Fantasy Book Cover Illustration with Tombow MONO Drawing Pens


Do you ever dream up a story that doesn’t exist yet, but one you’d love to read? Me too! I’m Katie, and I’m not a writer, but I love reading science fiction, fantasy, or any adventure story! Tombow challenged me to create a fictional book cover, so I combined my favorite reading genres into an ink illustration, and titled Ad Astra, Latin for “to the stars.” I think it would make such a beautiful book cover!

Here’s a behind-the-scenes look at how I created this black and white book cover using Tombow MONO Drawing Pens, and how you can too:

Learn how to draw a fantasy Book Cover Illustration using Tombow's MONO Drawing Pens with this tutorial by Katie Smith

Supplies:

Step one:

Start with a sketch! I knew I wanted to create a fantasy scene within the silhouette of a woman, my main character, so I started by drawing it all out with my MONO Graph Mechanical Pencil.

Think about how you may want to lay out a complicated scene like this, with a lot of details. I wanted to repeat the curvy lines of her hair, so I sketched in the northern lights, and the wave lines of the path going up the mountains.

@tombowusa MONO Graph Mechanical Pencil with fantasy drawing

Step two:

Start inking! I started by outlining my girl with the MONO Drawing Pens, as well as some of my main shapes within the landscape.

When you’re creating a black and white ink illustration like this, You want to really think about which parts will be black and which will stay white. I try to alternate them in the scene.

Book Cover Illustration using @tombowusa MONO Drawing Pens

Step three:

Fill everything in. The MONO Drawing Pens actually come in 8 different nib sizes, from 005 to 08. This gave me a really nice range to choose from when I was drawing. I like to use the finer nibs like 005 or 01 for details, like fine lines within the tree trunk or mountains. Whereas I like to use the 08 to fill in larger areas of black.

Tip: Vary your mark making! Try dots, stars, or wavy lines to add contrast and dimension without color. I added woodgrain to the trunks, and used different styles of lines for the mountains to distinguish them from one another. I also added flowers to the foreground and similar stars to the sky to make them cohesive.

Illustrating with MONO Drawing Pens Learn how to draw a fantasy Book Cover Illustration using Tombow's MONO Drawing Pens with this tutorial by Katie Smith

Step four:

This is a book cover illustration, so I wanted to add the title to it! I sketched it in, giving the letters a kind of retro scifi look. Next, I  started inking in the letters, and anytime I fill something in black, I like to add stars to it so I did that for the title as well.

Black and White Ink Drawing using @tombowusa MONO Drawing Pens   Learn how to draw a fantasy Book Cover Illustration using Tombow's MONO Drawing Pens with this tutorial by Katie Smith

And that is it for this book cover illustration, Now I just need someone to write a story to go along with it so that I can read it!

Want to design your own fictional book cover? Share it on social media and tag @TombowUSA so we can see what story you bring to life.

If you’re looking for more tips to inking with the MONO Drawing Pens, check out this tutorial!

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