Book Cover Illustrations

Another of the new cover illustrations for John Bowers’ science fiction “Starport” series of novels. As the title shows, this is for Prisoners of Eroak. This cover presented a problem that is often encountered in creating book covers: A title that takes up two lines, thereby dictating that the illustration have more “real estate” at its […]

The cover (above) of Martin Wilsey’s new science fiction novel Still Falling. This cover layout is a beautiful example of how cropping can make a dramatic change in the impact of an illustration. While I created the artwork for this cover, I didn’t do the layout — and am quite jealous of the work (ha). Here’s […]

Just got word from author Ian Yamagata that his new novel Mark of the Remaker is available. And, yes, I did that cover illustration.  You can learn more about this science fiction novel at the author’s site. See more of book cover artist Duncan Long’s artwork at his online gallery.

I was happy to learn several of my illustrations have been featured in the “For Writers: Publishing Tips and News” section at EveryWriterSource.com. The pictures are also slated to appear in its magazine. (If you’re an author, note that the electronic version of the magazine is available for free, and is a great source of […]

It’s official. Visitors to the Amazing Stories website were told Sunday: “Duncan Long recently joined the staff at Amazing Stories as its Art Director.” Let me answer two questions (you may, or may not be asking): Yes, it is a great honor. It’s also a childhood dream come true given the influence science fiction has […]

The third book in Stuart Jaffe’s Max Porter paranormal mystery series is now out. The mystery Southern Belle can be found at Amazon in both Kindle and print formats. There were several interesting challenges in creating this book cover illustration. Foremost was the need to make it appear similar to the previous two book illustrations […]

I often have folks tell me that I’ve captured the emotions of a character created for a book cover perfectly. Or that I’ve created a really pretty face on a character. There are a few tricks to make such things happen. And they aren’t quite what you might think they’d be. In fact, there’s a […]

I got word today from Richard Blunt that his third book in the Lucas Trent fantasy series Grand Theft Magic is now in print. Like most cover illustrations, this one went through several concepts before we landed on one that worked. Key to the project was capturing an ominous, even threatening feel coupled with magic […]

I recently had the pleasure of creating the book cover illustration as well as the graphic design and layout for the cover of Kathryn H. Clark’s memoir My Odyssey. After several false starts, a friend of the author sat down with her and created a sketch which we then followed greatly simplifying the process as […]

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 […]