Book Cover Illustrations

Another digital watercolor of a previous realistic book cover illustration I did. (The original is displayed and discussed here.)

The change in feel between this and the realistic book illustration is not quite as profound as the watercolor sketch in my previous blog entry, but it still conveys a slightly different feel.

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Duncan Long is a freelance artist whose illustrations appear as book covers on books marketed by HarperCollins, PS Publishing, Pocket Books, Solomon Press, Fort Ross, Paladin Press, and many other publishers and self-publishing authors. See more of his book cover illustrations — as well as a few watercolor versions of them — at: http://DuncanLong.com/art.html

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It is often fun to play around with the media styles of artwork (well, I find it fun). In previous blogs I’ve displayed some of my digital “pen and pencil sketches.”

Now a “watercolor.”

It’s actually a version of the photo-realistic painting I did a few days ago (you can see it here). And I should note that, while this new picture is done in a watercolor style, this illustration is actually digital (and no electrons were harmed in the making of this painting).

Comparing the two versions of the pictures shows how the medium style used really can convey a somewhat or even much different feel.

Although seldom applied to artwork, I think Marshall McLuhan’s “the medium is the message” applies.

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Duncan Long is a freelance artist whose illustrations appear as book covers on books marketed by HarperCollins, PS Publishing, Pocket Books, Solomon Press, Fort Ross, Paladin Press, and many other publishers and self-publishing authors. See more of his book cover illustrations — as well as a few watercolor versions of them — at: http://DuncanLong.com/art.html

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For fun I often create book cover illustrations – without an actual story to illustrate. Oddly enough, these often eventually find a home or attract attention of a publisher or author needing a similar book cover illustration.

Plus they’re fun to do.

Here’s the latest, a science fiction book cover illustration, presently without a home.

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Duncan Long is a freelance artist. His illustrations appear as book covers on books marketed by HarperCollins, PS Publishing, Pocket Books, Solomon Press, Fort Ross, Paladin Press, and many other publishers and self-publishing authors. See more of his book cover illustrations (published and unpublished illustrations he’s done for fun) at: http://DuncanLong.com/art.html

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Portion of a matte painting I’ve been working on. You can see more of my matte work at: Duncan Long’s Movie Matte Gallery.

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Duncan Long is a freelance magazine and book illustrator. His artwork has appeared in publications from HarperCollins, PS Publishing, Pocket Books, Solomon Press, Ballistic Publishing, American Media, Fort Ross, Asimov’s Science Fiction, Paladin Press, and many other publishers and self-publishing authors. See more of his work at: http://DuncanLong.com/art.html

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One of the nice things about creating artwork is that you can legally create “derivative” material from your own original work. Of course care has to be taken so everything doesn’t become too similar.

That said, here’s a digital “drawing” created from the character face that appears on the a CD album cover illustration I produced for Mario Moreno.

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Duncan Long is a freelance illustrator for HarperCollins, PS Publishing, Pocket Books, Solomon Press, Ballistic Publishing, American Media, and many other presses and self-publishing authors — and occasionally also creates derivative drawings from his own work. See more of his work including book cover illustrations at: DuncanLong.com

While most of my bread-and-butter work comes from creating magazine artwork and book cover illustrations these days, I occasionally still write and also create CD covers. The picture above is this week’s project, for a CD album produced for a Christian band led by Mario Moreno.

A small band of angels may be added to the final version of the illustration – depending on whether the lettering on the CD cover allows room for them.

I inadvertently created a good laugh among the band members when they first saw the cover since the majority are African Americans and my creation is the proverbial lily white guy. I guess my stereotyping was showing when I did the cover (or perhaps this is a drawback I hadn’t considered in doing business via email).

After finishing the picture, I also realized that the guitarist looks a lot like the Western stereotypical Jesus (that is, more Nordic than Jewish). That said, perhaps the idea that the follower should become like the master was an unconscious influence. Hopefully that’s how most people will view this CD album cover illustration — rather than as a series of stereotypical blunders on the part of this artist.

The layout is pretty formal. I tried some angled views from above/behind the cross but getting the lighting right proved to be next to impossible and conveying the idea that Christ was on the cross became problematical as well. So in the end a somewhat unoriginal layout was employed. Yet perhaps that’s fitting given the idea of presenting oneself to royalty. And what could be more royal than the creator of the universe in the process of saving mankind?

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Duncan Long is a freelance illustrator for HarperCollins, PS Publishing, Pocket Books, Solomon Press, Ballistic Publishing, American Media, and many other publishers. And occasionally creates CD album illustrations. See more of his CD album illustrations at: DuncanLong.com

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The Hubble telescope continues to inspire artists, bringing new styles and skies to science fiction as well as astronomy. I tried my hand at duplicating (in a rough way) some of the shots from Hubble, and then went ahead and created a “world” where such a sky might exist, adding a tiny fire and character in a cave atop the strange rock formation.

I started the process by creating the “rocks” as OBJ files in CB Model Pro, then imported them into Vue where I added two textures (a tile of lichens that I created and a stone surface I’d collected from back somewhen). The Vue render was then imported into Photo-Paint where I added stars to the sky, reworked the clouds, and added the gas nebula.

In Photo-Paint, the surface of the rock got another layer of ink splatters for a little more randomized surface, I sprayed in grass and cat tails, and then shifted much of the picture (and painted in more sky) to get things balanced out. The water reflection was then added along with the little cave and occupant inside.

Finally, the whole picture received a gradient/color boost to unite the elements and make things a tad more colorful.

You can see other artwork like this, including magazine cover work for Asimov’s Science Fiction as well as science fiction book cover illustrations in my Science Fiction Illustration Gallery.

One of the neat things about illustrations is that they can leave a little — or a lot — for the viewer’s imagination to “fill in.” Possibly this is one reason that an illustration can be more real and moving than a very precise digital recreation or photo which may offer more realism, yet be less engaging to the viewer.

A times an illustration can become almost minimalist, barely fleshing out the important details and leaving all else to the imagination.

Of course a book illustrator needs a brave editor to go along with this. The concept that “more is less” sounds good, but gets a bit iffy when it is your book and its earnings on the line. So such minimalist illustrations don’t appeal to everyone, and especially those who might be faint at heart.

And the bare minimum generally calls for a plain background to work. When the background gets busy, the partial constructions in the foreground become easily lost and the picture confusing.

But when everything clicks, these minimalist illustrations become powerful. They’re also very useful for story telling since the illustrator can place the important elements of pose, expression, and props in a variety of positions — and leave everything of no importance out.

That tree in the background or bird in the sky or whatever isn’t distracting because it isn’t there.

This “story line” of picture prompts the viewer to engage with the artwork, creating the storyline in his mind. For example, in the picture above, the viewer is free to speculate on what might lie inside the box, what the relationship is between the guy and gal, why they aren’t together, what they are thinking, etc., etc.

At first it appears things in such a picture are simple, yet as the viewer starts to ask questions, to study expressions, and such, he is (hopefully) drawn into the picture and pushed toward creating his own story.

Or, in the case of a book cover, he can be enticed to buy the book to see what the story is about (and whether his speculation about the picture is correct).

So what story does this picture inspire in your mind?

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See more of my book illustration work at: DuncanLong.com

I came into the magazine and book illustration business through the back door, first working as a writer/illustrator, creating drawings of things that couldn’t be easily photographed as well as the artwork for black and white advertisements for the books I sold through my own mail order company.

Eventually I was selling writing and illustrating books for other publishers and closed down my mail order operation so I could devote my full time to creating books. But I still illustrated with pen and ink for many years.

Then one day things changed.

I tried creating a couple of book illustrations using a computer rather than pen and ink. This was followed by an “Aha” moment when an editor mistook my drawings for photos. “How in the world did you get photos of that?” he asked.

I explained they were drawings. He thought I was joking at first.

Now my pen-and-ink work was passable. But no one had ever mistook my drawings for photos. So from that moment, I was hooked on creating illustrations digitally, and basically never looked back, boxing up my drawing pens, ink, various templates, French curve, and T-square, never to use them again. My drafting table soon was collecting dust in the basement, a Wacom tablet taking its place.

My switch to digital drawings was one of those pivotal moments that eventually led to a variety of book illustration jobs and techniques.

Not only were the results more realistic (when needed), they were also faster. Where I was looking to do two major drawings in a day, I could now do six or more in the same time, and with less wear and tear to my body since I was no longer hunched over the drafting table.

And don’t even get me started on how handy the undo command is when creating a book illustration.
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See more of my digital drawings for magazine and book illustration work at: Duncan Long’s B&W Digital Drawings and Paintings

A couple more B&W digital drawings to give a “world premier.”

Hopefully this type of drawing skill can soon be put to use for illustration work with magazines and books.
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See more of my digital drawings for books and magazine illustration at:
Duncan Long’s Drawings and Paintings.