A while back Penguin released a series of books with blank covers, the idea being you could draw you own. I made one for Emma on our aniversary. What with Jane Austen being her favourite author this one seemed appropriate…

You wouldn’t believe how long that took, I must have drawn it about 20 times in pencil before I got up the courage to commit it to the surface with with pen. I’m slightly annoyed by how I chose to do the title too. It was a bit of an afterthought and I should have made it bigger, as it is the proportions feel a bit wrong. On the other hand it kind of enhances the home made feel which I didn’t want to lose.

It’s a neat idea. I find myself drawing alternate covers for books I enjoy quite a lot and would totally buy more of these books if there were some others in the series that I was interested in - Of the books I know Penguin do editions of Ralph Ellision’s Invisible Man and Bulgakov’s Master and Margarita immediately spring to mind.

I really like the back too. Penguin really should return to using Gill Sans (or similar) for their cover typography.