Book Cover Illustrations

The last few weeks I’ve been struggling with a book layout project that’s proved to be a lot of fun. The publisher has given me pretty much free rein: I’ve been free to choose/create a typeface family, devise the two-column layout, and pick the photos and illustrations to go into it. In short, it’s been […]

I received an email from James Day saying that some of my book cover artwork and magazine illustrations would be appearing at his Art of Day site. Day’s pages have turned into a promotional website for artists and illustrators with gallery owners (often checking it to discovered talented new artists to exhibit), as well as […]

I had a client call with an emergency need for a cover, so quickly got several sketches together today. One turned out so well that I went ahead and finished it, even though (I suspect) it’s likely low on the client’s choices. However I liked it, and so went ahead and finished it. The only […]

Over the weekend I had a short discussion with a friend about how very often a movie, article, or book can be improved by lopping off the first few paragraphs, pages, or minutes of film (depending on the medium). This is an old trick professional editors often employ to jump start an otherwise worthy creation. […]

On weekends I sometimes paint a “just for fun” piece that hopefully will be sold down the road. Here’s one of these, this one with a science fiction flavor with a nod toward the Garden of Eden. I’ve titled this illustration “Eve at Empire’s End.” ===================== Duncan Long loves to create book illustrations and even […]

Editor Cheryl Morgan chose my illustration “Forgotten Temple on a Lost Planet” for the April cover of Salon Futura, an online (and free) science fiction magazine. Here’s the original illustration which was (obviously) too wide for the magazine cover: The star field of this illustration was originally created for another project but never used; on […]

I received an autographed copy of Dora Machado’s Stonewiser III: The Lament of the Stone, now available from Mermaid Press. This is the third book in the series (and I also had the honor of creating the book cover illustrations for those as well). The first two books garnered several publishing awards, and I suspect […]

Here’s the final book cover layout for R. Thomas Roe’s upcoming action-adventure novel Searching for America. (You can check my previous two blog posts for more about the book cover illustration.) I added an AK-47 icon for the spine and basically to fill space in the layout above the book publisher’s address. (And, yes, fellow […]

This is the polished book cover illustration for R. Thomas Roe’s action-adventure novel Searching for America. We’re rounding up the text for the back cover and its pretty much laid out (being proofed as I type this). Will post the front/spine/back cover when it is finalized… Readers can find more of my cover illustrations for […]