cover_artists

My latest book cover is now finished.
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In my last post I mentioned I was working on another cover for Immanion Press http://www.immanion-press.com, and here it is...

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A recent cover for Immanion Press http://www.immanion-press.com

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I have just recently finished another book cover for Immanion Press http://www.immanion-press.com The artwork and my layout for it are under the cut. Past Tense is a essentially a time travel story set between the modern day and Roman Britain ( Click here for the art!Collapse )

I was at the World Horror Convention recently and the subject of 'paint vs pixel' came up in one of the panel discussions - my own feeling is that while the debate focused on the problems of digital art for covers (problems? what problems?) and ended up with several very talented traditional artists raising a whole set of what they saw as problems with using digital art (lack of primacy, problems of uniqueness, preservation of art and also a perceived ability to create with less or even no real talent) all of which I think are fairly easily countered, they seem to have missed the issue that is affecting the careers of illustrators most.

It isn't the rise of digital art - it is the increasing use of stock photography by publishers. This very directly affects illustrators ability to get work and dramatically affects levels of pay in the industry at the top of the scale when the big publishers start doing it in preference to hiring an illustrator. I recently came across this link (below) when reading http://dragonsfandango.blogspot.com (Vincent Holland-Keen was also at the World Horror Convention):

http://therapsheet.blogspot.com/2006/05/too-much-of-good-thing.html

It demonstrates the central problem of using stock images quite nicely. To be fair, some artists do licence their art for multiple uses (Les Edwards, whose work I have admired for years and who was one of the panel at the convention debate on 'paint vs pixel' does this a fair bit). I think it's less that the same image is being used and more a general sense that it is being used because quite frankly nobody cares that strikes me. People use art by illustrators like Les because they love it - it never feels slapped on as something 'that will do' when it is re-used, while this sort of stock re-use does (at least to me). Some discussion started to touch on it here http://community.livejournal.com/cover_artists/3421.html#cutid1

I am curious to discover what people think (I have cross posted with my own journal).

This is the latest cover design I have done for Immanion Press http://www.immanion-press.com The artwork and my layout for it are under the cut. The Janus House And Other Two-Faced Tales is a short story collection by David Barnett, author of Hinterland and Angelglass. So far I have only read The Janus House (I am going to read the rest from my artist's copy of the book because its easier than reading it as a word document). Anyway, I hope you enjoy the art - I can certainly recommend the Janus House story, David is a very accomplished author and it is the sort of atmospheric and slightly ambiguous horror I love - I usually find a good spooky story needs a little mystery and uncertainty to work well and this one has both.  ( Click here for the art!Collapse )

In relation to sales and marketing

Over at Jessewave’s Blog - HERE

Ok - one is fully dressed and one is only half naked but if I've got to have men on my covers, these definitely get the thumbs up

 

What do you think?

I’ve been setting up Bosom Friends this week – adding to the List there, and while I’ve been doing so I noticed something very interesting.

The covers.

They aren’t overtly SEXY. (hurrah)

This is about the most salacious of the genre that I could find.

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