What Lies in the Garden

What Lies in the Garden was made as the cover of a prospective retelling of Frances Hodgson Burnett's novel The Secret Garden—but with vampires. It was created during my time in the Book Publishing Practicum at York University.

To design this cover, I relied on Victorian gothic aesthetics, with a darker colour scheme that nods to the vampiric allusions in the story.

Original hand-drawn draft with colour and preliminary design choices.

The painting and interior illustrations are all public domain. The front cover painting is heavily modified to have a darker, richer colour scheme that fits in with the rest of the design.

Original public domain image.
Modified image with a darker background, with the red and purple flowers made brighter to tie in with the overall colour scheme.

The final cover has small details like a bat, blood, a key and a rose, referencing the original text with new vampiric details.

Smaller illustrations on the cover and bacover rendered in red to tie in with the overall colour scheme.
Bacover and front cover mockup.