“20,000 Leagues under the Sea” by Jules Verne
After reading this book, I wanted to create a set of covers that seemed mature and timeless. I decided on keeping the colors to a minimum and working with the original illustrations of the book done by Alphonse de Neuville.
For this version I went with a simple black and white composition. The squid/octopus was hand inked from an original illustration to give it a vintage & rough textured look.
I also made two extra covers for this book. The version on the left features an original illustration from the book, recolored with muted shades of blue to set a mysterious and nautical tone. I placed it inside a small white border to clean up the edges and formalize it a bit. On the right, I was inspired by the ink work and compositions of Aubrey Beardsley, I took the same Octopus/Squid from above, mirrored it, and set it in a layout reminiscent of those seen in his work. Set above the black background is a topological map to subtly/mysteriously lend to the books adventurous spirit.
