LB&LI Cover Art: From Form to Finish Part III

Its that time. The time I embarrass myself by sharing my uber fast concept sketches with you while I walk you through the cover art process.

Cover: Uncovering Egypt by Ann Cory 

1. I get the email with the cover art form attached to it. If the author sent jpegs for me to see, they’re attached as well. Often they’re embedded in the RTF itself. I crack that puppy open and read it over, making notes as I go. Once I’m through it, I reread it to grab details and then I look away and let the creative juices flow.

Title of Book- Uncovering Egypt

Author – Ann Cory

fantasy/time travel

Ann listed the characters features, summed up her story nicely and offered this "I’d really like a hot guy or hot couple. Possibly a pyramid or something Egyptian but not too much or overstated"

 

2. I grab whatever is close to me. At certain points this has been a napkin. LOL. I sketch out what I’d like to do. These are always rough and done in less than 5 mins so they’re kind of embarrassing to look at. They give me the building block, or starting point I need to begin my quest for just the right stock photos. For Uncovering Egypt, I had computer paper nearby so I had at that. From the moment I read Ann’s art form, I had a clear image in my mind of what I really wanted to try to pull off.

3. From this point (stop laughing at my sketch) I went on the hunt for stock photos that I could build from. I use stock as my base and manipulate from there. I also do some digital painting/drawing and some of my own photography when need be. But, since I have no hunky-hunks or a studio, I lean heavy on stock of people and so on.

Here are two comp pics (this means low res, watermarked photos that are used to build a comp so the artist can see if the overall design will work). I spotted the woman on the bed first and knew she would work perfectly for what I’d envisioned for Ann’s cover.

4. I get to work building the low res comp. This is done to avoid forking out a ton in stock only to find out the author would rather put their eye out with a spork than have the cover or that the publisher is wondering if you’re on drugs.

Comp 1

5. I send comp 1 off to the editor/author for approval. The editor requested a slight change on man in background. While I was at it, I figured I’d add in a key piece of info from Ann’s story-a bracelet.

Comp 2

This is the next comp I send off. After some minor tweaking it becomes….

6. Final high res (okay, not high res on the web but you get my drift).

And there you have the process for Uncovering Egypt by Ann Cory (coming soon from Samhain Publishing) Working with Ms. Cory and her editor was a pleasure. 

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Join me for Part IV when I take you through the process again for another cover, giving you a peek behind the scenes of the making of a cover.

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