Romantic art, ad rendered in 3D! ... as promised, here's the lady's beau ... the Errol Flynn character who's off tomorrow, adventuring around the world with his mates while she's stuck at home with her geriatric hubby, the Duke.
In fact, this kind of this is so much like the art one sees on romantic novels! Come to think of it, let's mock it up, see what it looks like:
The 3D romantic book cover! Nice. I can't claim the title, incidentally. There's an ooooold movie with this title. Clark Gable and ... now I'm racking my brains, because I haven't seen this in about 40 years! ... was it Barbara Stanwick? Something to do with car racing, as I recall, and I do believe it was made in the late 40s or early 50s. (Your pardon ... I like old movies. Short pause, whilst I \Google it...) Don't believe me? Then believe this, instead:
Michael 4
Mario skin map, including the 'tash (but not Mario's face)
GQ Event hair, set to blond
Leon de Castiglio costume
Shirt color and texture by me
Vintage Darlings flower in his right hand
Victoria 4.2
'Natural' skin map
Face designed by me
Angel hair set to auburn
Night Lily costume set to 'gilded'
Swank Pumps (you don't see 'em but they're there)
DM The Lair columns and floor
Tree from the Deluxe Tree pack, bark and foliage set
Sky by me, in Bryce 5.5
Six or eight assorted distant and point lights.
Then, the book cover was just mocked up in Photoshop, with fonts and textures, bevels, and cool 3D lighting effects on the text objects. There is no such book, guys! There's also no such writer ... no one should be stuck with a name like Ethel Hebblethwaite. You'd change it -- something like Agatha Hebblethwaite, or Mildred Hebblethwaite. There, much better.
2014 Edit: Book cover art became a special interest of mine as the years went by, and I painted many. Over 100, I believe. I was a cover artist for Rennaissance eBooks for some time, and produced covers for Keegan, DeMarco, Lansing, and several others. These days, the covers are do are simply for ebooks, and most often for freebie online reads that need a bit of art lashed up for them. It's worth pasting in a few right here: