Book Cover Illustrations

It isn’t rare to read a book and discover that the cover illustration didn’t have much to do with the story. One reason for this is that with many publishers cutting back with their budgets, cover artwork often suffers either in how well it is done (you do get what you pay for) or in […]

I’m currently working on a book cover illustration for author James Johnson. There are some real challenges in this since the light for the returning Christ needs to be ultra-bright — yet we still need to be able to see details in his face and figure as well as hints of a Heavenly army behind […]

I have no complaint about the vast majority of my clients — with perhaps three exceptions over a decade or so. And these few bad eggs had song-and-dance routines shown in this video (below). For the rest of my customers (past and future), I hope you can enjoy a few laughs. For my fellow illustrators, […]

Another “book cover illustration exercise” done last weekend for entertainment — and hopefully to either inspire the commission of a book cover illustration or even to serve as a book illustration should it match an author’s vision of a story in search of artwork. Or maybe some concept art or a character design. At any […]

A “just for fun” piece I did over the weekend; a good demo of concept art and/or a book cover illustration (and, yes, all rights are still available as I write this). Since the cloaked figure is supposed to be traveling (through deep space) incognito, I placed the figure on the left, causing it to […]

A few more black and white drawings. These were produced for the second edition of Wrong Side In. ================== Duncan Long is a freelance illustrator for HarperCollins, PS Publishing, Pocket Books, Solomon Press, Ballistic Publishing, American Media, and many other presses and self-publishing authors. See more of his work including book cover illustrations at: DuncanLong.com […]

Robert Frost wrote the beautiful “Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening.” Back in the dark ages of my grade school learning, our sixth grade teacher had us memorize that poem. What a nice gift to give young learners. That poem has brought me joy through the years, and a tear or two as […]

Two nice things about digital illustrations are that the artwork can be stored easily, and that it can also be reworked very easily. For someone who’s going through a decade-long “learning curve” (like — uh, ME!) this makes it possible to go back to concepts that were good, but not executed too well, and revise […]

Concept art can take a variety of forms, but basically it’s a sketch an artist creates to give a customer (or 3D designer) an idea of what is needed in the final product, be it book cover, game character, or movie scene (or character). Concept art is of necessity quickly done. And that rapid turnaround […]

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 […]