“To The Death” by Jerrold Mundis

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book cover, composition, Cover Art, Fantasy Art, Gladiator, golden ratio, Keith Draws, Rome

This is the cover for the collected stories of “Boris O’Hara” titled “To The Death” by Jerrold Mundis

To the Death cover art © Keith Draws

Prints and Posters available here.

After discussing the various elements involved in each story we initially tried a montage, but Jerrold decided he prefers to go for something with more action. Almost like a traditional pulp cover. 

It was quite a daunting subject and I spent a lot of time collecting reference. In my fictional coliseum I wanted to include some of the Roman Gods so in the background, you see Jupiter (King of the Gods) Mars (God of War) and Venus (God of love). I also felt it would need a great crowd bristling with excitement.

The battle is taking place in the late afternoon, the sun casting the long shadows and bright light slashes across the crowd, through the breaks in the canvas overhang.

The gladiators battle as the woman looks on, wondering if she will have to live with the grief of losing her love and remain a slave to the older warrior or if her lover can set her free.

You can learn more about Jerrold Mundis and his work here

 

“Battle Cruiser Alamo – Sacred Honor” by Richard Tongue

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book cover, composition, Cover Art, Cover design, Fantasy Art, golden ratio, Keith Draws, layout, Richard Tongue, Sci Fi, science Fiction, typography

When Richard approached me to do the cover for the latest book in his highly successful Science Fiction series, I have to say I was a little intimidated.

Sacred Honor cover art ©Keith Draws

The covers I’ve done for this series prior to this one I consider to be some of my best work.

How was I going to top what I’d already achieved?

I needn’t have worried though. As soon as I read the brief my mind was filled with ideas. and this is the amazing thing about working with Richard.

He has such a powerful vision., and it would bring out the best in any artist.

” The specification for Sacred Honor is a wind-swept plain, with a pair of officers looking up at a ruined, obviously alien statue – one of them Marshall, the other the woman from the cover of Price of Admiralty. (That goes back a bit!) They’re wearing uniform trousers and warmer brown jackets, pistols holstered at their belt. There is a red sun in the sky, casting a faint light. As for the statue – I haven’t got any fixed ideas on it, but I’d like it to evoke that old ‘Ozymandius – King of Kings’ quote. It is old, very old, and crumbling away; some pieces of it are on the ground, there’s a strange mould growing across some of it, pieces missing, that sort of thing.”

I immediately looked up the poem:

Shelley’s Ozymandias

“I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed:
And on the pedestal these words appear:
“My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!”
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.“

And as I opened manga studio 5 I began to think about lost and extinct alien civilizations.

First came the windswept plain and the alien sky. Distant alien mountains. Next, I began to sketch the ancient alien statue. I thought of the Egyptians, I thought of the of the great Frazetta as he painted the work of Edgar Rice Boroughs, and I began to feel a great sense of loss for the civilization that was now expired.  This emotion found it’s way into the statue I was drawing who I realized was now screaming in despair.

Finally, I placed the witnesses to this tragedy, the brave explorers of Richard’s space opera. I landed their ship and sent them exploring the strange and ancient world.
Once the visual was completed I forwarded it to Richard. It looked like this: 

 

Well, fortunately, Richard liked it and so I went on to complete the work. As you can probably see I made a few minor changes but I think it came out well.

To be honest this kind of work is why I got interested in painting in the first place and I hope it inspires the sense of mystery and the intense desire to know more about the story that it does for me.

You can keep up to date with Richards work here: .http://richardtongue.blogspot.co.uk/

Posters and prints of this image are available here

“Swords of the Damned” by Richard Tongue

Tags

book cover, composition, Cover Art, Cover design, design, Fantasy Art, golden ratio, illustration, Keith Draws, kindle, Kobo, layout, Photoshop, The Rule of Thirds, typography

I’ve been working with Richard for quite some time and he usually gives me quite a free hand with what I do, but not this time.

Getting a brief like this can be quite intimidating:

Swords of the Damned cover art © Keith Draws

“The setting is a dank and dismal dungeon, illuminated by strange luminescent mold on the walls, not bright but bright enough to illuminate our heroes – the dungeon itself is an ancient tomb, strange symbols and markings carved into the cracking marble. Two heroes are engaged in battle,one of them a rougish-type fighter wearing leather armour, carrying a sword, the other a raven-haired sorceress wearing a long, flowing robe – the colour of which I leave to you, whatever you think looks best, preferably with some strange and arcane symbols on it, and her hand is raised, crackling with eldritch blue light. They are fighting some nasty skeletons – think the Harryhousen type from ‘Jason and the Argonauts’ – armed with shields and swords. There are some ‘dead’ skeletons on the ground, and some sort of horrible creature up above about to catch them by surprise.”

There is a lot going on and a lot of characters appearing in the image so how to go about bringing it to life in a way that will sell the book?

Well, the image needs to draw the viewer into the scene so a view into the temple with perceptive to draw the viewer in and lighting to create a focal point seemed like a good start.

First off I laid in a Golden Ratio 9 section Grid as a template which I would use to help balance the image.

Next, the background/temple was laid in making sure there would be enough air for the title and Author in the top “third” of the grid.

Now onto the characters. I decided to place these in layers from back to front in order to help enhance the depth. I sketched in the rough positions.

Starting with the giant octopus creature in the background, making it dark and almost unseen.

Next came Sorceress, I placed her to the right of the center section of the grid she’s kind of hovering in a dramatic almost Christlike pose, bathed in light, casting a spell. I placed a bright surge of magic power behind her that is reflected in the floor and this serves almost like vertical arrow drawing the eye up from the base right to her.

Next, I painted the green smoke surging off to the sides which also serve to lead the eye in but this time from the sides.

The next depth layer is the three skeletons were placed in the mid-distance, heads just below the centerline and slightly to the right of center. I painted then quite dark with stark highlights so they stand out well and at the same time look quite eerie.

Now comes the second hero, dodging a blow from one of the skeletons. He’s much closer to the viewer and so much bigger in the frame. I placed him below the center and in the left section of the grid. He is painted in heavy contrast creating drama while standing out from the background. There is now also a good balance of tone and shape.

The broken skeleton in the foreground again painted in high contrast adds another layer of depth while at the same time framing the base of the image.

You’ll notice that by positioning and lighting the Sorceress and the Hero as I did I made them the “Stars” of the image.

Now the rough was completed I sent it off for approval and fortunately, Richard liked it and so I went on to work it up to what you see here.

The title, series name, and Author typography were all based on the existing Series name logo. Again it took a little thought but I was able to make it all tie together with the layout of the image.

I left this until last but in hindsight, I think it’s always better to design the typography first since it can have a great impact on the final image. In this case, I was fortunate in that I had to make few changes to the overall painting, and of course, since I work digitally this is much easier to do. Had I painted this in oil I would have had a much harder time of it.

I won’t make that mistake again.

Richard’s Blog can be found here

And his Facebook is here

Posters and prints of this painting can be purchased here

“Weapons of Power” By David J. Normoyle.

Tags

book cover, composition, Cover Art, Cover design, design, Fantasy Art, golden ratio, illustration, Keith Draws, Magic, Wizard

“Weapons of Power”, Book 1 “The Silver Portal” and Book 2 “The Black Bearer” By David J. Normoyle.

This is the first and second part of an exciting young adult fantasy trilogy for which I am producing the covers.

Obviously, when designing a series we have to think about how we are going to keep a consistent feel throughout all of the covers. They need to look like part of a series while at the same time looking exciting and new. Not as simple as it sounds.

David gave me the synopsis of the books and after some discussion we decided to go for a kind of classic film poster format, featuring the main characters and locations that appear in the particular books. It’s also a good idea to hint at the kind of adventure the reader will experience when reading the books.

The intention when designing covers like this is to create a kind of film trailer effect on the viewer, leaving them with a mind filled with excitement and questions they want to know the answers for.

Weapons of Power book 1 cover art © Keith Draws

With that in mind, it’s essential to achieve a well-balanced layout, as well as a pleasing tonal and color balance, in order to draw the viewers eye in.

Weapons of Power Book 2 Cover art © Keith Draws

David designed and provided me with the excellent“Weapons of Power” Logo for the series. It’s always important to ensure that the space allotted for title and Author is going to work well and be readable at all viewing sizes. Segregation of the cover using the rule of thirds or as I did for these covers, the more complex (but also more aesthetically pleasing) Golden ratios is always a good way to determine the best location for the Typography.

The color can really set the mood and it also works on many other subconscious levels. The use of complementary colors balancing out across the layout, and the tonal contrast variations in these paintings all help to draw the eye in creating depth movement and flow across the image. (more about color here)

Weapons of Power book 2 cover art © Keith Draws

Finally when it comes to the actual image (especially for this kind of genre) it can be useful to implement quite a lot of detail in order to keep the viewer engaged and another trick is to try to add glimpses in to landscape of the world in the fantasy that create the desire to enter the image and see more. Although these covers are paintings it’s quite possible to do this with a photo montage and not near as much skill is required.

David’s  Website is  http://www.davidjnormoyle.com/ and facebook is http://www.facebook.com/DavidJNormoyle

Prints and posters of the paintings are available here:

“Weapons of Power”, Book 1 “The Silver Portal” Front and back

“Weapons of Power”, Book 1 “The Silver Portal” Front only

“Weapons of Power”, Book 2 “The Black Bearer” Front and back

“Weapons of Power”, Book 2 “The Black Bearer” Front only
Thanks to http://skydancer-stock.deviantart.com/ for the great reference of Wizards.
Thanks to Marcus Ranum who provides Great Stock photography FOC on DeviantArt which I used for Reference;
Also Thanks to the Model Laura Preciado who posed for the character of
Suma – the woman with the Axe.

Composition: Using color to your advantage.

Tags

book cover, Cover Art, design

Color theory is a complex subject, but over several posts,  I’m going to try and break it down to what is important to you when designing  covers.

So just how important is using color on your cover?

Take a look at these interesting statistics:

Tests indicate that a black and white image may sustain interest for less than two-thirds a second, whereas a colored image may hold the attention for two seconds or more. (A product has one-twentieth of a second to halt the customer’s attention on a shelf or display.)

_{Source: Jill Morton, Colorcom}

So basically using color you are getting 6 times as much attention from your potential reader than if you used a monotone image.

Ads in color are read up to 42% more often than the same ads in black and white (as shown in study on phone directory ads).

_{Source: White, Jan V., Color for Impact, Strathmoor Press, April, 1997}

Now you are probably thinking: “but we are talking about a book cover not an ad, how is that possibly relevant?” Well if you think about it, a book cover is an advertisement for the book it appears on.  And just like an ad, its going to sit among a lot of other images trying to grab your attention, Whether it’s on a shelf or in a virtual shelf such as the amazon bookstore.

Color can improve readership by 40 percent ¹, learning from 55 to 78 percent ², and comprehension by 73 percent³.

_{Sources:
(1)”Business Papers in Color. Just a Shade Better”, Modern Office Technology, July 1989, Vol. 34, No. 7, pp. 98-102
(2) Embry, David, “The Persuasive Properties of Color”, Marketing Communications, October 1984.
(3) Johnson, Virginia, “The Power of Color”, Successful Meetings, June 1992, Vol 41, No. 7, pp. 87, 90.}

And though this bit of research was talking about Newspapers and Magazines I think its inclusion here is self explanatory. This is actually presenting a good case for including color in the body of your book too, and with e books this can be done at no extra cost. I’ll look into this in a later post.

Psychologists have documented that “living color” does more than appeal to the senses. It also boosts memory of the subject viewed.

_{Source:  May 2002 issue of the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition, published by the American Psychological Association (APA)
“The Contributions of Color to Recognition Memory for Natural Scenes,” Felix A. Wichmann, Max-Planck Institut für Biologische Kybernetik and Oxford University; Lindsay T. Sharpe, Universität Tübingen and University of Newcastle; and Karl R. Gegenfurtner, Max-Plank Institut für Biologische Kybernetik and Justus-Liebig-Universität Giessen; Journal of Experimental Psychology – Learning, Memory and Cognition, Vol 28. No.3., 5-May-2002}

You want people to remember your book? Well that’s more likely to happen if you have a color cover.

92% Believe color presents an image of impressive quality
90% Feel color can assist in attracting new customers
90% Believe customers remember presentations and documents better when color is used
83% Believe color makes them appear more successful
81% Think color gives them a competitive edge
76% Believe that the use of color makes their business appear larger to clients

_{Source: Conducted by Xerox Corporation and International Communications Research from February 19, 2003 to March 7, 2003, margin of error of +/- 3.1%.}

Again this information speaks for its self.

Vision is the primary source for all our experiences. (Current marketing research has reported that approximately 80% of what we assimilate through the senses, is visual.)

_{Source: Jill Morton, Colorcom}
This means if we don’t use color on the cover we reducing the chances of visual assimilation by 80%.

So basically if you were thinking of using sepia tone, de-saturated images  or any other monotone format on your cover I think its safe to say it might be worth re thinking that idea.