Looking for inspirational sketchbook cover ideas? Discover artistic book design inspiration and creative cover page ideas for creating your own artist’s book.
The global book market is expected to reach $124.2 billion come 2025, and as the evolution of publishing has developed from paperbacks to e-readers, and from in-house publishing to democratizing self-publishing, book opportunities have risen not only for authors, but for artists, too.
In this article, we’ll take a deep dive into the artist’s book industry, look at how you can design your own artistic books, and present inspirational ideas for creating your own sketchbook cover ideas.
The covers of artist’s books, sketchbooks, zines, and photography books can feature a wide range of styles, imagery, and media. Clockwise, from top left: Forty“by Giedrė Kvietkutė, Seven Deadly Sins by Shahd El-Ezaby, Herbarium & Birds by Olga Ezova-Denisova and Nomadic Eyes by Chia-Lin Wu.
What Is an Artist’s Book?
An artist’s book is a published or self-published book, zine, or magazine created by the artist themselves. The book can be a collection of artwork and sketches, a creative complement to their usual body of work—such as a book of poetry or photographs—or as an artwork in itself.
As opposed to an art book, an artist’s book is not a catalog of the artist’s artworks but a creative object, and can be hand-created or printed using usual publishing methods.
Forty by Giedrė Kvietkutė.
The tradition of creating artist’s books goes back to the early 20th century, when some Parisian artists experimented with creating a livre d’artiste (artist’s book) to support their exhibitions.
Today, crafting an artist’s book is a highly creative activity that can really showcase your ideas and sources of inspiration in a medium outside of conventional exhibitions.
In fact, while most people reserve the term “self-published” for writers, there’s now an adjacent, rapidly growing market for self-published artists.
An artist’s book is a published or self-published book, zine, or magazine created by the artist themselves.
Whether you’ve written a book about art, want to publish your own book, or made an official artist’s book, having a striking art book cover is key to enticing viewers to delve inside your sketchbook pages.
In this article, we’ll offer some sketchbook cover ideas to help you develop a sketchbook cover ideas aesthetic and take your artistic creations into the world.
Plus, we’ll explore sketchbook cover ideas and photographic book cover ideas for those in a similar creative place.
In this article, you’ll find:
- Common Questions About Sketchbook Creation
- Artist Book and Sketchbook Cover Ideas
- Photography Book Cover Ideas
Read on to discover art book cover design ideas, plus inspiration for curating a memorable sketchbook cover aesthetic.
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1. Common Questions About Sketchbook Creation
Where is the best place to begin with creating your sketchbook or artist’s book? Before we dive into some sketchbook inspiration, check out these common questions about how to make a sketchbook.
How do I make my own sketchbook?
You can easily create your own sketchbook by folding A4 or Letter sized paper sheets (for a small sketchbook) or A3 sheets (for a larger drawing book).
Fold the sheets in half, and arrange in a ‘nested’ pile of sheets. You can use a heavier sheet of card in the same size to create the cover, and fold this carefully using a craft knife to gently score the fold line.
You can then punch holes along the fold line to bind the sketchbook with spirals, rings, or ribbons, or sew with thread to create a Japanese bookbinding effect.
What should I put on the front cover of my sketchbook?
Approach your sketchbook front cover like designing a cover for a book of fiction. Give the reader a sense of the theme and content of the sketchbook, and include a title and name.
Aside from this, the sketchbook cover is a blank canvas for your creative ideas! Try a collage design or doodle style illustrations for an eclectic look, or use a photograph of yourself, an artwork, or a travel photo to give the cover a personal touch.
What should I include in an artist portfolio or sketchbook?
An artist’s portfolio, sketchbook, or artist’s book can include a wide range of imagery, text, sketches, and photographs.
You can choose to show the creative process behind some of your artwork, or combine images of your art with poetry extracts, behind-the-scenes photos, or found materials.
How can I personalize a sketchbook?
Personalize your sketchbook with doodles, polaroid photos, collage artwork, or calligraphy. Customizing your sketchbook is a really fun, creative activity, and it also helps to make your drawing book feel particularly unique and one-of-a-kind.
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2. Artist Book and Sketchbook Cover Design Ideas
Self-publishing your artist’s book has several benefits. Ultimately, you’ll retain creative rights over your work and control your distribution. You also have the ability to print on demand or convert the art book to an eBook.
In terms of book cover drawing ideas, you also have an unlimited range of creative possibilities for the front page art of your book. Art book cover ideas can incorporate unusual materials like textiles, collage cut-outs, or recycled objects.
The objective of your front page design for the art book is to build interest and entice the viewer into delving deeper into the pages. Keep in mind that your cover page ideas should represent a part of the artist’s book as a whole, and act as a preview of the project to follow.
Looking for sketchbook cover ideas to inspire? Below are some creative ideas for creating a standout sketchbook cover aesthetics.
Color Schemes and Themes
Whether your front page for the art book is full of color or the cover is the only place that isn’t black and white, it’s important to know whether color will enhance your work, and which colors to choose to bring psychological and creative impact to your cover design.
Perhaps a particular color will bring a social or cultural meaning to the front page art, such as purple’s mysterious or spiritual nature, or the healing, verdant power of green.
Or, maybe you can contrast a pop of color against an otherwise monochrome color scheme to draw attention to the book title or an illustration.
Note also that your chosen colors can evoke particular emotions in your artist’s book’s audience. If most of your art book is in black and white, including color on the front page design will make that much more of an impact.
Alternatively, create a consistent feel throughout your artist’s book by sticking to a simple yet striking color palette throughout, as in this comic book-inspired example by Shahd El-Ezaby, which uses blue, red, and yellow to high-impact effect.
Artist’s Book: Seven Deadly Sins by Shahd El-Ezaby.
Texture and Mixed Media
The really creative aspect of creating drawing book first page decoration is that you don’t have to be limited by paper or card alone. Hand-painted graphics, textiles, or mixed media elements can add depth, interest, and tactility to your sketchbook cover, and transform your artist’s book into a keepsake treasure to cherish or collect.
Experiment with embroidery on your cover design using a canvas or fabric hardback cover as a foundation, or get creative with scissors, glue, and craft supplies to attach found items, leaves, or feathers onto your cover design.
Artist and illustrator Serene Ng uses thread to create a charming embroidered artist’s book, Where My Wild Things Are.
You can also look into the art of bookbinding when thinking about art book decoration ideas. Traditional bookbinding is an artform in itself, which involves cutting fabric to the size of a wraparound cover, and binding the inside pages with thread, glue, or staples.
The results can be stunningly beautiful, as in the example below from artist Olga Ezova-Denisova.
A fabric-bound book created by artist Olga Ezova-Denisova, featuring metallic foiling and beading.
Collage-Inspired Art Book Cover
An art book front page design can use a collage, which transforms multiple mediums into something new. Elements of the collage might be found in this art book, or this collage might simply express its content in a new way.
Collage compositions are beautiful and effective ways of bringing layers, textures, and a wide range of elements together into one design, making them a great choice for the indecisive or eclectic artist!
A maximalist collage cover design can still be given a focal point by bringing a strong graphic to the foreground, or using color to cleverly draw the eye towards particular areas of the composition.
Collages have a naturally anarchic and hand-crafted feel, making them a perfect choice for artist’s books themed around counter-culture, politics, or nature.
Artist’s book: Herbarium & Birds by Olga Ezova-Denisova.
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3. Photography Book Cover Ideas
Artist’s books aren’t limited to drawing, illustration, and collage. Some artist’s books focus on photography as a medium through which to express creative ideas or to showcase artworks in an atmospheric, immersive way.
A photography book requires different cover page ideas that incorporate multiple photos, or focus on a single photo as a representative image of the mood, theme, or content of the book.
Not sure where to begin with creating photographic cover pages for art books? Here are a few subsets of photography book cover ideas to get the ball rolling.
Artwork Photography
Looking for a creative way to showcase your past projects or exhibition work in your artist’s book? Photographs of your artwork in situ can transport the reader to a gallery or public space and you can choose how to present the artwork with complete freedom through your choice of art photos.
This type of artist’s book can be a great promotional tool for public realm artists or artists who create artworks in natural environments or temporary settings.
In this example by lighting artist Elisa Artesero, the artist captures the mood and atmosphere of her outdoor artworks through atmospheric street photography and macro-photography that captures beautiful moments of reflection, weather, and light.
She also enhances the feel of the photography through typography and poetry to create an immersive experience for the viewer.
An artist’s book by Elisa Artesero that combines photography of artworks with atmospheric poetry.
Photo Zine
A zine is a mini magazine that is often self-published or printed in small batches. A photo zine can feature travel photography, polaroid portraits, or street photography, giving the art zine an alt-culture feel.
While a photo zine is more casual in nature than a traditional photography art book, these artsy magazines can be good for supporting larger art projects or recording the atmosphere of an exhibition, trip, or work-in-progress period.
Opt for the casual mood of polaroid style photography, or create photo collages or moodboards mixing images, type, and graphics for an eclectic sketchbook cover idea.
A photographic zine, Silver Linings, by Andrea Molteni.
Black and White Photo Book
Looking for sketch book cover ideas with an eye for detail? Black and white photography is a fantastic medium for showcasing detail, texture, or giving a fresh perspective to portraits, travel photography, or nature images.
Black and white images on the front page design for an art book set a serious and artistic tone that invites the reader to focus on the content and emotional impact of the imagery, rather than be distracted by bright, energetic colors.
If you want to create an artist’s book cover themed on landscape, nature, or street photography, black and white photography might be the perfect way to bring out the emotive qualities of your art.
How to decorate the first page of the art book with monochrome photography? Consider contrasting your black and white photos against plenty of white space to create a framing effect, or introduce a limited amount of color through use of graphics, borders, or typography.
A black and white photography art book, Nomadic Eyes, by Chia-Lin Wu.
Seriously Creative Cover Page Ideas
Art book cover ideas require creativity, originality, and a dash of eccentricity! When you, as an artist, have complete control over the look and feel of your front page art, there’s really no limit to your creativity.
In this article, we’ve looked at inspirational ideas for introducing different and unique elements to your design, from embroidered illustrations to found materials and strong, bold color.
In addition, we’ve covered how to present your creative ideas in photographic form with a photo book or art zine.
Now, go have fun with it!
Need a few more book cover design ideas? Don’t miss these inspirational tutorials for creative cover design:
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