Book Cover Illustrations

Pronouncing a work finished is often one of the most important creative decisions an illustrator, musician, writer, or other artistic person can make. If care isn’t exercised, he passes the point where changes are for the better and instead further work becomes counter-productive. Something good becomes so-so, and if the changes continue, the whole product becomes much inferior to what it had been.

The old “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” is always good advice.

Part of being a good writer or artist is not only knowing when and what to change, but when to quit changing or adding material.

Beginning painters often demonstrate this. Their work gets to a point where it’s quite good. But instead of stopping and having something they could be proud of, they continue to add and tinker until they finally sign a ghastly, trashy creation.

As noted in previous posts, part of the Death by Committee effect is that various members of a committee will insist on having their ideas put into the mix mostly as a power play rather than with an eye to make things better. A simple, effective illustration can become transformed into a mess of odds and ends, each element detracting from the power of the image to stroke the ego of the little Napoleon who suggested it.

In the stone ages when I worked in oils, and long before I had a clue about how to master a composition, I added paint and tinkered until everything was sort of a mass of brownish strokes. The result looked like a chocolate brownie, traveling 200 miles an hour, had collided with the canvas.

Sometimes the best artwork is completed with just a few strokes. At that point the master painter stops while the novice continues to toil, giving the work an amateur look.

Knowing when to quit is an important talent.

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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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Sci-Fi Art Now is now available for sale, even though it won’t officially be released until October (2010).

Here’s the blurb from Ilex Press’ site:

“This perennially popular genre always attracts the most visionary artists, and this book showcases the crème de la crème of contemporary science fiction painters, illustrators and creators. All aspects of classic science fiction themes are given a fresh perspective by artists examining popular sub-genres such as Sirens of Sci-Fi, Spacecrafts and Spacenauts, Aliens and Alien Worlds, Radical Robots, Incredible Cities, Future War, and Steampunk. Crammed full of exquisite art from around the world and fascinating insights from the artists and creators, Sci-Fi Art Now is perfect for fans of the science fiction genre, whether in movies, computer games, comics, book covers or illustrations.”

And from the sneak peeks Sci-Fi Art Now editor John Freeman has been leaking to those of us with illustrations appearing in the book, the advertising copy isn’t exaggerating any. There’s some beautiful work in this title from the front cover through to the end.

Pre-orders can be placed at Ilex’s British site or at the US-based Amazon.com

Even if you don’t want to order, visit the links and check out the two different covers that will be appearing on the book (one for the UK version and another for the US/American version).

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Duncan Long is a freelance sci-fi artist for HarperCollins, PS Publishing, Pocket Books, Solomon Press, Fort Ross, and many other publishers and self-publishing sci-fi authors. See his sci-fi art at: http://DuncanLong.com/art.html
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Only known video of Andrew Wyeth as he paints. Captured on a home video and a bit over cropped in this version. Nevertheless, a fascinating insight into how this artist worked.

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Duncan Long is a freelance illustrator who has done work 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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The first half of 2010 has been busy, with many self-publishing authors and small presses realizing that in order to compete with big presses, a quality cover illustration can be key in attracting buyers.

On the “established press” side of things, I’ve also been busy, currently finishing up a collection of illustrations for a graphic novel from Moonstone Books (Werewolves of New Idria written by John Chadwell). And I have illustrations in Ilex Press’ upcoming Sci-Fi Art Now (to be released this Oct. 2010).

That said, I always enjoy taking on new projects and have recently updated my portfolio with a fast-view Flash version and a downloadable PDF version.

If you need an illustrator, I hope you’ll consider me for the job.

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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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History suggests that books as we have seen them over the last few hundreds of years might soon become an endangered species, as least as far as the popular best-sellers of the last century are concerned.

This is no surprise to those who consider the history of various entertainment media.

Just this week, according to news accounts, Blockbuster is likely to go bankrupt; the days of the local video chain rental store seem numbered. Netflix, Hulu, and similar businesses seem to have beaten them out.

This is just another verse to a tune played many times before.

The LP recording dealt a death knell to the 78s. The CD brought an end to the LP (for everyone except collectors and connoisseurs, at least).

Radio, CDs, and finally MP3s and iTunes pretty much have made the record store a thing of the past.

Recordings of all sorts have done away with many city bands and especially orchestras, especially in smaller municipalities.

The movie theater destroyed vaudeville and traveling stage troop.

The video store, file sharing, Cable TV, and now Netflix and its peers are threatening to close movie theaters. (And oddly enough, the mercury vapor light killed off the drive-in movie theater a decades ago.)

Cable news and the Internet have just about broken the back of newspapers, news magazines, and even literary magazines.

While technologies can peacefully coincide, too often the new annihilates an older form of entertainment.

So what effect will ebooks, downloadable books, and cheap ebook readers have on printed books and the bookstores selling them?

And what about the competition of online giants like Amazon.com?

Will we see the local bookstore go the way of Blockbuster?

As far as that goes, will paper books become something purchased only by collectors and connoisseurs, something like LP recordings are today?

It’s possible. Perhaps even likely, especially in the case of mass-produced books that are expensive to ship, and which still are expected to yield a retailer a full refund when covers are ripped off and returned to the publisher. Can such a system compete again streams of electrons delivered almost instantly, for a lower price, over the Internet or phone line?

It sounds dire. It likely will be for many selling books today.

Yet for those businessmen willing to cater to niche markets, there may still be ways to make money, or even make more money selling books, doing their work in labor-intensive, micro printing houses.

This may be possible since there’s one big difference between an LP or DVD/Blueray and similar products and books: There’s a lot more to a book, especially hardbacks, and quite often that means the profit margin for those selling a book can be considerably higher.

Or at least a large, hardbound book offers that potential.

Even today the price of a book can go right through the roof if it’s handmade, leather-bound, or autographed. Numbered, limited editions and “artist’s books” of bound sketches or prints can fetch really serious prices, and those marketing such books regularly have all the copies of a print run sold before even going to print.

It may be that the future for those successfully selling physical books will be to carve out a niche market of collectible books, antique books, and other rarities.

In other words, the future of books may be a return to the past, creating a carefully crafted product not unlike Guttenberg’s with his first moveable, metal-type printing press.

Or I may be totally wrong. Perhaps the book as we know it today will survive the onslaught of new technology just as the radio has managed to coexist with TV.

Perhaps.

I hope so.

Time will tell.

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Duncan Long has been in the book industry for several decades, currently working as a freelance book illustrator for HarperCollins, PS Publishing, Pocket Books, Solomon Press, Fort Ross, and many other publishers and self-publishing authors. See his book illustrations at: http://DuncanLong.com/art.html
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Rough sketches can be useful for discovering what works best for the layout of a book or magazine illustration. They can be whipped off in minutes, and quickly show whether or not a layout is likely to look good.

Generally artists try to avoid showing uninitiated clients these drawings as they can easily be mistaken for a childhood scrawl or something found deep in a cavern occupied by semi-skilled cave people.

So here’s the warning: All sketches and rough drawings may be, well, rough.

(Above is the rough sketch I created for the finished picture below, part of my on-going set of illustrations for John Chadwell’s graphic novel Werewolves of New Idria, to be published by Moonstone Books.)

When picking an artist to create a book illustration, the key thing is to check his finished work to see if his style and level of polish are what you want to eventually see. If his style is not what you have in mind, continue your search. If it looks like what you want, then don’t worry about what the rough sketches look like; remember they are only quick doodles to get the project headed in the right direction.

Remember: Rough sketches save time and effort. An illustrator can create a sketch in minutes; it may take days to do the finished illustration (especially for realistic styles like I regularly create). That translates into saved time for the artist, and a lower price tag for his work. It is a win-win situation.

So when you see a rough sketch, don’t panic. Just study the layout and try to imagine the finished picture to be sure the artist is headed in the right direction. Once you and he agree on that basic layout, eventually there will be a polished final illustration that looks the way you want.

And you and your artist won’t have wasted a lot of time and effort on layouts and designs that will never work.

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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

Mother Jones magazine recently published “The Death of Fiction“ which suggests that while magazines that publish fiction are being flooded with submissions these days, the publications have fewer and fewer subscribers and readers. From this the author concludes that fiction, especially short stories, is dying.

Well, maybe.

But one is reminded of the old Mark Twain speech in which he noted, “Rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated.”

Of course that becomes a cautionary tale when one considers that those rumors of Mark Twain’s death eventually became true.

Today there’s certainly a glut in all the creative fields, including writing. And the current gatekeepers in the literary marketplace (agents and editors) have been swamped, making choosing quality writing ever harder and more time consuming. It seems likely that a lot of quality writing gets lost in the slush pile.

At the same time, there are some marvelous stories being written today, and it’s my experience that there are more gems in the flood of words than one might imagine.

So I would suggest that things are not quite as clear-cut, and that pronouncing the patient dead and moving on is premature.

In my view, one of the problems publishers are facing is that of connecting a book or story to its whole potential audience. Magazines have tried to maintain the distribution and subscription systems basically devised in the beginning of the twentieth century, and books haven’t changed that much either (though both are now in the process of gearing up for the ezines and ebook market).

A whole lot has happened since the beginning of the last century. There’s a whole world of potential readers not easily reached by the tradition methods of marketing books and magazines; the field is ripe for the creation of niche markets.

And let’s be blunt: Some of the magazines mentioned in the Mother Jones article have spent too much time being coyly intellectual and clever with insider jokes (often at the expense of “the common man”) and not enough time actually publishing material that the average Jane and Joe want to read. Catty remarks may give an editor or author a certain smug status, but they don’t necessarily sell magazines.

At the other extreme, some of the major publishing houses are selling books the way McDonald’s sells burgers. The menu is small, bland, and generalized, usually a novelized movie, or the current darling politician or movie star. They do sell lots of products.

Yet they miss a huge market.

Right now the marketplace needs the equivalent of ethnic restaurants, mom-and-pop eateries, and corner venders who can offer products for those with more refined or diverse tastes.

Think Netflix for books.

Netflix beats Blockbuster because Netflix can deliver offbeat movies that capture a niche market nation-wide, even though no single city has enough potential viewers to justify carrying the movie in a single, locally based rental store.

Or think blogging for the short story.

Or maybe some twitter-like tweet of speeds a new chapter of a novel around the globe.

With potentially billions of consumers online looking for entertainment, there’s a huge market to capture. When savvy sellers and writers figure out how to do this, we will see a new Golden Age of literature.

I would argue that the chrysalis of fiction isn’t dead.

There’s a beautiful butterfly waiting to emerge.

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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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Another group of illustrations (or parts of illustrations) I’m doing for John Chadwell’s graphic novel Werewolves of New Idria which will be published by Moonstone Books.

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Duncan Long is a freelance book illustrator whose artwork has appeared in publications from HarperCollins, PS Publishing, Pocket Books, Solomon Press, Fort Ross, and many other publishers and self-publishing authors. He is currently working on the illustrations for the graphic novel Werewolves of New Idria. See his illustrations at: http://DuncanLong.com/art.html
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Just got word of a nice interview appearing at the Sci-Fi Art Now blog for an upcoming ILEX book (published in the UK with US
distribution) which I have some science fiction illustrations in. Nice way to start the week.

The whole interview is here…

And here are my previous posts about the upcoming Sci-Fi Art Now book from Ilex:
Duncan Long Selected for Ilex’s SciFi Art Now
Two More Illustrations for Ilex’s SciFi Art Now Book
And Two More SciFi Illustrations….

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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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Another round of graphic excerpts from John Chadwell’s graphic novel Werewolves of New Idria (Moonstone Books). Each of these is actually just a part of the page from the books (as I don’t want to ruin the complete picture for readers).

As can be seen, these are a part of the progression through WWII and the Vietnam War as the story continues following the long-lived werewolves and their often violent exploits.

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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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