Exercise: Making a mock-up

For this exercise, I was to mock-up a book cover. The title was 
'' The old man and the sea'' by Ernest Hemingway.
  I chose it because I read it last a long time ago, but I remember how the story evoked in me strong images.  I ordered a new copy (in English this time!) and read it again.  There have been many printed versions of this story, and many different covers. Here is a selection:

made into a film

For my own version of the book cover, I realised that there were many things about this story that could inspire a cover:  the characters: the old cuban fisherman, the fish (a marlin), the boy,  flying fishes and sharks.

Themes: Ageing, fishing, life of fishermen, the sea, dreams...   too many to bring coherence to a picture!

I selected the man fishing from his skiff and the fish.  

I also picked lino printing for this project. I grew up with some wood cut prints that my father had brought back from Brazil.  At that time (late fifties, early sixties - like the book) wood cut printing was used a lot other there, especially as the technique was used for political propaganda flyers (images of people at work etc). I wanted to experiment with the technique and thought this was just the right time for it. So I bought the beginners' tools of the trade, and with a few plasters on my fingers, managed to produce small images from all the sketches I made.

I have used a new computer programme (for me) called pixlr, and some of my images together and here is my mock-up. I have put the text as best as I can to give an idea of what it could be like...