Salon Futura magazine cover illustration by illustrator and artist Duncan Long

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:

Science Fiction Magazine cover Illustration Forgotten Temple by artist Duncan Long

The star field of this illustration was originally created for another project but never used; on a whim, I painted the “lost temple” on it, some two-headed creatures flying from it, and a group of explorers coming through the dark jungle with some sort of bright flares to guide their way (please picture a futuristic Indiana Jones in a spacesuit carrying an electric torch that drips hot sparks of molten metal — hey, it’s my picture, I can have Indiana Jones in the jungle with a weird torch if I want to).

In addition to being cropped, the original illustration had to be flipped and re-painted along the top so the magazine’s masthead could be easily read. Not too tough with a digital picture – quite a job with real painting. And I guess that’s why today I push electrons around when creating artwork for magazine and book covers instead of painting with oils or acrylics.

But I do miss the heady smells of paints, inks, and turpentine.
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Duncan Long has pushed electrons that created magazine cover artwork and illustrations for Salon Futura, Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine, The Sun, and other magazines as well as a host of book cover illustrations for major presses, small publishers, and self-publishing authors. You can enjoy more of his illustrations in Duncan’s Portfolio of Magazine and Book Illustrations
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