Yes ... book cover art. Umm ... gay book cover art, in fact. I've been busy prepping a new work which is launching this coming weekend (meaning, tomorrow, downunder -- the dateline thing). One of the things I really like about working with writers is that they can whisper to me who was the inspiration for their characters, and this gives me half a chance of coming up with something that's at least in the ballpark when I design the cover.
I remember, about fourteen years ago, a new edition of Mel Keegan's Fortunes of War came out, and the reprint publisher put on a cover in which one of the two rather punkish looking young men had an eyepatch. The story came to me at second or third hand, that at least some readers were waiting, right through the story, for the scene when the hero, Dermot Channon, lost his eye! Never happened, people. Nope. That cover had nada to do with the book.
Since then, it's been pretty important to me to at least try to get into the ballpark. Sometimes a writer whispers to me, "Well, actually, I was thinking about Brad Pitt when I wrote this..." Or it'll be, "It was Tom Selleck on my mind when I was doing this story..."
Hey, where is it written that movie stars shall not be used by writers as inspiration? And even if it was written, that's a rule I would love to see them try to enforce!
Right now, you might be wondering what the heck this book is, so --
There you go. It's a good read, if you like your romance hot enough to scorch your wee little fingers as you hang onto your Kindle or your Nook for dear life!
This one was done in three layers: the sky, clouds, moon, wolf and general backgrounding into the bottom of the shot were all done in one piece, and most of it was hand-painted. The wolf was borrowed from a photo, and extensively (and I mean extensively!) worked. This was then imported into DAZ Studio as a backdrop, and the characters were designed, dressed, posed, and stood in front of it. Raytraced ... shipped back out into Photoshop to be overpainted and enhanced. Then the whole composition was shipped into Serif to have the text objects added. Done!
Next job: finish painting the covers for the NARC series. These five books are hanging over my head like a flock of albatrosses -- I've been trying to get them rejacketed and reformated for six months! Been busy. (Now, there's an understatement!)
Jade, 2 December
