Almost Perfect Book Cover

 Nursing a fresh heartbreak after getting cheated on by his ex-girlfriend, Logan is suddenly confronted with a new, marvelous, revelation: Sage. However, when Logan discovers that Sage is a transgender woman, who transitioned from male to female, he is confronted with newfound ideas about love, identity, and acceptance. Almost Perfect is told from the point of view of Logan, one of many characters in Sage’s life, who all exercise the belief that Sage should conform to their expectations of her. The book deals with the want to control other people to fit into our lives in the way we want, which ultimately results in Sage becoming isolated and alone for choosing to live as her true self.  

I wanted my cover to give sympathy to Sage’s character and emphasize the moment where she walks away from Logan- effectively choosing her own happiness rather than what she could give him. Out of all the book covers, I struggled with the cover illustration for Almost Perfect the most out of all my book covers. After about five rounds of redrawing variations of the same composition, I decided I needed to make a major change or I would never be fully content with my results, for a few reasons- For starters, I was attempting to make the book into something totally different than what it was, and I needed to reassess how my goals for the cover actually correlated with the content of the book. Because at the end of the day, it was still a YA romance novel, and with that said, I was also trying to force myself into a composition that didn’t mesh with my abilities as an illustrator either. I really struggle with drawing people who don't exist (character design), and one of my strengths is my line quality. Needless to say, I was working against myself for the majority of the time I spent working on this illustration. I ended up revising one of my sketch ideas, while combining it with the initial concept I was pursuing, which was based on the idea of overlapping expectations muddying the main character’s ability to be herself.