Book Cover Illustrations

Jordé Living Gallery International is now offering another of my exclusive prints starting at $30.

You can order or learn more about this and other prints via: jordetheartist@yahoo.com or call 1-407-310-8589.

If you’re in the Sarasota, Florida area, you can visit the gallery and see its collection of paintings, prints, and other artwork at:1532 Stickney Point Rd., Sarasota, FL 34231.

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Duncan Long is a book and magazine illustrator who has created art for HarperCollins, Amazing Stories, Pocket Books, Asimov’s Science Fiction, and many other presses and self-publishing authors. See more of his illustrations at Duncan Long’s Portfolio.

I recently transferred the exclusive marketing of prints of my selected artwork to the Jorde Living Gallery International in Sarasota, FL. Above is the first of what I hope will be many prints of my work.

You can order this one in a variety of sizes from: “Jorde TheArtist” with prices ranging from $30 US to $100 with a movie poster sized print available as well.

For more info or to order: email: jordetheartist@yahoo.com or call 1-407-310-8589.

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Duncan Long has been painting for several decades, and his illustrations have appeared in magazines and books from HarperCollins, PS Publishing, Pocket Books, Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine, Enslow Publishers, Amazing Stories, National Examiner, and many other presses.

Long was chosen as a featured artist for the US Collaborative Summer Library Program in 2013 and named one of the “best graphic artists in the entire world” by talk-show host Victor Thorn. In addition to working as an artist, Long has also written a number of novels and non-fiction books. He currently serves as the art director for Amazing Stories Magazine.

See more examples of his artwork at: Duncan Long’s Book and Magazine Illustration Site.

David Kempf’s science fiction thriller Travel Bug is available this weekend in the Kindle format for free.

It’s a good read and you can get a copy from Amazon.com.

Here’s the synopsis for the book:

“A prestigious family is hiding a dangerous secret. It’s deep within the walls of their grand estate. But no secret can stay buried forever.
When a wealthy young seminarian learns that his family has been trusted with a centuries old power, he decides to unleash it. The adventure takes him through the very ends of time, leading to a stunning ending that will haunt long after the story is over.

“This time travel novel follows in the tradition of books like Time Bound and Cloud Atlas, to take readers on an unforgettable sci-fi adventure.”

The cover is a bit different from a lot of my other artwork. For this one, I started with illustrations of two faces, a computer circuit board, and some vents. These were layered and their transparencies adjusted, then all “flattened” into a single layer which I painted and modified digitally. Little by little, the picture gradually took shape. It’s a long process, but the result is quite chilling, I think.

Kempf’s book is a great read — and especially attractive since it’s free today and tomorrow (and well worth purchasing if you miss out on his free offer).

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Duncan Long is a freelance illustration who has created book and magazine covers for large presses as well as many indie and self-publishing authors. You can see more of his cover art at his online Gallery of Magazine and Book Cover Art.

Last year I created some new artwork to go with my new edition of my sci-fi novel Antigrav Unlimited 3.1. This book is special to me since it was the first novel I got into print with a big publisher (in this case Avon Books which — back in the mid-1980s — had a nice lineup of science fiction novels).

So I wanted the perfect cover illustration — or at least perfect in terms of what I wanted to see for the cover.

I’ve found authors generally want to put too many elements into book cover artwork — I have come to see this as the “everything but the kitchen sink syndrome.”

I was not immune to this disease with my own book.

Before I knew it, I sketches with extra creatures, layouts, robots, and aircraft on the cover at one point or another along with one, two, or three characters. Eventually, I pruned down the elements to the two main characters and placed them in front of a sort of generic porthole looking out into deep space. Interestingly, while there’s no actual scene quite like this in the book, it seems to capture the “feel” of the story, and that’s always key, I think. (And readers have come to be pretty forgiving of this practice with most cover artwork never actually appearing in a novel — or at least not exactly as depicted in the art.)

Since I’d created these two main characters as 3D models (exporting the renders into my paint program to create the final illustration after adding the background and repainting the two characters), it was a simple matter to repose them and then create black and white drawings of each to go with the text.

Here’s the results of those digital drawings:

The final print version of the cover was pretty straightforward, with my painting / lettering on the front, text on the spine along with the icon I created for Duncan Long Publications. For the back I added the blurb text, bar code, and icon on the back (along with my sorry mug and an “about the author pitch).

After adjusting the spine width for the page count, the cover and text were ready to upload to CreateSpace to create a POD (Print On Demand) title which would be available both at CreateSpace as well as its parent company: Amazon Books.

After carefully proofing the final copy online, the book was available for sale just a day or so after the text and cover were uploaded (which seemed especially fast since it took about four years from the time I completed the first edition until it was in print).

Amazing times.

You can read some sample chapters as well as purchase Antigrav Unlimited 3.1 in Kindle and print formats at Amazon. For American readers, here’s the US link to the book: Antigrav Unlimited 3.1. If you enjoy a good science fiction adventure (in the tradition of Robert Heinlein) with a few laughs along the way, you’ll enjoy this book. Check it out now!

From time to time, I get the chance to create a book cover illustration of a historic character. This gets a little tricky because often the “historic” pictures of them are another ancient artist’s notion of what the character looked like — often incorporating elements that are in fashion or vogue within the culture and art community the artwork is created for. The trick is to sort out just how slavishly to follow the original — and where to depart for more realism.

I recently created a over illustration of Philo of Alexandria, who lived somewhere around 20-40 BC. The illustration is for Rabbi Michael Leo Samuel’s Rediscovering Philo of Alexandria.

To create this book cover illustration, we started with a photo (below, left) of a damaged bust which is believed to be the best rendition of Philo. Using this photo, I built a 3D model of the man (shown in its early form below, right).

When the model was sufficiently refined, I added a realistic “skin” over it (virtually, using DAZ Studio) so I could render a model from any angle, adjust the lighting, and then use that render as the start of my digital painting for the cover. After his face and hair were finalized, we decided to dress him in traditional Jewish dress and this led to this illustration:

And we ran into our first “woops” moment. While the picture looked great, it  was historically incorrect. With a little research, we discovered the character lived before this traditional dress became… well… traditional. As Tevye might have said in Fiddler on the Roof: “Oy vey!” — and then break into the show tune “Tradition.”

In keeping with the philosophy of “no problem is too big to run away from,” we decided to just go with the bust look of the original sculpture, add a historically correct medallion on a chain, and employ that for the cover. That led to this illustration with mockup lettering to be sure everything fit into place:

From here, the illustration went to the publisher’s layout team which created a more elegant cover design:

And there you have it.

Rabbi Samuel’s book is now available in Kindle format at Amazon with the print version slated to be available soon.

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Duncan Long is a freelance book and magazine illustrator. See more of his artwork at his Online Gallery of Illustrations and Arwork.

I just got word that John Bowers’ newest sci-fi novel Manhunt on Tau Ceti 4 is now available at Amazon. The book is number six in the Nick Walker, U.F. Marshal series.

I’d created a 3D figure of Nick Walker for a previous cover I did in this series, so I was able to rapidly repose the model for this project. After adjusting the lighting for a quick “rough render” of the character, I bounced the picture off John for consideration. After a few adjustments suggested by the author, I repainted the final render of this character and had him ready to go:

The next task was to create a female figure for the cover. I had a model I’d created as a “for fun” project earlier which I ran by the author as a possible start for the second cover figure. He felt she worked well, so I employed her as my starting point:

I reworked this 3D figure’s eye makeup, and pretty much kept her pose as it seemed perfect for the cover layout. Dressing her in suitable clothing, I then rendered the figure in my 3D software (DAZ Studio). The rough render was then repainted in my art program (Corel PhotoPaint), keeping the figure on its own layer for later compositing with the figure of the Marshall over a background image.

The background image was the next step. A castle on a distant planet figured in the story, so that seemed the perfect choice. I painted a fortress into the background, and then added two moons and a spaceship which fit with the storyline and also helped establish the novel as a science fiction story rather a Western.

The final task was to composite the figures over the background, adjust the positions of the background elements, and then apply a color gradient over everything so it all seemed to be in the same environment. Finally, a few more tiny adjustments to accommodate the lettering.

The result:

If you like exciting science fiction stories, check out John Bowers’ Manhunt on Tau Ceti 4 — as well as his other books in the Nick Walker, U.F. Marshal series — all available from Amazon.

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Duncan Long creates magazine and book cover artwork — and especially loves illustrating science fiction stories. You can see more of his art at: Duncan Long’s Online Gallery.

I recently had the good fortune to be hired to create some black and white (actually “grayscale” since everything is not only black and white in the picture) for a short story in a (for now) to-remain-nameless science fiction magazine. Above is a detail from the final drawing that I made for the publication.

I started by reading the story, and then creating a character to go with it — in this case the viewpoint character. I created the original as a 3D character model that I rendered, and then made a drawing from that test render to determine whether I could produce the “look” I wanted. Here’s that first test drawing:

This worked — except that her hair seemed a little short. So I created longer hair on the 3D model, and then posed her for a “head-on” shot with just a slight turn away from the viewer. Since the Earth and Moon figured in the story, I placed her in front of both. Here’s the result:

This was a little “heavy” with all the dark surfaces, especially the background of space. Since each of the picture elements was on it’s own layer (all of my art is digital), it was simple to turn the black background white, remove the Earth, and enlarge the Moon, adding a transparency gradient to the lunar surface so it didn’t clash with her dark uniform. I then used a digital “wet brush” to lighten and smear the lower edge of the picture to frame everything in white.

And that seemed just perfect. So…

Now…

I cross my fingers, hope the editor approves it, and then wait for the issue to come out, sometime this fall.

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Duncan Long is an illustrator who creates a variety of art for books and magazines. You can find more of his illustrations at: Duncan Long’s Online Art Gallery.

Sometimes an artist is called upon to create a monster, demon, fairys, gnome, troll or alien beast. And that’s always a challenge because the public has been “educated” by movies and artwork to expect a certain “look” from many of these creatures; meanwhile the client hiring the artist to create a picture for a book or magazine cover wants something new and original. So there’s a fine line between what is expected, and what is innovative.

With fantasy creatures like trolls, gnomes, fairies, and such, the “look” needs to be pretty much what the illustrators of the late 1800s and early 1900s dictated in their fairytale books. As such, it is rather amazing how most people can identify which of these creatures they are looking at. Like this guy:

At the other end of the spectrum are the denizens of back streets. These guys must look human, while still looking almost unbelievably hideous. Again, a thin line between an illustration that works, and one that does not. Here’s my take on one such guy:

Dragons and fairies are perhaps the most standardized. While dragons can be skinny, horned or hornless, etc., etc., there’s still a very fine line between what viewers will recognize as a dragon and what they’ll perceive as something quite different (such as an alien or dinosaur).

Fairies are even more standardized, though like dragons, wings are sometimes optional in artwork. Here’s one such take on such art: “He’s Standing Behind Me, Isn’t He?”

There’s also a fine line between creating something repellant and a creature that seems compelling or even potentially likeable. A lot of this has to do with having a human-like skin and eyes that seem friendly. For example, the guy below should seem monstrous, yet (to my mind at least) seems like he might be harmless if not friendly (and perhaps working in an 1800’s era side show).

Another good example of how this works is with this painting I did of a gorilla. By giving him eyes that seem intelligent (coupled with the natural eye sockets that make gorillas tend to look like they’re about to pose a question), this guy can look sad and thoughtful — and therefore readily seems friendly to most viewers:

Of course human-like beasts, given a few teeth and a bit of a grimace, can also look anything but friendly. Here’s one such example who manages to look both dangerous and laughable, “What Are You Looking At?”

Demons and devils in artwork offer a whole lot of leeway when you’re depicting them. But even so, two horns, red skin, and perhaps scales seem to be more common than not. Here’s one such fellow I recently painted:

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Whether creating monsters, demons, or fairy art for book and magazine covers, or devising less hideous characters for such use, Duncan loves working in the publishing industry. See more of his artwork at: Duncan Long’s Gallery of Book and Magazine Illustrations.

I’ve been working on expanding my illustration portfolio as well as creating artwork that might be purchased as a “premade” book cover. Above is a sci-fi picture titled “Hanna’s Heart.”

I do artwork for magazine and books, encompassing a number of genres; science fiction and fantasy are the two genres I do artwork for most often. That said, here’s a fantasy illustration that combines both a dragon and pirates — how can you miss with a combo like that? “Thar Be Dragons.” And sometimes those creatures are closer than you think.

This is the book cover art that I did for Richard Thieme’s third volume in the FOAM series:

Here’s a fantasy/horror picture I created because it plays into one of my childhood fears. “Monster In the Closet.” Second only to the monster under your bed. And my apologies for any nightmares this art may cause:

Here’s a space explorer for a print version of Amazing Stories Magazine. The lone astronaut had a somewhat tortured lineage, starting as a White man in a space suit, and eventually being transformed into an African American woman. On the plus side, I prefer creating illustrations of women, so the change was more a pleasure rather than anything onerous.

Plus I think it made for superior cover art when it was all said and done.

Finally, another science fiction illustration (as yet unsold), “Future Thoughts”:

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When not working on fantasy or science fiction artwork for his portfolio, Duncan creates book and magazine illustrations for self-publishing authors, indie presses, and large publishers. You can see more of his book and magazine art at: Duncan Long’s Art Portfolio.

I’ve created two graphic novels of sorts (Witches and Fish and The Raven — both available from Amazon.com as well as the artwork for the Werewolves of New Idria written by John Chadwell). However, while these three books meet the requirements of being sequential, telling a story, and being supported by artwork, aren’t in the “comic strip.”

So…

I thought I’d create a mockup using the comic style of the old Warren Publishing‘s Creepy magazine style (of the 1960s). Here are some of the results of the very limited edition (of one) of Pulper Magazine.

First, the cover illustration (with the lettered version shown above)…  sort of a combo skeleton and cyborg:

And some pages of strips… with uncompleted stories. Perhaps one day to be completed:

With a “sequence” showing a terrifying transformation:

A winter scene — with the second panel “borrowed” from my The Raven graphic novel.

Finally, an old story lifted from the Bible since the plot seemed very much like something that one might find in Creepy magazine (at least to my twisted mind). Oddly enough, the two hardest parts with this page were getting all the text fit into one column, and deciding whether the story’s author should be listed as “God” or “Moses.” I finally settled on the latter.

Of course the other trick was keeping Eve from becoming X-rated in the artwork. No small feat given she’s nude through most of the story.

So…  there you have it. Now if some kind publisher will bite (preferably a non-werewolf bite… with a writer who has the panels and story already figured out), I’m ready to go.

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When not drawing graphic novels and spinning yarns, Duncan works as a book and magazine cover illustrator. You can find his magazine and book cover portfolio at Duncan Long’s Book and Magazine Art Portfolio.