Book Cover Illustrations

I recently had a shot at a new mythology series and needed to put together a portfolio keyed to Greek myths. Unfortunately I came up one picture short, and so hurriedly considered what might be a good subject for a new painting to include in the mix.

I’ve always loved the story of Perseus and decided he’d be just the ticket. Many artists have shown him holding the severed head of the Gorgon Medusa. But I felt a more tense (and newer) illustration might be created to show him using his polished shield as a mirror to avoid the Medusa’s gaze — a gaze that could turn men to stone if they chanced to meet her eyes.

Greek literature and mythology are fun for artists because the myths were constantly changing, embellished as the writers of the myths went along, so it’s possible for artists to play fast and loose with how Medusa might have looked in any given story (and remain in the Greek story-telling tradition of changing the “facts” to suit the story teller).

I decided to simply make her a supernatural being with poisonous serpents instead of hair on her head (as per the story). I placed her in Greek-style drapery with a slight green tint to her skin and dress to make her (I hope) sufficiently terrifying (as if the snakes aren’t enough). Red snake eyes completed her look.

The Greek story is a little sketchy as to how Perseus could view Medusa in his polished shield while avoiding looking directly at her and remaining in a fighting stance. I realized this might be possible if the inside of the shield were polished – as it might become with heavy use. He thus might back toward the creature and behead her with a quick turnabout and slash — with his eyes closed.

At least that’s my take on something that didn’t happen.

Such is art.

As to winning over the publisher to let me do the book illustrations, well… that’s another story.

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When not plotting the fighting stance for Perseus, Duncan Long works as a magazine and book illustrator for HarperCollins, PS Publishing, Pocket Books, Solomon Press, Fort Ross, ISFiC Press, and many other publishers and self-publishing authors. See his book illustrations at: http://DuncanLong.com/art.html
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Yesterday I received an advance copy of Assassin and Other Stories by Steven Barnes. Yes, I did the cover illustration for this title. The book is being offered by the ISFiC Press, and they’ve done one bang-up job on this book from the layout of the cover right down to the selection of type and typesetting.

It’s just a beautiful book with craftsmanship second to none, and a fine example of the quality that can be achieved by a small press operating in the 21st Century.

You can read more about the book at the ISFiC site.

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When not crowing about his book illustrations, Duncan Long actually works as a freelance magazine and book illustrator for HarperCollins, PS Publishing, Pocket Books, Solomon Press, Fort Ross, and many other publishers and self-publishing authors. See his book illustrations at: http://DuncanLong.com/art.html
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Got a look at the recently released Birth and Rebirth Through Genesis by Rabbi Michael L. Samuel. Yes, I did the book cover illustration. Currently this book is available from Amazon.com.

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When not “humbly” admiring the new book illustrations he’s done, Duncan Long is a freelance magazine and book illustrator for HarperCollins, PS Publishing, Pocket Books, Solomon Press, Fort Ross, and many other publishers and self-publishing authors. See his book illustrations at: http://DuncanLong.com/art.html
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I got a nice endorsement from Michael Leo Samuel (via FaceBook): “To any and all writers: Duncan is the best and most imaginative illustrator I have ever met.”

And I paid him almost nothing to write this!

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When not narcissistically reprinting nice things about himself, Duncan Long labors as a freelance magazine and book illustrator for HarperCollins, PS Publishing, Pocket Books, Solomon Press, Fort Ross, and many other publishers and self-publishing authors. See his book illustrations at: http://DuncanLong.com/art.html
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One more illustration from the free ebook of Edgar Allan Poe’s “Eleonora” (which you can be download for free here).

The illustrated version of Poe’s “The Raven” can also be downloaded for free here.

Please feel free to share these ebooks (or their links) with your friends. And if you want to offer either for free from your website, that’s fine, too.

And, yes, there are some (somewhat lame) secret messages in both books. Seek and ye shall find.

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When not editing, laying out, and publishing free ebooks, Duncan Long is a book illustrator and graphic artist. His artwork has appeared on the covers of book sold by HarperCollins, PS Publishing, Pocket Books, Solomon Press, Fort Ross, and many other publishers and self-publishing authors. See his cover illustrations at: http://DuncanLong.com/art.html
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This morning’s warm-up exercise. Hopefully it will eventually find a home as a book cover illustration.

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When not doing calisthenics with a digital pen, Duncan Long exercises his talent as a freelance magazine and book illustrator for HarperCollins, PS Publishing, Pocket Books, Solomon Press, Fort Ross, and many other publishers and self-publishing authors. See his book illustrations at: http://DuncanLong.com/art.html
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Another illustration from the free ebook I put together which you can download here: Edgar Allan Poe’s “Eleonora”; it’s in PDF format.

You can also still download my illustrated version of Poe’s “The Raven” here.

Please feel free to share these ebooks (or their links) with your friends. And if you want to offer it for free from your website, that’s fine, too.

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When not editing, laying out, and publishing free ebooks, Duncan Long is a book illustrator and graphic artist. His artwork has appeared on the covers of book sold by HarperCollins, PS Publishing, Pocket Books, Solomon Press, Fort Ross, and many other publishers and self-publishing authors. See his cover illustrations at: http://DuncanLong.com/art.html
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Here’s the book illustration I finished this week for the cover of Dale Allan’s crime novel It Could Happen to You.

The author wanted a realistic picture of a lonely mountain road where a bit of violence takes place at the beginning of the story.

My original layout had the limo grill facing the viewer with the wrecked motorcycle in the foreground. The author wasn’t completely satisfied with this, so we worked from a sketch he supplied.

Normally putting the three vehicles in a row like this would be a design no-no (and — okay — likely still is). But the realism of the picture seemed to let us get away with the layout. I also employed some mountain peaks in the distance as well as the nearer mountain valley a bit closer to break up the horizontal lines as well as “point” toward the wrecked motorcycle. And while the grass I painted into the foreground is more or less straight across, the blades angle off which somehow seems to work in breaking up the horizontal feel (at least at higher resolutions).

Muting and darkening the blood made it less garish and steered it away from a “horror movie” look. Even though the scene happens in the day, I darkened the whole picture down to hopefully make the overall feel even more ominous. Somehow I think the smashed bike between two pristine vehicles also adds an ominous feel (for reasons I can’t put my finger on), especially since there are no human figures to be seen.

There you have it. Another book illustration ready to go.

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When not staging traffic accidents for book covers, Duncan Long works as a magazine and book illustrator, with illustrations appearing in publications from HarperCollins, PS Publishing, Ballistic Publishing, Pocket Books, Solomon Press, Fort Ross, Moonstone Books, and many other publishers and self-publishing authors. See Long’s book illustrations and artwork at: http://DuncanLong.com/art.html
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Here’s the cover illustration for A. J. Vega’s science fiction adventure A. I. Offspring.

The cloud of “smoke” coming from the gal’s hand is an outpouring of tiny nanobots… I’ll not say more since I don’t want to give away too much of the plot.

From a design standpoint, having just one of the three elements (eyes, gal, crystal device) on the cover might have worked better. However with a little juggling and experimentation, we were able to adjust things so all three elements worked well together.

Part of the trick in achieving a unified look was to tilt everything a bit off the horizontal/vertical orientation, and add a lot of atmospherics (smoke/fog/light) to “fill” the spaces and bring everything together. Using a blue “overlay” then brought everything into be in the same color space.

Below is one of the early concept sketches for the cover. As you can see, a lot changed from color to the crystal “conduit” which houses the artificial intelligence consciousness. However some of the basic elements find their way to the final version, including the tilted AI eyes at the top and the gal — rotated for a head-on frontal view for the final cover design.

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Duncan Long is a freelance magazine and book illustrator who has created magazine and book artwork for Ballistic Publications, HarperCollins, PS Publishing, Pocket Books, Solomon Press, Fort Ross, and many other publishers and self-publishing authors. See his book illustrations at: http://DuncanLong.com/art.html
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Yesterday I had a blast creating the various elements for the cover illustration of A. J. Vega’s A. I. Offspring novel. Shown here is the star drive engine (created by aliens in the story).

The system centers around an artificial crystal “conduit” which houses an artificial intelligence consciousness. Since human technology tends to be symmetrical, I decided to make the somewhat alien operating system at the base of the crystal as nonsymmetrical and organic as possible.

This is the result.

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When not designing alien artifacts for space ships, Duncan Long works as a freelance magazine and book illustrator. He’s created magazine and book artwork for HarperCollins, PS Publishing, Pocket Books, Solomon Press, Fort Ross, and many other publishers and self-publishing authors. See his book illustrations at: http://DuncanLong.com/art.html
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