Book Cover Illustrations

Some time ago my author friend Karen S. Elliott had some questions that led to some answers that might be of help to other writers needing a book cover. She asked, “What could writers do to make your job easier? Better description of what they want? Do they even know what they want? What’s the […]

I just completed the artwork on book two in the The Adventures of Dod series of YA fantasy novels written by Thomas R. Williams. Like the first book, one of the key features in this illustration was the glowing sword; this time the weapon is held in the hands of a mysterious, hooded figure. The […]

Theodora Goss recently posted an interesting entry on her blog “On Beauty.” She explores the idea of beauty and how our perceptions of beauty tend to follow mathematical fractal patterns found in nature. This reminded me of some very different experiments using software to create “beauty” by combining facial characteristics from a number of photos. […]

As an illustrator, I love printed books and magazines. Nothing can match a crisp page with beautiful type inked onto its surface. Book illustrations are best in print without a doubt (though that might change in the future given a screen’s potential for higher dark/light contrast and greater color pallet). But as a reader, I […]

At least in the US, the “book return” policy of most large publishers is unlike anything in most other industries. The practice started in the Great Depression here in the US and made it possible for book sellers to sell books without fear of losing their money. It worked well in the 1930s, but has […]