Book cover illustration David Carlisle Perfect Pilot

I just finished the cover illustration and layout for David Carlisle’s The Perfect Pilot. He’ll be releasing the Kindle version soon, with a possible print version sometime in the future.

The cover illustration was a tad wild to get laid out because we wanted both the plane overhead and the mountains below, with the two characters parachuting in tandem at center stage. After a little tinkering with the arrangement, I came up with this layout which worked well.

The title arrangement was a tad challenging as well since the longer word in the title (with “the” ahead of it) came before the shorter. That made a pyramid or other possible arrangements out of he question. Fortunately the negative space above the tail of the jet made it possible to “counterbalance” the shorter word against it.

Yes, you know you’re dealing with an exciting storyline when two men will be leaping from the back of a jetliner flying at night. Carlisle’s novel delivers on the cover illustration’s promise of action.

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Duncan Long is a freelance book cover illustrator for HarperCollins, PS Publishing, Pocket Books, Solomon Press, Fort Ross, and many other publishers and self-publishing authors. See his cover illustrations at: http://DuncanLong.com/art.html
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