Book Cover Illustrations

The first half of 2010 has been busy, with many self-publishing authors and small presses realizing that in order to compete with big presses, a quality cover illustration can be key in attracting buyers. On the “established press” side of things, I’ve also been busy, currently finishing up a collection of illustrations for a graphic […]

History suggests that books as we have seen them over the last few hundreds of years might soon become an endangered species, as least as far as the popular best-sellers of the last century are concerned. This is no surprise to those who consider the history of various entertainment media. Just this week, according to […]

Rough sketches can be useful for discovering what works best for the layout of a book or magazine illustration. They can be whipped off in minutes, and quickly show whether or not a layout is likely to look good. Generally artists try to avoid showing uninitiated clients these drawings as they can easily be mistaken […]

Mother Jones magazine recently published “The Death of Fiction“ which suggests that while magazines that publish fiction are being flooded with submissions these days, the publications have fewer and fewer subscribers and readers. From this the author concludes that fiction, especially short stories, is dying. Well, maybe. But one is reminded of the old Mark […]

Another group of illustrations (or parts of illustrations) I’m doing for John Chadwell’s graphic novel Werewolves of New Idria which will be published by Moonstone Books. ===================== Duncan Long is a freelance book illustrator whose artwork has appeared in publications from HarperCollins, PS Publishing, Pocket Books, Solomon Press, Fort Ross, and many other publishers and […]

Just got word of a nice interview appearing at the Sci-Fi Art Now blog for an upcoming ILEX book (published in the UK with US distribution) which I have some science fiction illustrations in. Nice way to start the week. The whole interview is here… And here are my previous posts about the upcoming Sci-Fi […]

Another round of graphic excerpts from John Chadwell’s graphic novel Werewolves of New Idria (Moonstone Books). Each of these is actually just a part of the page from the books (as I don’t want to ruin the complete picture for readers). As can be seen, these are a part of the progression through WWII and […]

Over the last few years, too many corporations and publishers have deligated more and more decision-making to committees. I suppose this allows the proverbial buck to be passed endlessly when poor decisions are made, and perhaps this cover-your-posterior is a necessity during these rocky financial times. However it’s arguable whether anything great has ever been […]

Another piece from my B&W book artwork for Victor Thorn’s Reality Bomb. This B&W book artwork is titled A Healing in Bethesda and is based on the passage in John 5:1-15 where Jesus heals a man who is unable to walk. Obviously (as in the tradition of religious painters) I’ve updated the picture for modern […]

Here’s the final version of the book cover for Douglas E. Richards‘ The Devil’s Sword. Since the illustration didn’t have a sword on it (even though fencing plays a big role in the storyline), I created a vector graphic of a classic fencing foil and then “impaled” the O and D in the “sword” part […]