs: 2-page spread (any dimensions). Be aware of the gutter!
Challenge: Try to use full color, show the environment, and establish clear foreground, middle ground, and background.  

Week 2:  July 10, 2023
Prompt: Redesign a book cover. Pick your own cover (or check out the list of cover ideas)
Specs:  You decide if your cover is for a picture book, MD or YA!   (Dimensions are up to you)
Challenge: Try to be creative, Change the Genre of your cover.  If you picked a happy PB cover, can you make it spooky or creepy?
(For example:  If you picked Charlotte's Web, try to envision the book as a mystery novel instead)

Week 3:  July 17, 2023
Prompt: "The water was ...     Until...  Finally it was..."
Specs:  3 Sequential Narrative spots (color or B/W)
Challenge: Try to change the point of view.  (For example: One spot could be from far away, next a close up, final a worm view)

Week 4:  July 24, 2023
Prompt: " Dr. G was shocked by the next patient's complaint"
Specs:  Single page, Color, or B/W (any dimensions)
Challenge: Character interactions, at least 3 characters.  Be creative Dr. G doesn't have to be a human. Perhaps They are a vet and the patients are animals, or aliens, or plants.   

Week 5:  July 31, 2023
Prompt: "The surprisingly small..."
Specs:  Full 2-page spread. (watch your gutter!). Any dimensions
Challenge: leave room for text, or incorporate text.  Are you good at hand-lettering? good chance to show that off

Week 6:  August 7, 2023
Prompt: Redesign a book cover. Pick your own cover (or check out the list of cover ideas)
Specs:  You decide if your cover is for a picture book, MD or YA!   (Dimensions are up to you)
Challenge:  Age it up or down.  (example Hansel and Gretel when they are teenagers.  or Hunger games in the playground) This is a good exercise for showing how you would keep the characters recognizable at different ages.

Week 7:  August 14, 2023
Prompt: "Everyone was surprised by Franklins guest.
Specs:  2-page Spread or Single page (Dimensions are up to you)
Challenge: Use an interesting POV.  Bonus add a vehicle!

Rules:  There are no rules, Do what you want and what your portfolio needs.  The point of this challenge is to come up with Portfolio-worthy pieces, so not just a character standing in the middle of a page.  You know what I mean!  Challenge yourself, and get creative.  Don't go for the first thing you think of. Try a few sketches and different points of view.  Maybe your character is not a human or an animal. Think outside the box.  That's why I am asking you to post some of your process sketches so you work past the first answer and you explore more creative solutions and compositions. 

A week is not a lot of time to polish everything.  That's okay!  From this challenge, you should be able to come up with a few pretty good pieces.  Go back and finish them later and get them portfolio ready. 

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Have Fun! Enjoy the community.  With luck, your work will be seen by the right agent, editor, Art director, or client!

Book Covers Ideas (Picture Books)

  • A Sick Day for McGee by Phillip C. Stead

  • The Lion & The Mouse by Jerry Pinkney

  • The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss

  • The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter

  • Blueberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey

  • But No Elephants by Jerry Smath

  • Caps for Sale by Esphyr Slobodkina

  • Madeline by Ludwig Bemelmas

  • The Little Red Hen by Little Golder Books

  • An Extraordinary Egg by Leo Lionni

  • Harry The Dirty Dog by Gene Zion

  • Are You My Mother? by P.D. Eastman

  • A Fish Our Of Water by Helen Palmer Geisel

  • The Tiger Who Came To Tea by Judith Kerr
     

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  • This Is Not My Hat by Jon Klassen

  • Don't Let The Pigeon Drive The Bus by Mo Willems

  • Stuck by Oliver Jeffers

  • Oh No, George! by Chris Haughton

  • If You Give a Moose a Muffin by Laura Numeroff

  • How to Eat a Book by Mrs. and Mr. MacLeod

  • Roo on the Boom by Julia Donaldson

  • Dot, Dot, Polka Dot by Morissa Rubin

  • Do Monsters Wear Undies? by Mark Smith

  • The Legend of Everwinter byTara Behan

Book Cover Idas (Middle Grade)

  • A Wrinkle In Time by Madeleine L'Engle

  • A Good Kind of Trouble by Lisa Moore Ramée

  • Other Words for Home by Jasmine Warga

  • Esperanza Rising by Pam Muñoz

  • The Unteachables by Gordon Korman

  • Turning Point by Paula Chase

  • The swifts by Beth Linoln

  • The Forgotten Five by Lisa McMann

  • Unplugged by Gordon Korman

  • The Inheritance Games by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

  • I know Your Secret by Daphne Benedis-Grab

  • Alone by Megan E. Freeman

  • The Shark Caller by Zillah Bethell

  • Case Closed by Lauren Magaziner

  • Never After by Melissa De La Cruz

  • Scavangers by Darren Simpson

  • The Talent Thief by Mike Thayer

  • Midnight Barclay Hotel by Fleur Bradley

  • The Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt

  • The Nightingale by  Deva Fagan

  • The Fourteenth Goldfish by Jennifer L. Holm

  • The Haunted Boookstore by Shinobumaru

  • Class Dismissed by Allan Woodrow

  • The Girl Who Drank The Moon by Kelly Barnhill

  • The Department of Lost Dogs by Josephine Cameron

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