Because of Winn-Dixie follows the story of a girl in a new town whose adopted dog helps her build friendships and mend family bonds.
DISCIPLINES
Illustration
Storytelling
Print Design
TEAM
Solo Project
TIMELINE
Fall 2025
4 weeks
ROLE
Graphic Designer
Illustrator
PROJECT BRIEFI created the front and back cover illustrations and added custom typography to create these revitalized book covers.
STORY OVERVIEWIn a quiet Florida town, a lonely girl named Opal adopts a stray dog who transforms her world, leading her toward unexpected friendships and teaching her about empathy, belonging, and the weight and healing of loss.
Process
CONCEPT SKETCHESI did quick sketches, practicing staging various scenes that were important to the story. It was difficult to choose exactly which scenes were the most crucial to include. Ultimately, I narrowed it down based on the emotion I was looking to convey.
I narrowed it down to these two compositions. The front cover on left shows Opal's close companionship with her dog. She'd stay up late telling him stories. The back cover shows the mistake tree, where she learns that she shouldn't judge the people she meets right off the bat and that one mistake doesn't define someone.
REFINED LINEWORK
Final Illustration
Focused on pushing the lighting and leaning into the minimal linework
With title, author’s name, blurb, stickers
For next time…
With this project, I had the opportunity to illustrate using Adobe Fresco and experiment with lighting, contrast, and utilizing different brushes to create an inviting, immersive, and updated cover for one of my favorite childhood books.
If I were to do this project again, I'd push the contrast even further, but I quite enjoyed exploring Adobe Fresco and taking key components from the book and turning them into engaging compositions.
TAKEAWAYS