To Share a Piece of Sky

I recently finished work on a new book cover project called 'To Share a Piece of Sky' by Paul Ljucovic. It was a challenge to make such a location specific with a night scene romance but I think it was well worth it in the end. Even if the lighting could of been better. But as the saying goes we are our own worst critic.

Here is the first round of thumbnails I did. The funny thing is the very first one was the ones that the author chose for me to finish off. Sometimes our first instinct are the best.

So even though the rough sketch was approved I still was not happy about the composition since I was afraid that it was too evenly balanced. So I pulled the frame out and included more background. The plan was that if I had more options to crop down from then I could 'find' a better composition.

So the funny thing is that even after building out the surrounding areas the composition that ended up being the winner and best choice was basically the one that I had started out with. Sometimes those instincs as just darn annoying things, especially when they show us up in the end.

Abattoir

Abattoir

This time around I made a horror book cover with a mainstream feeling. I was contacted by Stan Swanson to make a book cover for Abattoir by Christopher Leppek and Emanuel Isler under the publisher Dark Moon Books.


The first round was more of an exploration of the building and little girl.

While the second round I got to play with the hierarchy between the girl, background and building. Personally I liked the first and third.

And finally I worked on the color and finishing details. The bricks were killers but I think that they were well worth the time I spent on them instead of sleeping.

 

Now all that is left is to wait for the book to go on sale.