Book Cover Illustrations

Sometimes an artist is called upon to create a monster, demon, fairys, gnome, troll or alien beast. And that’s always a challenge because the public has been “educated” by movies and artwork to expect a certain “look” from many of these creatures; meanwhile the client hiring the artist to create a picture for a book […]

For many self-publishing authors, sales have tanked due to the huge number of authors, and the fact that many are giving away their products to get a higher “sales” position (arguably 50 percent of zero is zero). One way many authors have employed to get their books above the maddening crowd of mediocre, self published […]

Autumn is always busy in the publishing industry, and this one is no exception here at the Duncan Long Studio (hence the picture of one the staff, Ralph the flying monkey). Once consequence of the growing workload is updating of my blog slides. But that said, here’re a few of the more book cover projects […]

From time to time, I create new illustrations “just for fun” with the hope that eventually they’ll find a buyer. This generally proves a good investment of my time with most such pictures eventually finding a home on a book or magazine cover. The plus of these self-directed illustrations is that they’re produced more quickly […]

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 […]

Folks often ask if I use paints (or ink) to produce my book and magazine illustrations. Short answer: No. But I started as an actual painter and later as a pen-and-ink illustrator. But digital is so much cleaner and faster (plus there’s that undo key), that there’s just no contest between it and real paint. […]

I recently created several new illustrations each of which I hope will soon find a home on a magazine or book cover. It seems that I’m often able to spread my wings a little extra bit on these do-it-yourself digital paintings, allowing my imagination to wander where it happens to lead, with some often happily […]

I have a nice interview by Dara Girard about my book cover illustration work (as well as my writing and music); you can read it at the Novelists, Inc. Blog. The interview was a lot of fun and the result is one of those ego-boosting bits of recognition that artists seem to need in order […]

This was my weekend project — a speculative “book cover” that as yet doesn’t have a client interested in buying the illustration. But hopefully before too long it will find a buyer (and my experience has been that such artwork eventually finds a home — and I also have a whole lot of fun creating […]

Questions: How on earth do you get the intricacy of detail in your artwork? I understand how you could manage it with a fine brush or in pen-and-ink but how do you manipulate lines and curves? How do you get the gradations of color? I’m astonished, impressed, and intrigued simultaneously. Answers: All my illustrations are […]