Book Cover Illustrations

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 […]

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.

The Hubble telescope has given mankind a taste of what space looks like, from exploding galaxies to beautiful dust nebulae. And graphic artists often use these pictures as references for creating the look of deep space, especially for science fiction book covers and similar illustrations and artwork. This is my latest exercise in painting a […]

Space surfing… Riding the wake of energy released from a ship dropping out of hyperspace… Doubtful physics, but fun to think about what such a surf board might look and how it would need to have its own (here invisible) bubble of gravity and atmosphere. I went ahead and gave it the ability to conform […]

People regularly ask what software and hardware I use for creating book cover illustrations and other artwork for magazines, CD covers, and interior illustrations in books. So I will digress in this installment of my blog to answer those questions. I come from a background of working with pen and ink as a technical writer/illustrator. […]