Everything, Everything

Today on the wall, the charmingly-written (and gorgeously designed) Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon!

It's possible I'm the last person to read this sweet, sad, coming-of-age romance, given how much I've been hearing about it over the last few months, but as soon as I got my hands on a copy, I fixed that pretty much immediately. I read the whole thing in one night, which considering it's a triumph if I'm awake past 9:30 most days, tells you how damn readable this thing is.

And of course, as soon as I saw the cover I knew it had to go up on the wall. The colors! The typography! The clever, intricate details! Not long after I finished up Gemina, I headed out to Blick to pick out the perfect colors--sky blue, bright pink, some lovely greens, and a nice, dark, thin black.

This one actually went pretty quick, considering all the detail. I first laid down the heaviest, brightest white I could find (still not bright enough, and I think I might do some experimenting with chalk markers for the future). I was really pleased with how nicely the sky blue lettering turned out (picking the right colors is half the battle), and for the bottom lettering, I didn't outline anything at first and just starting laying down the base colors.

It was really cool to see the lettering emerge as I filled in the colors (and again, having the right colors before I started really helped). When I started in on the black I had an instant of oh crap--does this look terrible? But luckily the more I filled in, the happier I was with it.

SO many little details! From the tiny airplane to the adorable headphones to the flapping butterflies, fishes, and birdies. I sort of suspected I'd go crazy halfway through but I actually really enjoyed it. I had to shut off my projector halfway through (it sits on our wood stove, and it was 8 degrees in Cambridge, so the wood stove won), and I did most of the outlining freehand, which is where I discovered that my copy of the book was just slightly different from the copy I had projected. Cover design is funny.

No projector also meant I had to freehand the lettering at the top and bottom, which I am not great on. Also, I learned the perils of mixing toddlers and chalkboards... I finished by layering more white over the bottom letters, and two days and three-ish hours later I was done!

Close-ups of all those crazy details after the jump!


Iris, the two-year-old's first-view reaction: Mommy, you drawing? Mommy. Mommy! I love it, Mommy.

Dave's first-view reaction: Wow! Nice...shading. And layers.

 Blue skies...

wah-BAM COLORS! 

Oof my hand-lettering... Not ready for Pinterest yet... 

Teeny...astrolobe? 

Would def own those rainbow-spine books 

There were many charming squashy-looking flowers that I had no clue how to draw 

I promise this is a fish 

 This too...

Bebe headphones and a lil tikki idol 

AIRPLANE 

This secret little glimpse of paradise was probably my favorite thing to draw 

 AMORPHOUS BLOBS OF COLOR

I think that green thing in the corner is supposed to be a clock

 The diamonds were fun to draw

NO idea what that sea urchin-y thing on the left was supposed to be 

yay! 

Version #2
(a toddler was here) 

Gosh I love it so much
Erasing it is going to be very :( 

#dogtax

And the original beauty!