Book Cover - Reluctantly In Love by Lindsay Kiernan

It's my honor to share my cover for Lindsay Kiernan's debut historical romance, 

RELUCTANTLY IN LOVE!

This cover was a lot of fun to work on, as we tried different things to give it a classic feel with some modern touches. And I wanted it to look great in thumbnails when it is released on Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble February 15th! 

As always, I am available for commissions, email me at DeeplyDapper(at)Yahoo.com for details or a price quote.

WIP - Smitty The Shrunken Head

 Today, Smitty gets some ears!

Facing Front - THE SENTRY by Robert Crais

 The Sentry is the latest from thriller author Crais, featuring Cole and Pike, a team of do-gooders/detectives in the Los Angeles area. I really like Crais' books, but I've never really liked his covers. Take this one, the US cover. It has a photo of a freeway, a sunset and some palm trees, all layered with varying opacity with the trademark "New York Times Bestseller" block capitals. I do like the layers of oranges though, so it gets bumped a notch.

3/5

I think this is the UK cover, but I'm not 100% sure. It's a little more creative, but I actually like it less. The figure in the foreground looks nothing like the character of Joe Pike (For one thing, he never seems to wear anything with sleeves) and so far in the novel, a bridge hasn't featured once. The weird pointy middle prong of that E bothers me too.

2/5

Irith The Flyer

Just a quick drawing for the Third Rail Design Lab's weekly art jam. The theme this week was "Flyers" so I couldn;t resist drawing Irith The Flyer, from Lawrence Watt-Evans fantasy novel TAKING FLIGHT. It tells the story of a boy out to earn his fortune who meets up with an enchanting and enchanted young girl. I tried to convey some of her attitude in the drawing and stick pretty close to Watt-Evans' description of the character. Then I tacked a background and some simple text on top for fun.

Enjoy!

Coming Soon - Smitty the Shrunken Head!

 A new project - A shrunken head!

It's been an interesting challenge trying to get the texture of the skin just right for this little guy. Plus, I get to play with textures and add-ons like hair and rope. Cool!

A New Background

I know, it's not that exciting, but I changed the background to this site to better represent my endeavors beyond that of creepy beasties in jars. Now it's creepy beasties in jars and books!

Facing Front - BURN by Linda Howard

US Cover

 This is the US cover to Burn. As best I can tell, it seems to be the image they used for the Hardcover and the Paperback version. (I own the paperback) There's really very, very little I can say about this image. It stinks. It stinks of typical covers for US thrillers. "Ooh, the title is fire related, and it takes place somewhere tropical. Quick, get me an image of some babe on cement and add some orange layers!"

1/5

Unknown Cover

 I found this cover on Google, but I was unable to track down what version it was. My guess is some reprint cover or something similar. This makes the book seem like more of a kidnapping thriller, but that might just be because it reminds me of the scene in the first Craig "Bond" movie. I like this cover better, but the cheeky "Edge of your seat" blurb next to a photo of a chair by some random person named Bella, and the overly bright fuchsia colors bring my score down.

2/5

UK Version

   This is more like it. Once again, I have to tip my hat to the UK cover, which seems enigmatic and a bit dangerous. The water is beautiful, the colors are odd and the outfit is... European. I'm not a fan of the strangely damaged font they used for Howard's name, but a pretty strong cover. And I'd feel a bit less silly reading it. Unless the person that saw me had read a Linda Howard novel before. Then they'd be right for thinking I'm silly for reading one.

3/5