Book Cover Illustrations

This is the preliminary cover illustration I’ve created for Dale Allan’s upcoming mystery novel Lead Me Not Into Temptation. We tried to capture the conflict in one of the key scenes in the book, in which a priest is faced with the moral dilemma of whether to take matters into his own hands, and perhaps […]

OK… these have to bring the total cover concepts I’ve created for the graphic novel Werewolves of New Idria (written by John Chadwell and soon to be released by Moonstone Books) up to something like eight different versions. The good news is that they seem to be getting better along the way. And each rejected […]

Another of the B&W book illustrations created for Victor Thorn’s upcoming book, Reality Bomb. Although this artwork started its “life” as a colored illustration, the translation into black and white worked well, making a powerful picture for Thorn’s book. This B&W book artwork is titled Second Death – Last Rites. ===================== Duncan Long is a […]

I just completed the book cover illustration for Dora Machado’s Stonewiser III, available from Mermaid Press later this year (or possibly early 2011). Machado’s first two book (which I also had the pleasure of creating book cover illustrations for) have garnered a number of awards, and everyone’s hopeful for this third book in the trilogy. […]

From time to time beginning illustrators contact me to ask whether Photoshop or Corel Painter is the better choice for digital illustration work. I think in fact there’s no wrong choice to make. After an artist gets used to the digital “landscape” of a program and using a tablet (I recommend Wacom tablets, by the […]

Often when working on book illustrations for self-publishing authors, there will be confusion in regard to the DPI (dots per inch) needed for a picture to look good in print. The confusion comes because web pictures and most artwork designed for viewing on a computer screen will appear at 72 dpi (or, more rarely, at […]

Sneak preview of the cover I completed this week for R. Thomas Roe’s Palm Beach Gold. ===================== Duncan Long is a freelance book cover illustrator and layout artist for 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 =====================

Most illustrators creating genre book covers know Frank Frazetta and his beautiful artwork. More than a few book cover artists have been influenced to at least some extent by his work. Born in Brooklyn in 1928, Frazetta started his art career at the ripe old age of 16, illustrating comic books, eventually working for a […]

Over the last 24 hours I’ve been contacted several times by illustrators just starting in the illustration business asking me for tips for beginners. So here’s another blog with a few tips for intrepid book cover illustrators, with the caveat that my guidance is akin to the blind leading the blind: 1) Keep on keeping […]

I’ve been in the publishing industry for several decades now, and have seen some amazing changes. When I started, anyone with reasonable talent could get into print with a big publisher. Not so anymore. Another change is the lack of promotion new books now get today. Most publishers — big and small — budget little […]