1 - initial sketch based on thumbnail.

2 - seems too simple and plain.

3 - colours are more traditionally 'turkey' but the white outline didn't work.

4 - playing w aa paint texture, like how it looks towards the bottom of the cover but not the top.

5 - fixed the issue of the title getting lost in the top but don't like it at all.

6 - textured line work but keeping it minimal with not much colour, also added speech bubbles to fill blank space at top.

7 - going in with more colour, adding white lines to fill space to avoid the issues I had in design 2.

8 - some colour added, with some blank white space for balance, I like this but worry it looks unfinished. Added gradient to avoid the coloured sections being boring.

9 - playing with gradient all over, don't like it.

10/11 - playing w textured lines on black, reminds me of a chalkboard (link to academic uses) however face looks scary.

12 - coming back to the paint texture with improved linework, still don't like.

13 - playing w a rainbow colour theme, I really like it, especially with the navy linework but is it too feminine?

14 - Tried a brighter palette, I like the separation between the title and author now. Also added speech bubble back in but I think this design is more compositionally strong.

15 - Used palette inspired by Jamaica, happy with the composition. 

1 - turkey looks rubbish, even for a doodle.

2 - improved turkey, the speech bubble fills more blank space, better.

3 - Author is more legible, but cover seems boring.

4 - prefer the composition here, all space is filled well.

5 - introducing some more colour (to keep consistent w the concept of school paper (linking to Zephaniahs use in school syllabuses) I wanted to just use black red blue and green (standard biro colours). Space isn't filled well enough but i like the shape of the speech bubble.

6 - decided I prefer the 'paper' tilted opposed to straight. Also the lining also looks better slightly zoomed in (less distracting)

7 - too plain.
 
8 - taking inspiration from the 5th but changing the style, I like this but too much negative space. 

8 to 13 - The colours introduced in the final designs are the colours of the Jamaican flag (linking to Zephaniah's cultural influences)

FINAL THOUGHTS - compositionally w the original concept 4 is the best. I do also like 9.