Book Cover Illustrations

A few months ago I had the pleasure of creating the cover illustration as well as the layout for David Gelber’s novel Minotaur Revisited (now available from Ruffian Press).

After David had explained that he wanted a maze and the traditional Minotaur for the cover of his book, I started with some concept drawings/paintings (I’m never sure what these such be called — they’re basically digital artwork) so we’d be on the same page as to what the Minotaur should look like.

Once we settled on the look for the creature, I next painted the background maze and a Minotaur to inhabit it, with what I would generously call a “close but no cigar” result that was more cartoonish than menacing:

Now in theory, a less symmetrical picture is supposed to be more interesting to the eye: Hence the different hand poses and the leg stepping over one of the short hedges. And obviously this theory is full of holes, at least in this case. So both the stance as well as the cartoonish version of the creature were scrapped and replaced with a more robust and symmetrical version. And I also put him into silhouette (with the theory that sometimes letting a viewer imagine the details producing more tension than painting in all the details).

This version worked well. From there I completed the cover layout to the publisher’s specs… And a new cover — and Minotaur — were born.

David Gelber’s novel Minotaur Revisited is available from Ruffian Press).