Book Cover Illustrations

Many an old joke is based on the notion that the difference between a professional and an amateur is that the pro says, “First, let’s settle on a price.” To some extent that’s true. There are any number of scam artists about these days who try to get artwork for free. After an illustrator has […]

People regularly ask what software and hardware I use for creating book cover illustrations and other artwork for magazines, CD covers, and interior illustrations in books. So I will digress in this installment of my blog to answer those questions. I come from a background of working with pen and ink as a technical writer/illustrator. […]

I’ve put the new illustrations I’ve created over the last month (plus some reworked older pieces) online for inspection. A few pictures have cover rights sold (including the new cover for R. L. Brush’s Jesse Steele and the Secret of Otherworld), but most of the other illustrations have all rights still available. The URL: http://duncanlong.com/preview/ […]

Sometimes a book cover art project just clicks and runs smoothly from beginning to end. This book cover design was one of those.

Book covers often take very different routes before getting into print. Sometimes an editor will see an illustration, purchases the book cover rights, and the artwork goes directly from the illustrator’s conception  to the cover of the book with few modifications in between other than added title, blurb, and author’s name. Other times, there are […]

I know some digital artists do excellent work using a mouse. But I have found that a quality graphics tablets can be a great asset to some types of artwork, especially paint programs. And I can’t imagine trying to tackle some of my book illustrations without a graphics tablet. I had to do a lot […]

The summer is always a little slow in the publishing industry; everyone catches their breath as they prepare for the fall run up to Christmas when things often become fast and frantic. I like to take this time to create potential book covers “on a whim” since I can’t be assured they will sell. The […]

Sometimes I do more than just a book cover illustration for a client, tackling the lettering and graphic design/layout of the cover as well. This calls for some different software tools (most of my illustration work is done with an elderly Corel Photo-Paint 8). Work often gets down to the level of not just kerning […]

With the downturn in the economy and a reduction of the number of titles many publishers are buying, many authors are now trying their hand at self-publishing. There’s never been a better time to do this; it’s a lot easier to self-publish these days than it was even a few years ago. And in addition […]

I don’t know about anyone else, but I find the current trend of cropping off the heads of characters in book cover illustrations a bit disconcerting. I suspect it’s being done to avoid having to pay models, and to avoid those “look alike” covers that result when stock art is used with few modifications – […]