Done and done! And I'm really pleased with how this one rendered. Each of the characters was designed separately. The blond is Greg Farris (as anyone who's read the book knows), the brunette is Alex Connor. The book is very descriptive ... not going to fool anyone here, if the characters were not properly designed.Mel Keegan is also thrilled with the art, the character design, the color scheme ... it's just about everything the original 1989 version of the book was not! Think of this: 20 years, the author's been "seeing" this cover in the mind's eye, and finally it jumps up into technicolor, 3D.
This one was also done in several layers. The background is an image ... that really is Jamaica; though I couldn't swear to it being Montego bay -- I suspect it isn't! The characters were designed and built separately. They were then imported individually and posed. Then the whole image was rendered, and shipped into Serif X3 to have the overlays added.
The whole shebang will be shipped out as a 300dpi image, to a PDF document, which goes to the printshop, and the book will debut next month. (Incidentally, Serif X3 or X4 is the program that handles the making of the single-layer PDF required by the print shop. I have to say, Serif makes fantastic PDFs, with a fraction the fuss, bother, nonsense and expense of a lot of other programs that, frankly, can cost way too much.)
So, how about another "beauty shot" ... just because...
This is a pilot design for a novel called AD ASTRA, which is still in the work-up stages. The art is fine, but it's lacking "something." I'm not even sure what it needs at this time, so author Jayne deMarco and I are putting it away and we'll worry about it again when the book is finished.
These early posts were usually quite short, and when I look back at them from the vantage point of another year -- well, the art is simple by comparison with where I am at the time of this update. What can I say? Life is change, change either means progress or regress, and heaven forbid it should mean we go backwards. So instead of taking down the earlier posts for their simplicity (heaven knows, they're pretty!) I thought I'd gussy them up with some slideshows and, soon, videos, and invite you to browse! So check this out ... this is closer to where I am as I type this update in October, 2010...
... and wouldn't you know it? By about 2017, browsers stopped supporting Flashplayer, so the video dropped right out, and all that work -- and no little expense! -- was got nothing. Argh. Brilliant.
Jade, October 1, 2009
