Book Cover Illustrations

One of the more important parts of being an illustrator is displaying your work (and hopefully enticing someone to buy it). When it comes to displaying artwork at web sites, things aren’t quite as clear cut as they might seem. Sadly there are many beautiful sites on the web that are plagued by problems that […]

Another “book cover illustration exercise” done last weekend for entertainment — and hopefully to either inspire the commission of a book cover illustration or even to serve as a book illustration should it match an author’s vision of a story in search of artwork. Or maybe some concept art or a character design. At any […]

A “just for fun” piece I did over the weekend; a good demo of concept art and/or a book cover illustration (and, yes, all rights are still available as I write this). Since the cloaked figure is supposed to be traveling (through deep space) incognito, I placed the figure on the left, causing it to […]

This is the concept art I did to create the background for my Tree Clan illustration. Actually, it’s two or three sketches combines… First, I got the sky figured out, then a separate layer forming the tree-like structures and bridges, another for the small figures standing on the structure (useful for giving it some “scale” […]

As can likely be seen by studying some of my previous posts, I’ve been working on creating “starscapes” of cultures that might (in a science fiction sort of way) exist far from Earth. This is my latest exercise (and another book cover illustration without a home) that I hope will eventually be employed for a […]

Another digital watercolor of a previous realistic book cover illustration I did. (The original is displayed and discussed here.) The change in feel between this and the realistic book illustration is not quite as profound as the watercolor sketch in my previous blog entry, but it still conveys a slightly different feel. =================== Duncan Long […]

It is often fun to play around with the media styles of artwork (well, I find it fun). In previous blogs I’ve displayed some of my digital “pen and pencil sketches.” Now a “watercolor.” It’s actually a version of the photo-realistic painting I did a few days ago (you can see it here). And I […]

For fun I often create book cover illustrations – without an actual story to illustrate. Oddly enough, these often eventually find a home or attract attention of a publisher or author needing a similar book cover illustration. Plus they’re fun to do. Here’s the latest, a science fiction book cover illustration, presently without a home. […]

Portion of a matte painting I’ve been working on. You can see more of my matte work at: Duncan Long’s Movie Matte Gallery. ================= Duncan Long is a freelance magazine and book illustrator. His artwork has appeared in publications from HarperCollins, PS Publishing, Pocket Books, Solomon Press, Ballistic Publishing, American Media, Fort Ross, Asimov’s Science […]

While most of my bread-and-butter work comes from creating magazine artwork and book cover illustrations these days, I occasionally still write and also create CD covers. The picture above is this week’s project, for a CD album produced for a Christian band led by Mario Moreno. A small band of angels may be added to […]