Here's another book cover that's quite eye-catching. It was done in three layers, and combined step by step. Layer one was the couple embracing. This was two clones of the Michael 4 charter which were imported into the same scene and dressed in blue jeans. Then one was made a little taller than the other, so they look different enough not to be twins ... and one was made blond, the other dark. I didn't have to worry about their faces, because they weren't going to show in the image. This was rendered:
And then it was run through a blurring process, and cropped:
This was then imported into a new scene as the background layer, and a character I always think of as my "Fabian clone" was imported and dressed and posed, to stand in the foreground looking like the wants to punch someone's nose! (This happened totally by accident, but when I look at this model, I can see Fabian Cancellara, the pro cycling star.)
Then the whole scene was re-rendered and shipped into Serif Publisher X3 to have its text objects added, and you're right back to the bookcover you started with.
Today I'm finishing the ICE, WIND AND FIRE cover art, and the finished version will be my next post. It's already looking delicious, but needs just a tiny bit of post-production work...
In the meantime, here's one I did a few days ago, for a Mel Keegan fantasy due next year:
And if you'd like to see where I am one year later, here's a slideshow of October 2010 artwork:
... 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.
Please so browse around and watch the artist's progress! I was pondering whether to take down these early posts where the art is so comparatively simple, and I actually woke up to the word "comparatively." At the time -- it wasn't simple at all. I had figure everything out, and the purpose of these early posts was to record my journey from the start to the culmination. So instead of taking down the simpler art I decided to gussy up the early posts with slideshows and, soon, videos, and perhaps encourage folks who are just starting out to stick with it, never say die, and ... enjoy the process.
Jade, 30 September
