Book Cover Illustrations

A few years ago, I secured a 3D skeleton model for use in my illustration work — and as of yet haven’t been able to use it on any book covers, horror or otherwise. Thus, I’m posting a few illustrations here on my blog which I’ve created using the model as a starting point, and then painting from there. These are posted with the hope that some author or editor will spy them, and latch onto the notion of letting me create some cover artwork for their magazine or books.

As can be seen by the example above, I can create a very detailed skull. Likewise the entire skeleton can be posed for a painting from a variety of angles, with various lighting / shadow effects and a wide choice of backgrounds and props.

I have used the skull once in a graphic novel I created (based on Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven” — you can take a closer look at the graphics in the book with the “see inside” feature here: The Raven: A Graphic Novel by Duncan Long). Here’s the picture where the skull makes its appearance in the story — as a candle holder:

And the model also served as the starting point for this sketch of the Grim Reaper that appears in my book of short stories, Lightning War.

So…

If you need a quality book or magazine artwork involving skeletons, please contact me. I’m dying to get this guy on a few covers or as illustration in the text of a publication.

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When not groveling for an editor or author to let him paint a skeleton illustration for a book or magazine, Long works as a freelance illustrator. You can see more of his artwork — but very few skeletons — in his online Artwork Portfolio.

I recently had the pleasure of creating the illustration for the front cover of Charles Waugh’s new science fiction novel Nu: Book 1, The Esss Advance.

The author settled on having a cover illustration based on a scene in the story in which the hero discovers an alien space ship that has “parked” itself on Earth, in the ocean just off an island where the hero chances upon it during a fishing outing.

The trick with this artwork was getting everything into the scene, since the island, pyramid, and ocean all lend themselves to a landscape rather than a vertical “portrait” layout. While a wrap-around picture could spread things out, in this case that really wasn’t an option since all the elements needed to be together. So my solution was to place just the edge of an island in the scene, and then have the boat and two scuba divers traveling from the foreground toward the spaceship that is off in the distance from them.

After some playing around with the various elements, I had a “draft” that worked out pretty well:

Charles was happy with this layout, but asked that I add a diving flag on the boat along with a second character, as well as modifying the clothing of the figure and putting in some waves breaking over the base of the island.

As I worked on these changes, I also opted to shift the ocean near the island toward the green end of the spectrum so the island/ocean were more unified in their appearance. The spaceship had a laser array in it upper section, so after consulting with the author, I created some light flares at the top of the pyramid to hint that the structure was more than just some strange building sitting in the ocean.

This led to the final version of the cover art:

After I sent the print resolution version of the picture to Charles, he added his own lettering to the cover and had the illustration for his new novel.

It’s a great tale and anyone who enjoys science fiction, or even just a good tale, should check it out. Here’s a blurb about the book:

The new HG Rickover Shipyard in the asteroid belt was designed to build humanity’s first interstellar colonization ships. Construction of the Voyager III was just underway when the visitors first appeared in the constellation Orion, approaching the solar system from the galactic rim.

What humanity didn’t know was that they were about to take center stage in a multi-billion year conflict between two races that originated in the Andromeda Galaxy and had now poured over into the Milky Way.

Sted Richardson had been pushing hard to lead that first interstellar mission, but his plans were cut short by a freak accident at Tranquility Base on Luna. With the loss of both legs above the knees, he was no longer eligible to lead that mission. His new prosthetic legs, however, gave him hope. His advances in a new career as captain of a state of the art mining assay ship were about to lead him into the forefront of humanity’s battle for its very existence.

You can learn more about this science fiction adventure at TheNuTrilogy.com.

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Duncan Long is a professional illustrator who loves creating artwork for science fiction and fantasy stories. You can see more of his artwork at Duncan Long’s Novel and Magazine Illustrations.

Science fiction stories often travel into the “uncanny valley,” using a human-like creature that is almost — but not quite — human. For some reason (probably for survival), human beings have a tendency to be more horrified by something that is almost human, than they are by something that is obviously not human. A robot that has big eyes and looks like a doll is less apt to creep us out than a robot that does its best to look human. The almost success of appearing human is more horrifying than when no attempt is made to appear as “one of us.” (I think possibly this is what makes Werewolves and Vampires so popular in literature; they are almost, but not quite, human beings like us.)

With all this in mind, I’ve built on this concept with these pictures, which are basically my experiments with a greatly modified posable 3D model, with an eye toward using her with future science fiction novel illustrations or for magazine art projects.

Hopefully this “gal” will be employed for making a science fiction illustration for a novel or a magazine. In the meantime, creating these “for fun” pieces is good practice to hone my illustration skills.

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Duncan Long is an artist who creates illustrations for novels and magazines. You can see more of this artwork at: Duncan Long’s Book and Magazine Illustrations.

Since I often find myself creating illustrations for science fiction book covers (as well as an occasional magazine), I’ve been busy buying and creating a variety of robot 3D models. These serve as the reference models — or sometimes even the starting point for my digital painting — that then lead to the final illustration for the book or magazine.

I thought I’d showcase just a few of these creatures that I’ve been creating the last few months. Please note that these are the final paintings, not the raw renders (which are too crude to even post for the most part). I’m hoping you’ll enjoy seeing these various androids, robots, and cyborgs — and consider letting me create some illustrations for your novel or magazine projects.

And this is an example of some of these models being put to work — in this case, as an ad for Amazing Stories Magazine:

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Duncan Long creates artwork and illustrations for science fiction novels and magazines. You can see more of his artwork at: Duncan Long’s Book Cover Artwork.

Several years back, I decided to get serious about creating 3D models to serve as the starting point for my book cover paintings and illustrations. The big plus of a 3D model is that it can be rapidly posed to create a “reference photo” for painting the final book cover artwork. My adoption of 3D modeling was done partly out of self defense since I was increasingly encountering clients who wanted characters in paintings rotated slightly or reposed this way or that — something about impossible to do when the original is painted “flat” as a 2D picture. The request sounded simple enough to my clients; in reality it generally required locating a new reference photo or hiring a model to pose, either being a time-consuming and sometimes expensive process.

At the same time, 3D models had gone from looking like stiff manikins to devices that created very realistic human figures, right down to skin textures and lighting that permitted a lot of experimenting and modification. So the jump from human models to 3D realistic models wasn’t too hard to make. It did require a lot of investment in both time and money to learn how to get good results. But little by little I’ve been getting there.

That said, I’ve started creating my own stable of models to speed up the process of future cover work. Basically I hope to have a collection from which I can select the model that’s closet to what’s needed, pose it, and create a render that I can employ as the reference photo for painting the cover illustration — after my client has given the go ahead on the pose so there’s no further alterations needed.

Here are a couple more digital paintings I made using the same model (shown above) for the jumping off point — with the addition of a “Dancing Crow” (which is another of my 3D models):

Working digitally, I’ve also found that I can more rapidly create “pencil drawings” of characters. These are ideal as inner illustrations in books since they’re black and white so client’s don’t have to spend extra money for color pages on the inside of their books. Here’s one example of a “sketch” created using this same 3D model as a jumping off point:

Little by little, I’ve found a faster way to create more realistic, complex book cover illustrations for clients, thereby keeping reasonable prices while not stressing myself too much when a client needs a new pose for a character I’ve been working on.

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Duncan Long has created book and magazine illustrations for HarperCollins, Pocket Books, Muse Magazine, and many other presses and self-publishing authors. See more of his artwork at: Duncan Long’s Book Cover Portfolio.

I recently completed the cover layout and illustrations for Stephen Quayle’s Empire Beneath the Ice.

Steve’s book deals in part with the German Nazis who worked on “flying saucer” aircraft as well as those Germans who explored Antarctica before and during World War II. So to bring both elements together on the book cover, I created a picture that placed one of the Nazi saucer designs in an under-the-ice fortress. Since the book won’t be marketed in an ebook version, I was also able to add a lot of detail to the cover illustration that wouldn’t be practical with the smaller resolution of ebook reading devices.

Here’s a “closeup” of the UFO I created (and duplicated for a fleet of saucers). For this saucer, I started with a 3D model which I rendered in DAZ Studio. Once I had that, I greatly modified and reworked it in my paint program. During this process I placed a couple of figures standing to the left of the turret on top of the saucer and have a gunner peeping up out of the top turret — which should be barely visible in the print resolution of the cover. I always try to add figures to a structure like this to give the viewer some concept of the actual size. I also add some “distance bluing” to make them appear farther away (oxygen is slightly blue, so objects become “bluer” when they are farther from the viewer).

Here’s a “closeup” of the details in the foreground of the painting (and, yes, two figures to help establish the scale of the structure). Since the Nazi SS troops were generally involved with the work on special projects including the UFO aircraft designs the Germans worked on during WWII, for this book cover illustration, I opted to dress the soldiers guarding the complex in SS uniforms. Snow was added to the roof of the turrets and railing to tie the foreground to the background. At the same time the building was given the “no frills” look of a military complex. To add realism, I painted in various stains and imperfections into the concrete and railings.

After painting in a snow/ice “ceiling” over the scene with a bright area to act as an opening from the outside word, I added some distant icy peaks. And that pretty much completed the cover artwork.

The author loved the painting so there were no modifications made to the original. From there, the next task was to create the cover layout and position the illustration to its best advantage on the cover.

One of the first tasks of creating a cover is selecting an appropriate typeface. Typefaces are like flavoring: You want just a hint but don’t want to beat the taste buds into submission. The font must not call too much attention to itself.

After searching through my collection of fonts, I finally settled on a humanist sans font similar to those used during the 1930s — in this case, Zaph Humanist, which would eventually also be used inside the book for the text layout in combination with a slightly modified version of Palatino (which pairs well with Zaph Humanist since both were designed by Hermann Zapf).

Since the German Nazis were “into” the use of ancient runes (with the SS insignia actually being created from one of the rune symbols), I created a typeface based on the set of runes the Nazis had adopted, and placed these in a light gray down either side of the back cover blurb text. I’d been using a lion based on English heraldry on other of Steve’s books that I did the layouts for, so I added this to the bottom of the page over the press information (and also used it for the spine icon). Here’s the result of the back cover layout:

Once I had the spine width (determined by the page count and type of paper used) from the press, I finished the book cover layout:

You can learn more about Stephen Quayle and Empire Beneath the Ice (along with his other books) at his website SteveQuayle.com.

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Duncan Long is a book illustrator and graphic designer who regularly creates artwork and layouts for publishers. You can see more of his artwork at Duncan Long’s Portfolio.

I got a nice surprise in the mail yesterday: Artist’s copies of the November / December issue of Muse magazine. Inside, the six illustrations I did for the short story “Twins Again” by Eric Picholle.

The science fiction tale is about two twins, one who stays on Earth while the other ventures into space. The complication revolves around the changes in the relationship of the twins brought by the fast speed of the spaceship which changes their relative biological ages (one growing older on Earth while the other on the ship ages less quickly). Picholle adds some very moving emotional content to the basic idea that results in a wonderful story.

Although one of the twins in the story is “offstage” most of the time, I included her in the small “photo” pinned to the wall next to the portal behind the character (in my illustration above). For those with good eyes, I also have my signature icon, a stylized “DL” below the photo.

For the last illustration for the story, I created a view from the starship with an Earth-like planet in the distance below two of the passengers — with a small robot seeming to look out the viewport as well.

Three more of my illustrations appear in with this sci-fi tale. For more information about Muse magazine, visit their site: Muse Magazine.

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Duncan Long is an illustrator whose artwork has appeared in publications from HarperCollins, Pocket Books, Asimov’s Science Fiction, Amazing Stories, and many other presses as well as on the covers of books from indie and self-publishing authors. See more of his science fiction and fantasy artwork at: Duncan Long’s Art Portfolio.

I recently had the pleasure of creating the book cover art and layout for Gunfight on the Alpha Centauri Express by John Bowers. This is book five of the Nick Walker, U.F. Marshal series, and now is available in the Kindle format at Amazon.com.

The novel features a lawman who is charged with keeping the peace in various planets he roams through. Here’s a brief description of this installment of the series:

Nick Walker is suddenly sucked into another situation so bizarre it almost defies belief. His reputation as a two-fisted lawman has spread throughout the settled galaxy… and billions are grateful for what he does. But not everybody.

Just as he is about to take on the most dangerous adversary he has yet faced — a terrorist organization intent on the overthrow of the Federation — Nick gets sucker-punched by a “legal-eagle” tinhorn in a $4,000 business suit who thinks Nick’s law enforcement methods are just too violent. Assistant U.F. Attorney Brian Godney seeks an injunction against Nick, and a court hearing to determine if excessive-force charges can be filed.

If that isn’t enough, Godney’s assistant is U.F. Attorney Victoria Cross, a former Star Marine with whom Nick was once involved… and his fiancée, Suzanne Norgaard, isn’t going to be happy about that. Nick finds himself juggling terror attacks, the media, and courtroom antics as he struggles to make sense of it all — and if the U.F. Attorney doesn’t get his head… the terrorist leader wants him dead.

Going into the project, I knew there needed to be some “action” in the cover illustration and implied threat. So here’s the first concept render/drawing I created (working with a 3D character of Nick Walker that I’d put together for the previous book cover art in the series).

This seemed to be “on track” as it were (inside the futuristic Alpha Centauri Express, a two tiered, train-like vehicle). The trick was to capture both the old “lawman” feel while conveying that this was a science fiction story. To do the latter, I decided to make the train as futuristic in appearance as possible (even though the lettering on the cover also captures the science fiction flavor).

When the John had given the OK to the basic concept, I then played around with the pose of the character to make it a a bit more dynamic. I also decided to leave out the passenger chairs that I’d originally considered since they added too much visual clutter. Most trains have sections without seating, so this worked visually. To add just a bit more tension, I rotated the scene slightly.

John suggested some return fire from some off-screen foes, so I added some bullet holes to the scenery along with three bullets zinging past the hero. Bullets are always tricky to paint as the eye normally doesn’t see bullets in flight. However so many comics have employed the “you can see the bullets” notion that most viewers can understand the concept and what it is they’re seeing.

This next version of the illustration worked for John, so the lettering was added for the final version of the book cover.

You can read excepts of this science fiction novel and purchase it at Amazon.com. If you like action and science fiction, you’ll like this book.

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Duncan Long is a book cover illustrator who has created artwork for many indie publishers and small presses as well as for HarperCollins, Pocket Books, Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine, Amazing Stories, and many other publishers. See his illustration portfolio for more samples of his book cover art.

After decades of creating book layouts, and even more years as a reader, I’ve come to realize that some typefaces are much better than others for book text.

If you’re doing the work yourself, the best choice is a tried and true older typeface. These fonts generally are “invisible” to the reader right from the start, so nothing stands between the story and the reader. Fancy fonts might be good for headings and such (and please note the “might”), but for text, you’ll always do well to go with a plain Jane font that doesn’t call too much attention to itself.

Complications can intrude when you decide to create both a print and an ebook version of a book layout. While the font you choose for your print layout will transfer to the ebook format, it may not actually appear in the text because Kindle (and possibly other eReader hardware) generally employs a built-in font substitute, so while if you’re reviewing your layout on a PC or phone with “Kindle” software your print font may show, in an actual B&W version of the Kindle, your typeface will be missing. Instead, you’ll see the on-board font that shows in the text (and sometimes this can be the proverbial “ugly surprise” for a designer).

Hopefully as Kindles get bigger memories so they can handle embedded fonts, this situation will change. But for now, that’s where it stands.

Now let’s name names.

For print, Geramond (with the Adobe flavor being the best), Caslon, Bembo, Baskerville, Palatino, and even the much-maligned New Times Roman are all good choices. If you want a little “old time flavor” Janson (ideally with some extra leading in the layout) and (oddly enough since it is relatively new) Berkeley are possible choices. Other fine type families to consider are Cheltenham, Stempel Garamond (aka Original Garamond), Electra (aka Transitional 521), and New Century Schoolbook.

If you’re going to use lower-case numbers and small caps (which look really good in print layouts), then you need a “Pro” version of the font with a layout program that will handle these options. A good and very inexpensive layout program (which I use — Scottish blood you know) is Serif’s PagePlus. PagePlus can produce a PDF most presses can work with, and if you do the layout right, it will also port the results to both a print PDF as well as Kindle and ePub versions of the text (with the need for just a little additional tweaking sometimes). Note that special characters may translate as weird characters in ebook formats — so do a little testing beforehand to see what can of worms you might be opening.

InDesign is the industrial standard for layout, and it’s best to go with this if you’ll be exchanging files with presses or the like, or perhaps wishing to work for a large press in the future.

In theory, some typefaces are easier to read on screens than are those designed for print. In my experience, using these screen fonts isn’t worth the extra effort especially given the Kindle font substitution mentioned above as well as the limited special characters some of these types boast. But if you don’t mind different layouts for the ebook and print versions and can work within their limitations, in theory Georgia and Cambria are good for serif faces on screens, and Verdana and Tahoma for sans serif (these will often be bundled in Windows OS installs).

(For best results with ebook formats, don’t do any manual kerning if you can avoid it because this can turn into a disaster when the text is converted for the ebook format.)

Finally, the old theory that serif fonts are easier to read is no longer true (if it ever was). Modern readers are exposed to sans fonts so often that they have no trouble reading them. So, if your science fiction or spy novel is just screaming out for a sans typeface, select a common one like Frutiger and don’t worry about any loss of readability.

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Duncan Long is a freelance illustrator and sometimes graphic designer who has done work for HarperCollins, Pocket Books, Asimov’s Science Fiction, and many other presses and self-publishing authors. You can see his illustration portfolio for samples of his book artwork.

I just got word that Al Philipson’s Last Train from Earth: Holy Christian Empire – 2206 is now available for preorder.

OK… I know I’m a little biased — but I love this cover. It has to be one of my favorites.

My original illustration is shown above.

I did a little cheating when creating this artwork, cutting a standard spaceship painting (I’d done “for fun”) apart, and assembling/creating a section of it for a train car. Yes, that’s the great thing about painting digitally. I then duplicated the section in PhotoPaint seven more times to create a string of eight cars. If you look closely, you’ll see they’re an enlarged version of the section of the spaceship between the headlights.

After duplicating these “train cars,” I then painted details over each one, making slight variations from one to the next so they no longer looked like perfect duplicates. Such small differences are perceived by the eye/brain as different things, which is important for creating the illusion of actual man-made objects. And detailing a ship also helps create the illusion of size. The small “shuttle” was also added to give a clue that this ship is massive.

Here’s a detail shot of the final cover painting:

The publisher added the lettering for the cover (shown below), to complete things.

And the book cover was ready to go on its ebook version.

You’ll have to admit, I’ve come a way since I played with my ‎Lionel model train set of my youth. Plus there’s no whiff of oil and ionized air.

Last Train from Earth: Holy Christian Empire – 2206 is now available on preorder at Amazon.

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Book illustrator Duncan Long has created cover artwork for HarperCollins, Pocket Books, Asimov’s Science Fiction, Amazing Stories, and many other presses and self-publishing authors. You can see more of his illustrations in his Book Cover Art Portfolio.