Book Cover Illustrations

Book III Brightsone book cover illustration by artist Duncan Long

Have just added the finishing touches on the cover illustration for the third book in Paul B. Thompson’s Brightstone Saga being marketed by Enslow Publishers. The process was a tad convoluted (and I’ll not bombard viewers with the many variations produced).

We had a series of ideas. Originally the concept was to have a werewolf (in wolf form) and the two human beings in the fantasy tale running through the dark, with one carrying a sword and the other the magical/robotic head discovered in the first book of the trilogy.

Leading first to a concept sketch I created with the characters running toward the viewer. This didn’t turn out well (and I’m so unhappy with the outcome I’ll not post the pictures — and try to keep from shuddering as I recall my efforts). The next step was to have a side view of the three running through a storm. Here are two variations of this concept:

Two concepts by the illustrator for Brightstone III Cover

This worked — but not as well as had been hoped for. Leading me to try a few with just single elements from the book cover picture.

Two proposed book cover illustrations by artist Duncan Long

Sadly the werewolf looks more like a cartoon version of the Big Bad Wolf — leaping through a wormhole or something. And the robotic head seems terribly disconnected from anything that might interest the target audience.

So… Still not anything that would work for the Brightstone Saga. So I decided to create a simple “portrait” of the characters as if they were posed for a publicity photo. The key to making this work was to build a “pyramid” layout with the sword at the top point, with the characters then filling out the form (more or less — it is perhaps a lopsided pyramid).

This worked for all involved in the publisher’s cover concept, including the author and art director Ben Rosenthal (who is the paragon of patience and panic-free when the artist he has hired seems lost in a creative wilderness). Here’s the final version:

Final book cover illustration by artist Duncan Long

Yes, I was very happy with the detail achieved with the final digital painting. So I’ll end this post with a couple of sections lifted from the young heroine’s face to give an idea of the detail that will be in the final print version of the book cover:

Detail from final cover artwork by Illustrator Duncan Long

Young woman in final cover artwork by Illustrator Duncan Long

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When not painting youngsters running recklessly in the dark with sharp objects, artist Duncan Long creates book cover illustrations for a number of publishing houses as well as self-publishing authors. See more of his artwork in his Portfolio of Book Cover Artwork.