Book Cover Illustrations

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 this one will, too.

I did the illustration. The beautiful layout and cover design was created by Mayapriya Long at Bookwrights.

This book illustration proved an ordeal for the publisher and author; I submitted a bunch of ideas and none worked very well. Fortunately we all stuck with it and now, seeing the results, the troubles seem (to me at least) minor in retrospect. Most book and magazine illustrations go quickly and smoothly. When snags occur, it’s good to be working with folks who understand and patiently encourage and offer suggestions.

Detailing the knife hilt and sheath was a little lengthy. In order to avoid a “computer generated” look, I digitally hand painted and shadowed each wire inlay so it appeared handmade (working on Corel Photo-Paint). At the suggestion of the publisher, I also used the reddish jewels from the necklace of the second cover and the black stone/silver inlay of the first novel cover to tie all three book cover illustrations together.
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In addition to working for Mermaid Press, Duncan Long has created cover illustrations for Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine, Pocket Books, and other presses and self publishing book authors. See more of his illustrations for novels and magazines at: Duncan’s Illustration Portfolio
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