Project · Book Cover & Illustration

Reincarnation — Illustrated Novel Cover

A wraparound cover for an independently published novelette — one continuous world, four environments, one unifying symbol.

Reincarnation by Jake Brown — hardcover mockup showing the illustrated cover: a cosmic sky, a city at sunset, green forest, and underwater scene, with a glowing gold infinity symbol at the center

Reincarnation, a novelette by Jake Brown — illustrated wraparound cover, shown as a hardcover mockup.

Client

Jake Brown (Author)

My Role

Cover illustrator & designer

Scope

Front, spine & back wraparound

Tools

Procreate · Photoshop · InDesign

Overview

For Jake Brown's novelette Reincarnation, the brief was a cover that captured the book's central theme — cycles, return, the continuity of life across forms — in a single image.

I built the cover as one continuous illustrated landscape that moves through four distinct environments: a cosmic, star-filled sky; a city glowing at sunset; a lush green forest; and a luminous underwater world. A glowing gold infinity symbol sits at the heart of the composition, tying the worlds together and carrying the book's theme without a word of explanation.

The Front Cover

Four worlds, one image

The front cover had to do two jobs at once: work as a piece of art and function at thumbnail size in an online store. The infinity motif anchors the eye at center; the four environments radiate out from it, each rendered in its own palette but blended so the transitions feel like one place rather than four panels.

Reincarnation front cover — the full illustrated composition with title and author credit — The finished front cover.

Reading the composition

Cosmic sky — the infinite, the between-lives
City at sunset — one human life, civilization
Forest path — growth, the living world
Underwater light — depth, rebirth, return
Gold infinity — the thread connecting them all

The Full Wrap

Designed as a single spanning canvas

Print covers aren't just a front — they're a continuous surface running back, spine, and front. I designed the whole wrap as one image so the artwork flows around the spine, with the title and author set to stay legible on the spine at the thickness of a short novelette.

Reincarnation full wraparound cover — back cover, spine, and front cover laid flat, showing the illustration continuing across all three — The full print wrap: back, spine, and front as one continuous illustration. The back carries a quieter, line-drawn version of the same world.

The Process

Line art to final, by hand

The cover was built in stages — a hand-drawn line-art base, then flat color, then the final rendering and compositing. No AI, no traced stock: the whole illustration is original work taken from pencil logic to finished art.

Reincarnation cover, stage one — hand-drawn line art establishing the composition — 1 · Line art

Reincarnation cover, stage two — flat color blocked in across the four worlds — 2 · Flat color

Reincarnation cover, stage three — final rendering with lighting, texture, and the glowing infinity symbol — 3 · Final render

Production

Built to the printer's exact template

The cover was produced for print-on-demand publishing and set up to the platform's cover specification — full wrap dimensions, spine width calculated for the page count, and bleed on every edge. I prepared versions matched to more than one print spec so the book could ship through different fulfillment channels without redrawing the art.

Hand-illustrated start to finish — no AI. The line-art base was drawn in Procreate, then colored and composited, then placed into the print template in InDesign.

Writing a book and need a cover?

I create original illustrated covers, hand-drawn, fully owned, and built to your printer's exact specs.

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