Book Cover Illustrations

This is the original background concept art for the final Tree Clan painting (mentioned previously in this blog). Actually, this is several concept art paintings overlaid. The back layer is the “starscape” of major stars and stellar dust, another the trees and bridges, one of the small figures, another of the distant monolithic structures, and […]

Two nice things about digital illustrations are that the artwork can be stored easily, and that it can also be reworked very easily. For someone who’s going through a decade-long “learning curve” (like — uh, ME!) this makes it possible to go back to concepts that were good, but not executed too well, and revise […]

“Rich Young Ruler” is another reworked “golden older” I did some years back. I know he doesn’t look young. But the intriguing thing about the story of the Rich Young Ruler (who rejected salvation to keep his riches) is that eventually, barring accident or other early demise, he grew old. Did he die old and […]

Concept art can take a variety of forms, but basically it’s a sketch an artist creates to give a customer (or 3D designer) an idea of what is needed in the final product, be it book cover, game character, or movie scene (or character). Concept art is of necessity quickly done. And that rapid turnaround […]

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 […]

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. […]

One of the neat things about illustrations is that they can leave a little — or a lot — for the viewer’s imagination to “fill in.” Possibly this is one reason that an illustration can be more real and moving than a very precise digital recreation or photo which may offer more realism, yet be […]

I came into the magazine and book illustration business through the back door, first working as a writer/illustrator, creating drawings of things that couldn’t be easily photographed as well as the artwork for black and white advertisements for the books I sold through my own mail order company. Eventually I was selling writing and illustrating […]

A couple more B&W digital drawings to give a “world premier.” Hopefully this type of drawing skill can soon be put to use for illustration work with magazines and books. ================== See more of my digital drawings for books and magazine illustration at: Duncan Long’s Drawings and Paintings.

I’m continuing to work on my black and white illustration techniques and thought I’d post some of my latest undertakings. A few are modifications of old work that was originally in color; others are new. While these are likely to appear in magazines or at web sites, I am hoping they may make their way […]