Book Cover Illustrations

I’m often asked how I create my book cover artwork and magazine illustrations. So I decided to write a little about that in this post (and also to create a reference page for folks asking this question in the future). First off, while I try to achieve a traditional, painterly look with much of my […]

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. […]

Although I used to work in oil paints and pen and ink, today my illustrations (like the one above for George Blackburne’s The Reverse Multiplier Effect) are all digital, painted by pushing electrons across the screen with a Wacom digital tablet and pen. The sizes of the paintings I create for book covers are generally […]

Many illustrators start with pencil sketches that are scanned and then used in a digital environment to be fleshed out for the final book illustration. Back in days of yore, I loved working with pencils. Today I find it much faster to start with the digital tablet (Wacom) rather than pad and pencil, entering the […]