“Throne of Glass” is the first book in Sarah J. Maas’ fantasy series. The story follows Celaena Sardothien, a former slave and deadly assassin, as she is pulled from her imprisonment in the salt mines of Endovier to compete for the chance to become the King’s Champion. As she trains under the watchful eye of the Crown Prince, Dorian Havilliard, and his friend Captain of the Guard, Chaol Westfall, Celaena must navigate the politics of the royal court and face other opponents in a brutal competition. Along the way, she discovers dark forces at play, threatening to plunge the kingdom

The prompt

Is this the most original or involved project I’ve ever done? No, no it’s not. But there’s beauty in simplicity. The Hobbit is one of my favorite books of all time. Since it’s such a classic story that doesn’t need to sell itself (if you weren’t going to buy a copy, a flashy cover isn’t going to sell you), I went with a fairly simple design. If you know Tolkien’s lore, you’ll know that the reason he gives for all his characters speaking English is that he found the stories in an old tome called “the red book” and translated them for a modern audience, so I went with a red cover and gold lettering.

I designed this on Krita, which is a free, open-source art program that I have next to no experience with. If I was more experienced in there, I might have been able to make it look better, since as it stands it’s pretty bad. But I did my best, and Bob would say that’s what counts, right?

I did “Book Artist” Design assignment this time.

I ahhhh went a little overboard with it, but I feel like it’s fine. I used Photoshop and InDesign for the picture and words structure. As well as the “penmanship.”

If you want to try it yourself and do way better than I did, you can find it here, http://assignments.ds106.us/assignments/book-artist/

The final three of the six stars contributing to my noir character involved me taking a modern approach on Cat’s favorite book, The Adventure of Robin Hood, and creating a brand new cover whilst diving deeper into the realm of minimalism, which is brand new to me. Minimalist book covers seem to be a present trend, and so I thought to continue to push outside of my comfort zone, as well as bringing one of Cat’s favorite things into our generation.

I did the usual routine of finding a background, editing it in PicMonkey, and continuing from there. I was largely inspired by the cover of the Disney movie version of Robin Hood. I thought it was a must to include some allusion to a fox (which is notably attentive to its surroundings), especially since there a Vixen Vigilante running about the place in Cat’s world, as explicitly stated in the most recent publishing of The Pinnacle Point (… my Twitter is open to your guys’ suggestions of who you think it might be!). An additional cool little tidbit is that the blog from which I obtained my background for the cover had a poem on it that contributes greatly to the developments of my story and character. So thanks for that, Poetic Goblin!

Howls and screams disrupt the silent, forest night
A little boy is running, running for his life
The darkness is his ally, while hiding in the night
His hunters close in behind him, with their cursed light
He cries for his brother, but he saw him fell
Will he ever rise again, no one can tell
Master and his mutt, knows the forest well
The little boy is struggling, can’t seem to catch his breath
Fully aware that a misplaced step, is all that separates him and death
A vision of his brother, showing him the way
The boy is very tired, but can’t afford to stray
If he were to fail, another human slain
No one to tell their story, no one to share their pain
He reaches his final destination
The giant cliff, no hesitation
As he falls, towards the water
The boy who survived, whips and torture
The spirit of his brother, helped him cross the final border
The sun is rising, day’s first light
The boy had lived, thanks to his guardian in the night

A Guardian In The Night, thepoeticgoblin.

Aside from my embarrassing misspelling, of which I am sure there are many throughout my many blog posts, I think my work is pretty well done. I am slowly but surely opening my eyes to the effectiveness and usefulness of minimalism, which is something to be considered in my future design-related endeavors.