Overthinking Book Cover | Hand-Drawn Mental Health Illustration
Hand-drawn book cover exploring overthinking through a head silhouette, swirling thoughts and a calm blue palette contrasted with urgent red typography.Overthinking — Illustrated Book Cover Design
This illustrated book cover explores the inner experience of overthinking and the emotional weight of living with a constantly racing mind.
Concept and Approach
The central image is a head silhouette, used as a container for thought rather than identity. Inside it, swirling hand-drawn words and marks represent the repetitive, looping nature of overthinking — thoughts that overlap, collide and refuse to settle.
Rather than depicting anxiety in a literal or dramatic way, I wanted the image to feel quietly intense, mirroring how overthinking often happens internally and invisibly.
Colour and Emotional Tone
The overall palette is built around soft blues and creams, chosen deliberately to slow the reader down and introduce a sense of calm and space. These colours create breathing room on the cover, reflecting the desire for clarity and stillness that overthinkers often crave.
In contrast, the word overthinking is rendered in red and deep blues, drawing the eye immediately and signalling the urgency and pressure of racing thoughts. This contrast visually separates the calm the mind seeks from the intensity it experiences.
Hand-Drawn Technique
All elements were hand drawn, allowing the lines to feel imperfect, human and emotionally expressive. The uneven quality of the marks reinforces the sense of mental movement and instability, while also creating a connection between reader and image.
Conceptual Intent
This cover was designed to help readers feel seen rather than judged. It communicates that overthinking is not chaos for the sake of drama, but a deeply human experience rooted in care, awareness and sensitivity.
The final design balances calm and tension, inviting readers into the book while acknowledging the reality of the mental space it explores.