big bad wolf

Firstly... I have made an ink splat rabbit! simply done by dipping my finger in an ink pot and giving a piece of paper a good, precise dab! I then drew on the the ears. I want to use think little image somewhere in my design, I am thinking maybe on the spine to break up the Author and the title of the book! 

I have been experimenting with my final cover now. I have decided on a final design, this includes the illustration I have been working with on the front cover and the overlaying textures. 

but i need more, I am not yet happy with my overall final outcome as yet..

In my Crit on the 24/11/11, it was made apparent that in my design i was lacking the presence of the wolf that is a main focus of the metaphor that i am basing my book cover on. It was talked about on how i could involve this character without drawing to much attention away from my main illustration of a rabbit down a hole! Here are a few ways I have tried to tackle this problem.

I have used on all of these out comes a grey/cream background and overlaying a texture, this ties in well with the illustration and takes away the block colour. I have here show the way in which i want to put my rabbit ink splat, on the back and spine to break up space, I think it works well. I have used the type face Myriad Pro on these book covers, as it is simple, legible small and can be thin which does cover clutter the design. 

I want to achieve a front, spine and back that corresponds with each other, I have made some different outcomes, lets analyse: 

I wanted to experiement with different ways i could show the presence of the wolf. I had the idea of putting the wolfs paw prints at the bottom, hinting. I used a downloaded image to get the effect i wanted, It instantly occurred to me that i didn't like the cleanness of the paw print and i would want something sketched to match the illustration.   

I made some paw prints out of watercolour, I really liked the colours they produced. My method of making these where covering underneath of my fist in paint and pressing down on to paper. It made some interesting outcomes, but i still wasn't overly keen on how they paired which the main image. 

I started to think about other ways a wolf could integrated. I thought of how you see a wolf howling at the moon, and envisioned a shadow of a wolf on the book. I again uploaded an image to see how this could work on my layout, I tried it on the front but instantly disliked it as it blocked out the illustration and took away the vibrant colours. I then took it to the back cover, It was better, but still not strong enough to be resolved. 

I when back to the idea of the wolfs feet creeping into the bottom on the page. I uploaded this image of a sharp looking wolfs paw, I started to like to this idea, how the when almost interacting with the title, by framing them a little. I wanted to draw some my self. 

I tried the shadow and the paws together to see if combined made a stronger image, it didn't, It looks over cluttered. I have also realised that the wolfs feet at the bottom could suggest that the wolf is looking down at the rabbit and you as the reader of the book are looking though the wolfs eyes or it could be that you are the wolf. Im not sure if i want that to be the message, as i am depicting the wolf as a bad character, so putting the readers as the wolf would be wrong.