Book Cover Illustrations

I was contacted a few months back by the art director at Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine and asked if I’d be interested in creating the cover for the Christmas issue (Dec. 2011). The art director may now be deaf in one ear do to my shouted, “Yes!!!!”

I was sent a delightful story about a robot in New York at Christmas… won’t say more than that. But it’s a sweet short story, and perfect both for science fiction fans as well as the Christmas holiday.

One of the key elements in the story were a group of dancers that dressed as robots. So coupled with the main character who was a robot (well, android) we pretty much settled on the robot theme for the cover, with the idea of a robotic chorus line getting the nod. Likewise the art director dictated red and green for Christmas and a robot that was somewhat like that in the movie Metropolis. And since the robot had Art Deco elements, anything along those lines that could be brought into the picture would be good as well.

So I started the project with the colors and styles pretty much locked in for the magazine cover illustration.

My first task was to create a robot to model everything around. So after several sketches this design was settled on:

The catch with the sketch was the color, so I shifted that into the gold range (which to my mind is sort of a third Christmas color). After trying out several layouts, I finally through perspective out the window and made a sort of nightmarish arrangement, went through a few adjustments and suggestions from the editor and art director, and we finally arrived at the following picture, which eventually was cropped to create the cover shown at the top of this article.

====================
Duncan Long is a magazine and book cover illustrator. View more of his illustrations at Duncan Long’s Magazine and Book Cover Portfolio
=====================

Frozen In Time - Book Cover Illustration by Duncan Long

I got word that C.A. Dawson’s Frozen in Time is now available for Kindle users at: Amazon.com.

C.A. Dawson is a science fiction writer living and working in Victoria, British Columbia. An excerpt is available to read online here: Frozen in Time

The earlier book cover illustration I created for the title is shown below. The catch with this version is that without the spaceship in the distance, it was hard to tell if the genre was a supernatural story, a dream sequence from a romance, or what. So the spaceship in the distance was added. Oddly enough, that tiny addition makes the genre clear to the reader; science fiction pretty well owns the concept of space ships.

Frozen in Time is the second book cover illustration I’ve created for C. A. Dawson. A third is in the works, and I’ll be posting it here as soon as it becomes a reality. In the meantime, I’m hoping Kindle owners will check out Frozen in Time as it’s a fun read, especially for those who enjoy a good science fiction tale.

====================
Duncan Long loves creating book covers and illustrating books and magazines. His work appears on book cover designs from HarperCollins, PS Publishing, Pocket Books, Moonstone Books, and Enslow Publishers as well as on the covers of Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine and The Sun tabloid. You can see more of his artwork at Duncan Long’s Portfolio
=====================

The Magical Contact by Duncan Long

Just got word that the Collaborative Summer Library Program (CSLP) may select me as one of their featured illustrators for the organization’s 2013 program. Artwork for the program is used by thousands of public libraries across the USA, with millions of children participating in the program.

Some impressive illustrators have created artwork for CSLP in the past. The 2012 Teen theme was created by Christian Fuenfhausen. Rafael Lopez, David Shannon, Svetlana Chmakova, and Ursula Vernon have done work in previous years.

Fingers crossed.

======================
Duncan Long is a professional book illustrator who has created artwork for HarperCollins, PS Publishing, Pocket Books, ILEX, Moonstone Books, Enslow Publishers, and many other presses and self-publishing authors. See his book illustration portfolio at: DuncanLong.com.

Final book cover design for Stephen Quayle's Angel Wars. Layout and illustration by Duncan Long.

As those following my blog know, I recently did the artwork and layout for the print version of Stephen Quayle’s Angel Wars.

Now I’ve started on the Kindle ebook version of the title.

Porting a novel into Kindle’s format (based on the older Mobipocket ebook format) isn’t too tough, thanks to the Mobipocket Creator, free software that can take a Word doc or HTML file and convert it into something a format that can be read on a Kindle.

But when you add pictures, bullet points, footnotes, and other niceties common to non-fiction books, things get a bit dicey. For one thing, the Mobipocket Creator seems to have a bug creating faulty links for some or all of the pictures in a doc or HTML file. Thus photos or drawings may — or may not — remain in the Kindle version of a book.

The workaround I’ve discovered is to import the DOC file into Mobipocket Creator, shut down the program, and then rework the HTML code, changing it so pictures appear with no link to a picture folder. I then move all the pictures into the same folder as the HTML file. After that, I restart Mobipocket Creator and use the reworked HTML to generate the Kindle ebook.

So far this has worked with my testing. But it’s rather horrifying to wonder if the 440-some manuscript with a multitude of photos will convert properly. My fallback if Mobipocket Creator fails in some serious way during the conversion, is Amazon.com’s KindleGen which also converts an HTML file into Kindle format.

The catch which the KindleGen is that it currently lacks a GUI, meaning users are tossed back in time to using a DOS-style program calling for command line on the old black screen. All in all, a rather an amazing throwback for creating up-to-date ebooks.

While not completely necessary for creating a Kindle ebook, it’s wise to go through the HTML file and delete all the “junk” in the code before converting the file to the final Kindle book. Doing this can greatly reduce the size of the book as well as avoid a variety of glitches.

For starters, all sorts of header info, tags, and inline CSS styles and the like can be discarded; all font info is pointless since Kindle has its own built in font. For resizing font sizes, use heading tags h1, h2, h3 with H1 for the largest type (chapter headings, etc.), h2 for next down, and h3 for subheads..

The Kindle conversions work with the old “i” and “b” for italics and bold type, but some ebook builders claim better results may be seen with “em” and “strong” tags.

While you’ll often read that the Kindle doesn’t allow bullet points, in fact you can achieve them with an HTML ul class=”list” command, using a “UL” at the start of each bullet point.

Photos and illustrations should be reduced from 300 dpi (dots per inch) for print to 72 dpi for the Kindle. The ideal dimensions for a picture appears to be 520 by 622 pixels, though Kindles resize pictures for their screens when necessary.

You can test the results of your conversions with the free Kindle for PC software which presents a virtual Kindle screen so you can see how things are “translating” from your DOC or HTML file to the Kindle format.

There. All I have learned to date about creating a Kindle eBook.

Now back to work.

====================
Duncan Long loves creating book covers and illustrating books and magazines. He also does print layouts for books and is currently learning how to create Kindle ebooks. His illustrations appear on book cover designs from HarperCollins, PS Publishing, Pocket Books, Moonstone Books, and Enslow Publishers as well as on the covers of Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine and The Sun tabloid. You can see more of his artwork at Duncan Long’s Portfolio
=====================

False Dawn - an illustration by book designer Duncan Long

Two more illustrations created over the weekend, with both seeking adoption by a loving book cover designer or magazine art director.

As of today, both of these illustrations have all rights available, including the book and magazine cover rights as well as T-shirt, mouse pad, and other odds and ends.

And Along Came Sally - an illustration by book designer Duncan Long

This little plug of the day out of the way, it is now time for me to return to herding the flying monkeys so we can produce the book cover designs and illustrations I’ve been contracted to create.

Wishing all a great week!

====================
Duncan Long loves creating book covers and illustrating books and magazines. His work appears on book cover designs from HarperCollins, PS Publishing, Pocket Books, Moonstone Books, and Enslow Publishers as well as on the covers of Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine and The Sun tabloid. You can see more of his artwork at Duncan Long’s Portfolio
=====================

I’m happy to announce that I’ve been chosen as this month’s “Featured Artist” in issue #16 of Horror Bound Magazine.

See which of my illustrations were chosen to appear in the magazine by visiting Horror Bound Magazine‘s web page. (Please note that you’ll need to scroll down a bit to find the artist of the month profile.)

====================
When not crowing about his artwork appearing in Horror Bound magazine, Duncan Long works as a magazine and book cover illustrator. You can see more of his illustrations, book cover designs, and other artwork at Duncan Long’s Magazine and Book Cover Portfolio
=====================

"Ophelia" by book cover illustrator Duncan Long.

Shakespeare’s Ophelia is one of the tragic figures in Hamlet. She’s scorned and ridiculed by Hamlet:

Hamlet: …I did love you once.

Ophelia: Indeed, my, lord, you made me believe so.

Hamlet: You should not have believed me…I loved you not.

Ophelia: I was the more deceived.

Ophelia eventually crumbles under the unfolding tragedy around her, as well as Hamlet’s continuing mistreatment of her. Ultimately she suffers a mental breakdown and in the grip of sorrow, finally drowns herself.

While she is somewhat one-dimensional in Hamlet, the drowned innocent is a resonating, mythic picture that appears again and again in literature and film, with perhaps the most memorable being the drowning of the innocent child by the monster in the Boris Karloff version of Frankenstein.

Thus as an archetypical figure, Ophelia has proven to be an inspiration to artists, captivating the mind with the tragic implications that innocence can be terribly lost in an often unfair and evil world. Little wonder then that there are few illustrators who don’t have at least one painting of Ophelia in their repertoire.

This is mine.

====================
When not contemplating the moral implications of Shakespearean characters, Duncan Long works as a magazine and book cover illustrator. You can see more of his illustrations at Duncan Long’s Magazine and Book Cover Portfolio
=====================

All the Futures of the Past - an illustration by Duncan Long

Another three illustrations from the flying monkeys who fling electrons at the screen here at the Duncan Long Studio. As usual, these illustrations were pretty much created for my own enjoyment, though all three are spinoffs from ideas or materials for actual book cover projects (but which were never used). Hopefully they’ll eventually find homes with magazines or on book covers; in the meantime, they’ll help round out my portfolio.

The Train Racer - by Duncan Long

The Sign - illustration by Duncan Long

As this is written, all three of these illustrations have all rights available (which includes the book and magazine cover rights).

And now…

Time to get back to work on the book covers that I’m been contracted to produce.

====================
Duncan Long illustrates books and magazines. His work has appeared on books from HarperCollins, PS Publishing, Pocket Books, Moonstone Books, and Enslow Publishers as well as on the covers of Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine and The Sun tabloid. You can see more of his artwork at Duncan Long’s Magazine and Book Cover Portfolio
=====================

Final book cover design for Stephen Quayle's Angel Wars. Layout and illustration by Duncan Long.

Stephen Quayle’s Angel Wars is selling like hotcakes and continues to garner great interest and some nice reviews (like this one at Prophecy in the News.)

Here’s the cover illustration I created for the book:

I also had the good fortune to be able to do the layout not only on the cover but also the entire text, creating a few additional B&W pictures to go along with it. Here’s the cover spread:

It turned out to be a massive book, with the pages measuring 8.5 x 11 inches, laid out with two columns per page for ease in reading. The page count came in at 444 (with over 600 footnotes). There’s a whole lot of reading between these covers.

If you’re interested in how the angels (and demons) tie into the present age, as well as the future, you’ll find this book of interest. It can be ordered from Prophecy in the News.

=====================
When he’s not fussing with typefaces and column widths, Duncan Long generally can be found creating book illustrations and artwork for presses and self-publishing authors. You can see more of his graphic design work and book illustrations and artwork at Duncan’s Portfolio
=====================

Rob Guthrie’s Black Beast: A Clan Of MacAulay Novel arrived today. The colors turned out beautifully with my book cover illustration (that’s not always the case and it’s a thrill when the print looks as good or better than the screen version of the artwork). And I appreciate the author taking the time to sign it as well.

Rob also included some refrigerator magnet promos with the cover printed on them. I can’t get over how nice the printing is on those as well. Given that my face served as a model for one of those on the cover (won’t say which face) one magnet will go to our refrigerator where it can scare vermin out of the kitchen.

This novel promises to be a great read. For your copy, visit Amazon.com. If you enjoy horror and mysteries, you’ll like this book.
====================
Duncan Long is the book cover artist who created the illustration show above. Over 1,000 of his illustrations have appeared on book covers or in books from HarperCollins, PS Publishing, Pocket Books, ILEX, Asimov’s Science Fiction, Moonstone Books, and many other presses and self-publishing authors. See more of Long’s book illustrations at: Duncan’s Book Illustration Portfolio
=====================