Book Cover - Through a Yellow Wood

 I've been busy making book covers and too lazy to blog about them.

My not-so-lazy cousin Carolyn has been turning out the books.

She has published 'Through A Yellow Wood' which is a sequel to one of her earlier books, 'Hemlock Lake'. I didn't do the cover of Hemlock Lake but both books were great to read for me because the stories were permeated with Catskill Mountain and particularly Bearsville, N.Y., names and area quirks.  

Click for Amazon link.

For the cover she wanted a bloody handprint on a tree with fall leaves all around. Yellow was the motif. She had to pound that into my head as you can see by the progression of the mock-ups. 

For the bloody hand print I borrowed a bottle of red food coloring from my Aunt and went for walk in the woods one fall day. I found a nice white birch which I figured would make the hand print stand out. 

I proceeded to make my ominous hand print and I was happy with the results; however, my assumption that food coloring would rinse off easy was misguided at best.   

For three days I walked around with a pink hand. 

When people asked about it, my explanation sounded so far-fetched that I didn't believe it myself.

I still love the process.