Friday, January 6, 2012

Cerulean Isle

I did a book cover recently for the fine folks over at Wido publishing. They were very kind and forgiving of my consistent unprofessionalism. The cover they let me do was for Cerulean Isle, by G.M. Browning.

I asked for ideas they wanted me to try out and they just told me to have fun with it. I submitted a version of the above picture and they liked the concept and we went from there.

Funny thing about the concept though, as it required a great deal more work than I anticipated to bring it to fruition as a final product. During the process I kept wanting to tell the great people over at Wido that it was good enough. But I am an author too, and I would be really disappointed if my cover artist half-assed a cover for a novel that I may have spent years perfecting. So I kept go back over it until all of us were happy.

Funnily enough, I spent most of my time reworking the back cover of the book. My first version had the owner of that fin pictured coming out of the water. I had been trying to portray a scene from the novel, but had gotten enough details wrong that the idea had to be scrapped altogether. Still, check out an early version of the wrap around cover:
Notice how dolphin-like the tail was at first... because I used a dolphin as a model

Yes, my son was serving as my merlord model, I've been using him as a model for all sorts of my art projects for his entire life, so it was no big deal to him. But in the end, he was scrapped for the open ocean.

By the end, I felt pretty good about how things went. The final version, had several other changes to it before it was sent to the printer, although I had nothing to do with the back cover text or spine design:


Anyhow, the process took a bit longer than I wanted it too, but I love how it turned out. I also have a host of other covers I'm working on this month. 

Happy days everyone.


17 comments:

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

Excellent cover! Shame they couldn't use the other one, because I like the way the two tied together. I know some of the authors from Wido, and there are a lot, so they might keep you busy!

Ian Anderson said...

It looks good. I really do wish I had the ability to draw or do any art. I'd be creating my own sketches if I had my way.

Well done!

PT Dilloway said...

Oooh, purdy.

Tonja said...

I like the idea of the picture wrapping around the book too. It turned out great!

I have an idea for my book cover that I got from my daughter's Marilyn Mason CD cover. The mother in me does not like the way that guy looks - the eyes freak me out - but his songs are really pretty. And, well, the cover art for this particular one is awesome.

Cindy said...

Great job on the cover. I love paintings with oceans and boats.

Cherie Reich said...

Wonderful cover! Love what you did to make the merperson tail. :D

Unknown said...

This is a beautiful cover. I love ship and the just the tail of the merperson. Draws the reader's eye. I have no talent whatsoever when it comes to drawing or any kind of studio art.

Karen Jones Gowen said...

I still like the merman on the back cover....Too bad he didn't make the final cut. His face is amazing.

Andrew Leon said...

Hey! Awesome job! I love how the tail turned out.

M Pax said...

Excellent! The cover looks fabulous. Will think of you when I can afford to hire someone. Let's hope sometime this year. :D Have a great weekend, Rusty.

Michael Offutt, Phantom Reader said...

That's beautiful Rusty.

dolorah said...

I like it. The ship and colorful fin bring all sorts of imaginings to mind for what the story could be about.

I hope you get more of this work. You do well at it.

Have a great weekend Rusty.

.......dhole

Golden Eagle said...

Great cover! :)

Laura said...

oh - I like it! Great colours
Happy saturday
Laura x

Nancy said...

You are so very multi-talented.

Anonymous said...

Great job Rusty. I still struggle with covers, but I haven't been doing them very long. It is a lot of work and I never ever know where to get images from that don't charge an arm and a leg!

G.M. Browning said...

Thank you for doing such a wonderful job on my book's cover. I really appreciate it.