Creating Compelling Podcast Cover Art
From Mood Boards to Final Illustration
I listen to a LOT of podcasts. I love hearing people’s stories and learning new things. Podcasts give me both.
When my friend Kelly MacLeod asked me to create artwork for her new podcast, “It Might Get Dark: Lessons & Levity at the Intersection of Grief & Sobriety,” I was all in.
Setting the mood
My first step was to create a mood board for Kelly to react to. Here is how she described the imagery she wanted for the podcast cover art:
“I am envisioning something that reflects the light and the dark. Whether that's a sunset and a lighthouse or a dark gravel road with some sort of illumination.”
Here are some of the images and color palettes I sourced for her to convey the mood of her podcast.
Mood board images for Kelly’s illustration project, from left to right: Adobe Stock photo, Adobe Color palette, and photo and table of contents from National Parks magazine.
A few visual themes we wanted to incorporate:
Sunrise
Light and dark contrast
A path
A feeling of calm
I worked with Kelly to create sketches for her to react to. In sketch #1, I incorporated a dock and a shadow of a person walking toward sunrise. Sketch #2, we removed the dock and shadow to simplify the illustration. In sketch #3, I redrew the trees and added more light and fireflies to emulate a feeling of sunrise. This was better, but it still needed more detail and contrast. I added these in in the final drawing.
Digital painting (yes, it’ a thing!)
While I prefer painting in real ink and watercolor, sometimes the project is better suited to digital painting. I use Procreate on iPad Pro with an Apple Pencil to do this.
One thing you will notice in the video is that I originally drew all the branches and leaves in the foreground trees. These proved to be too dark, and didn’t allow the sunrise to show through. I switched to using a Procreate brush for the leaves, which is essentially like using a digital rubber stamp. It’s a pretty cool shortcut!
Here is a 30-second time-lapse video of my digital drawing and painting process using Procreate:
The final illustration
Here is the final illustration I created for Kelly’s podcast. Below that is the cover with the addition of the title, which Kelly added.
My artwork for the podcast “It Might Get Dark: Lesson & Levity at the Intersection of Grief & Sobriety” with Kelly MacLeod. Hand-drawn in Procreate.
Podcast cover art with lettering.
Need cover art for your podcast?
Contact me for an estimate for your custom illustration today.
Do you like reading Behind the Scenes?
Subscribe for free! Get a glimpse inside my creative process and sneak previews from my watercolor and illustration studio in Portland, Oregon.
