I’ve posted these illustrations before, but thought they might bear repeating now that our graphic novel Werewolves of New Idria is in print (and available from Moonstone Books).
Generally a cover project doesn’t go through so many renditions – but sometimes it does. And often these can be enlightening and perhaps serve as a cautionary note for those working on book covers of any sort. This graphic novel proved a challenge and generated many different versions for the cover illustration. While I’ll only show the eight major concepts here, in fact there were quite a few more with various changes within each cover idea,
Here’s the FINAL version that appears as the actual cover for Werewolves of New Idria:
And here’s the first concept illustration for the cover:
It was too static and there was some disagreement as to whether the werewolf should be wearing combat boots (I know their mothers do, but that’s a tired joke, right). The wolf’s head was too “warm and fuzzy” as well — a problem I would have throughout the drawing of werewolves for the inner illustrations of this graphic novel. Part of the problem is that real wolves have a natural grin, so it’s hard to make them look like real wolves while still having an ominous disposition. Little wonder then that most movie and graphic novel werewolves tend toward a monstrous look rather than portray a realistic wolf.
My next version:
And this was also a bit dull (and I left the combat boots on as well); while anything is better with a pretty gal, this one still didn’t quite work for a cover.
Next:
This was a sad attempt and I never even submitted this idea to the author or publisher. It is included here to show how desperately wrong an artist can go with concept artwork
Next:
This was closer to what was needed. However the wolf was almost smiling again and also has that “guy in a mask” look, so we went on to:
Which is basically from the reach-out-and-grab-you school of illustration. For me this failed so another try:
This time the eyes and sword looked pretty decent, so they were eventually part of the cover layout. I would have loved to go with this illustration for the cover, but it didn’t get a majority vote from those in the loop.
The next attempt lost some ground:
So:
For a time the illustration above was the “final” cover with a few variations in color including green, red, and a combo with a gradient of red to blue. This one would have worked and perhaps is a toss up with the final cover that was generated from the poster. This picture did get modified to a B&W illustration, however, and eventually made its way to the title page.
It was decided a bit more “fire” was needed — reds and yellow — for the cover. So next came this concept:
And that’s the one that stuck.
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Duncan Long is a book illustrator who has created cover artwork for HarperCollins, Pocket Books, Solomon Press, ILEX, PS Publishing, ISFiC Press, and many self-publishing authors. You can see more illustrations from Werewolves of New Idria at Duncan Long’s Werewolves of New Idria Gallery
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