The Secret Garden
A Creative Commons composite designed for a book cover
Free Book With Rounded Corners Mockup by Mockupsdesign
The Concept
A glimpse of a door handle that leads Mary into the secret garden. The composition illustrates a scene from a classic of English children's literature, The Secret Garden. I used Creative Commons License photos to create the composite. Masking the door handle into the ivy was the most challenging thing in this project, mainly because I want to make it look realistic. I created the montage from the chosen paragraph below:
Mary had stepped close to the robin, and suddenly the gust of wind swung aside some loose ivy trails, and more suddenly still she jumped toward it and caught it in her hand. This she did because she had seen something under it – a round knob which had been covered by the leaves hanging over it. It was the knob of a door.
The feeling that I'm trying to convey through the image is mysterious, excitement, and wonder.
The Sketch
The sketches for the ideation process
The idea for this project was to create a scene from the chosen paragraph from The Secret Garden. I brainstorm a few ideas and come up with a few perspectives that I might illustrate, but in the end, I decided to take a literal approach by showing a scene where Mary has found the door handle that leads her to the secret garden.
The Process Video
Process video showing the process of combining, masking, and editing the images in Photoshop
The Explorations
A few rough drafts showing my explorations based on the sketches
Here are the rough drafts that I made as part of my development. I tried to explore a different perspective of the paragraph. On the first montage, I decided to create a montage where flowers grow out of Mary, and a crow flies away from her to illustrate how she manages to see a better life. As for the second composition, I show a different perspective where the reader is peeking through a keyhole, where they can see Mary in the garden. Finally, in the third image, I was trying to show the secret garden to the reader.
The Close-ups
A few close-ups shots showing the details of the finished file
The Reference Images
From top left to bottom right:
Berndt, P 2016, Door in a white room, photograph, accessed May 2019,
Borba, J 2019, untitled, photograph, accessed May 2019,
Dumlao, N 2018, This was the pathway to the altar at a wedding I shot?, photograph, accessed May 2019, <https://unsplash.com/photos/E7ebHOgFDgM>.
EveyD n.d. Retro Vintage Door Key Plate for Lock, photograph, accessed May 2019,
<https://www.deviantart.com/eveyd/art/Retro-Vintage-Door-Key-Plate-for-Lock-268114048>. CC BY-NC 3.0
Grinko, E 2011, Winter Sunshine, sound recording, accessed May 2019,
<https://archive.org/details/Winter_Sunshine_EP-8201>. CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 DE
Lima, Cl 2017, pink and purple flowers on white surface, photograph, accessed May 2019,
Millidi, M 2018, Nature in the city, photograph, accessed May 2019,
Souhail, H 2019, untitled, photograph, accessed May 2019,
Warby, W 2019, A naturalist guide on a tour of Manuel Antonio national park in Costa Rica spotted this Blue-winged Eurybia butterfly resting on a Heliconia plant, accessed May 2019, photograph,
Zeller, S 2015, greyscale photo of birds, photograph, accessed May 2019,
Zemlickis, M 2014, untitled, photograph, accessed May 2019,
