So, here's a draft...but I am still working on it. I'm just trying to figure out where to touch it up.
Probably the nose. The nose is tricky.
What do you think?
Showing posts with label Cover Art. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cover Art. Show all posts
Thursday, March 19, 2015
Love is Blind: Cover art draft
I am working on a cover for Love is Blind, because the inspiration hit me like lightning.
So, here's a draft...but I am still working on it. I'm just trying to figure out where to touch it up.
Probably the nose. The nose is tricky.
What do you think?
So, here's a draft...but I am still working on it. I'm just trying to figure out where to touch it up.
Probably the nose. The nose is tricky.
What do you think?
Friday, January 2, 2015
Updates...lots of them!
Okay...so here's a blast of information!
The third book of Academia de Diversidad is now titled "Obsessed.
And now for some cover art!
The cover art for Necros' Rise will be up soon. I am just waiting for some feedback from my coauthor.
The third book of Academia de Diversidad is now titled "Obsessed.
And now for some cover art!
The cover art for Necros' Rise will be up soon. I am just waiting for some feedback from my coauthor.
Monday, December 29, 2014
Opinions?
I'm looking for an opinion on this draft of a cover.
This is for Sewing Broken Hearts (Iron Hearts #1)
What do you think?
This is for Sewing Broken Hearts (Iron Hearts #1)
What do you think?
Thursday, December 4, 2014
Wednesday, December 3, 2014
New Cover Art
So, I got a suggestion from one of my facebook followers, and I liked it.
I decided to try it out.
I tried it...and I got pretty carried away with it.
Thank you Uday Thombre for your suggestion.
Without further adieu...
The new cover for Social Roles
I decided to try it out.
I tried it...and I got pretty carried away with it.
Thank you Uday Thombre for your suggestion.
Without further adieu...
The new cover for Social Roles
Sunday, November 30, 2014
Another Cover Art release...
The sequel to Dorm Haze is currently in the editing room.
But, I have finished the cover art for it...
So why not give you a sneak peak?
Here's the cover art for Social Roles!
Isn't it beautiful?
But, I have finished the cover art for it...
So why not give you a sneak peak?
Here's the cover art for Social Roles!
Isn't it beautiful?
Friday, November 28, 2014
Cover Art Release!
Okay, so here it is. We're releasing the cover we'll be using for Return of the Outcast!
It's not yet out of the editing room. We're still working on it. I don't want you guys to have anything less than awesome.
Have patience.
It's not yet out of the editing room. We're still working on it. I don't want you guys to have anything less than awesome.
Have patience.
Thursday, January 30, 2014
War...the series..
War of the Zealot Empire is starting to round of quite nicely.
In case you haven't been caught up lately, we are just about to finish book 3 of this series.
Entangled Hearts and Sins of an Empire are books 1 and 2. To see those, take a look at the blog!
But, we are coming close to publishing time.
That means we need formatting done and we need to put a cover on it.
I won't smack just anything onto the front of my books either!
So I have 5 beautiful options to choose from. But I'm not sure which one stands out best.
Which would you prefer?
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| Cover 1 |
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| Cover 2 |
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| Cover 3 |
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| Cover 4 |
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| Cover 5 |
Give me a shout out to let me know what you think!!!
The sooner we can pick the cover, the sooner Vesuvius' Rise goes to print!
If you want to go to social networking, go to facebook!
Christian Clason or Andrew Gray
Wednesday, November 20, 2013
Cover art: Basic Vs. Chic
I'm sure you've seen plenty of books in your lifetime.
Kids books...
History books...
Text books...
Fictional novels...
Biographies...
Poetry collections...
Well, every book has a cover...
But, while they say don't judge a book by its cover, that's what it is there for. The cover is supposed to be the face value presentation of what the book is...showing an essence of what the story is about...
Everybody has a favorite...
I know a lot of librarians out there who love the leather bound books...the old style...
I agree, leather is nice...I love the smell of leather...but it's not practical for many reasons...
For 1, I have no way to print in leather bound...unless I go skin an animal myself and produce each book by hand, there is no way I'm getting this book out in leather bound...
Wouldn't that be cool though? Red dragon in a reddish brown tinted leather binding?
*nerdgasm*
But, I digress.
There are many formats of cover arts that you can find out there. And many of them are creative and beautiful.
Some of the major ones are:
If I could, I would splatter photographs and paintings all over my covers!
Wouldn't that just be grand?
I would love that!
However, while I can get my hands on a camera, I can't get my hands on something to take a picture of that is worth a cover...something that represents my story...
I mean...if there were dragons flying around, I would plaster them all over that book!
Again, I digress...
There are various ways of going about making a cover, and that comes from the main elements:
These are like steps to take in making a cover that represents the story.
And you think coming up with a title is hard!
Think of the implications of this!
Okay, let me break it down for you how I do it...
First, I figure out what I have available that can represent the story...
For example, I used this for Red Dragon
Nice?
Simplistic?
Fun in fundamentals?
Man, this was a lot of work...
One main important thing is that you cannot go use a picture from the internet, because then you mess with copyright...
Don't fuck with the copyright!
So, I had to make this myself...granted, I looked online for some ideas and drew from different pictures the elements of this final idea...
In the end, it had to be a fully black and white picture, with not a gray pixel in sight.
Why?
Because this was just the base concept. I wanted color for my picture...
Granted, I published Sins of an Empire with this kind of concept, but that was actually pulled off of this, these pictures were made months ago, and Sins of an Empire's cover was made a few weeks ago.
I was originally going to go for something that had to do with the city...you know, New York City (the setting for the entire story).
What I came up with were sunsets and sunrises with silhouettes of buildings...
That's how I fit it into this...
But it's never as simple as cut and paste either, never...
When colors skew and you need a better quality of something, you have to alter everything and save copies of every step so you don't mess it up in the end...
In the end, you can have one or various kinds of pictures...hence what I came up with...
So, these beautiful pictures sit as the main setting of my covers...
But every book is presented with titles and names...
So I have to decide on the
Then...I have to pick out the base color...for Red Dragon, it's either black or red...black or red...
That helps set up the rest of the cover, from the front, across the spine and to the back cover...which will look like this:
And these are just some examples of what I might do with it...I could change my idea altogether.
The back covers here actually have a drawing of mine on them (meant to represent Cadence) but I've learned before that drawings do not do well as a full scale cover, so I have implemented the base color.
So...as much as I would love to apply a beautiful and chic picture (photograph or painting) to my covers, I am obliged to use the best of my tools...and am disadvantaged with that.
What do you think then? Which of the seven covers should be used?
Kids books...
History books...
Text books...
Fictional novels...
Biographies...
Poetry collections...
Well, every book has a cover...
But, while they say don't judge a book by its cover, that's what it is there for. The cover is supposed to be the face value presentation of what the book is...showing an essence of what the story is about...
Everybody has a favorite...
I know a lot of librarians out there who love the leather bound books...the old style...
I agree, leather is nice...I love the smell of leather...but it's not practical for many reasons...
For 1, I have no way to print in leather bound...unless I go skin an animal myself and produce each book by hand, there is no way I'm getting this book out in leather bound...
Wouldn't that be cool though? Red dragon in a reddish brown tinted leather binding?
*nerdgasm*
But, I digress.
There are many formats of cover arts that you can find out there. And many of them are creative and beautiful.
Some of the major ones are:
- photography
- painting
- drawing
- photo-shopped surreal art
- simplistic (just colors and the necessary names)
If I could, I would splatter photographs and paintings all over my covers!
Wouldn't that just be grand?
I would love that!
However, while I can get my hands on a camera, I can't get my hands on something to take a picture of that is worth a cover...something that represents my story...
I mean...if there were dragons flying around, I would plaster them all over that book!
Again, I digress...
There are various ways of going about making a cover, and that comes from the main elements:
- Title
- Author(s) Name(s)
- Presentation (picture)
- Base color
- Information (if desired)
These are like steps to take in making a cover that represents the story.
And you think coming up with a title is hard!
Think of the implications of this!
Okay, let me break it down for you how I do it...
First, I figure out what I have available that can represent the story...
For example, I used this for Red Dragon
Nice?
Simplistic?
Fun in fundamentals?
Man, this was a lot of work...
One main important thing is that you cannot go use a picture from the internet, because then you mess with copyright...
Don't fuck with the copyright!
So, I had to make this myself...granted, I looked online for some ideas and drew from different pictures the elements of this final idea...
In the end, it had to be a fully black and white picture, with not a gray pixel in sight.
Why?
Because this was just the base concept. I wanted color for my picture...
Granted, I published Sins of an Empire with this kind of concept, but that was actually pulled off of this, these pictures were made months ago, and Sins of an Empire's cover was made a few weeks ago.
I was originally going to go for something that had to do with the city...you know, New York City (the setting for the entire story).
What I came up with were sunsets and sunrises with silhouettes of buildings...
That's how I fit it into this...
But it's never as simple as cut and paste either, never...
When colors skew and you need a better quality of something, you have to alter everything and save copies of every step so you don't mess it up in the end...
In the end, you can have one or various kinds of pictures...hence what I came up with...
So, these beautiful pictures sit as the main setting of my covers...
But every book is presented with titles and names...
So I have to decide on the
- size and location of title
- color of title
- size and location of author(s) name(s)
- color of said name(s) (usually correlating with the title)
Then...I have to pick out the base color...for Red Dragon, it's either black or red...black or red...
That helps set up the rest of the cover, from the front, across the spine and to the back cover...which will look like this:
 |
| black edge for black cover |
 |
| red edge for red cover |
And these are just some examples of what I might do with it...I could change my idea altogether.
The back covers here actually have a drawing of mine on them (meant to represent Cadence) but I've learned before that drawings do not do well as a full scale cover, so I have implemented the base color.
So...as much as I would love to apply a beautiful and chic picture (photograph or painting) to my covers, I am obliged to use the best of my tools...and am disadvantaged with that.
What do you think then? Which of the seven covers should be used?
Sunday, September 8, 2013
Cover Art
Art is found in many forms around writing. You have the plots, the characters, the scenery, the names... All very creative...
But then there is drawing these characters and scenes.
That's like drawing the character from your favorite TV show! Right?
But then you have an art that attracts you to the book.
It's called the cover art.
I'm not sure how the big publishers do it, but given I am a self published author, I do my own work. Hell, I've done others' work!
So here's a little thing I like to call "Review Me."
I post some pictures, you tell me what you think.
It won't change these pictures, they are already cover art and the books cannot be altered. Others were ideas for the book that aren't and might not ever be used.
However, I might need to tweak my efforts a little bit.
Like, what attracts you to a book? Does the background being dark have an allure to it? Would it be more interesting if it was brighter, even white?
I am missing an information drive, so I don't have the rest of my book cover arts to show you. But I will post them soon. So then what do you think of what is here so far? Like?
But then there is drawing these characters and scenes.
That's like drawing the character from your favorite TV show! Right?
But then you have an art that attracts you to the book.
It's called the cover art.
I'm not sure how the big publishers do it, but given I am a self published author, I do my own work. Hell, I've done others' work!
So here's a little thing I like to call "Review Me."
I post some pictures, you tell me what you think.
It won't change these pictures, they are already cover art and the books cannot be altered. Others were ideas for the book that aren't and might not ever be used.
However, I might need to tweak my efforts a little bit.
Like, what attracts you to a book? Does the background being dark have an allure to it? Would it be more interesting if it was brighter, even white?
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| This is the cover for Entangled Hearts. |
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| Idea (inversion of cover art) |
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| Idea |
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| Idea |
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| Idea |
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| Idea |
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| Idea |
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| Idea |
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| Idea (I personally liked this one) |
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| Idea |
I am missing an information drive, so I don't have the rest of my book cover arts to show you. But I will post them soon. So then what do you think of what is here so far? Like?
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