Book Cover Illustrations

Part of yesterday’s work: A Character Concept Drawing for R.S. Guthrie’s upcoming novel Black Beast. It is still a tad cartoonish so it doesn’t blend into the realism of the rest of the cover illustration. Of course hopefully there will never be/never has been a creature like this. So making it “real” gets a little […]

The movie script for Werewolves of New Idria by John Chadwell and Ron Shusett (writer/creator of the Alien franchise and Total Recall) continues to be in the running. As the script is submitted to potential buyers, clients, and actors, the concept art and illustrations created for the graphic novel version of the story continue to […]

Digital painting presents almost unlimited possibilities for variations on a theme. The picture above is one such variation, a more painterly version/portrait of the figure from yesterday’s post. ===================== When he’s not creating artwork for his own enjoyment, Duncan Long is a freelance book cover illustrator. You can see more of his book cover illustrations […]

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 […]

Another variation on the “starscape” theme (promise, this will be the last with of these similar star fields), this time laid out in movie matte format with a starship superimposed over the background. ============ See more of Duncan Long’s digital matte paintings for stage and movie productions at: http://duncanlong.com/illustration/movie_mattes/movie_matte_artist.html ============

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 […]

This is the concept art I did to create the background for my Tree Clan illustration. Actually, it’s two or three sketches combines… First, I got the sky figured out, then a separate layer forming the tree-like structures and bridges, another for the small figures standing on the structure (useful for giving it some “scale” […]

I’m continuing to work on my black and white illustration techniques and thought I’d post some of my latest undertakings. A few are modifications of old work that was originally in color; others are new. While these are likely to appear in magazines or at web sites, I am hoping they may make their way […]

Mariah Aceves, another concept illustration for John Chadwell’s book Werewolves of New Idria (which is also becoming a screenplay that Chadwell is coauthoring with Ron Shusett, the writer/creator of the Alien franchise as well as Total Recall). ============ Duncan Long is a freelance magazine and book cover illustrator for HarperCollins, PS Publishing, Pocket Books, Solomon […]

Often it’s necessary to create concept sketches for a book cover design (or game, movie, or other art project). The basic purpose of concept art is to assure that everything is on the right track before it speeds toward completion. Concept art generally lacks the refinements to be found on the final project. Quick and […]