Oct.2 - cover
Thanks to everyone for dropping by and leaving the good words of support. Always good to hear your thoughts- critique, praise...I welcome it all.

Here's another cover I did for the fine folks at Harper Collins. This was a pretty cool story as the author, Katherine Langrish, draws from old Welsh tales (I believe Welsh) which gives it a really unique flavor in a very saturated genre.
When I submitted the sketches, they liked them all, and wanted to "frankenstein" a bit of each into one. The heroic pose from the first one, the setting and in the 2nd, and the horses in the background in the 3rd. I was just asked to leave out the "elf" creature. Although she is a major part of the story, she is a wild, feral looking thing, and they did not want to scare away younger readers. Would have been fun to include her...but I understand their point.

All digital - which I am slightly regretting, because I think it would have made nice oil. I gotta get those oils out more...the shame....the guilt.....

:)
Scott

New Cover- The Rush Job

An art director from Random House contacted me over the summer requesting a wraparound cover within 2 weeks. I was busy at the time so I declined. She then emailed me back saying the cover concept is already in place, and I would just need to get the front done in time for a sales pitch. The story seemed cool and the art director really seemed to be in a tough situation. So I took it.
At first the art director and I both wanted to explore a bit of my expressive / distorted figures, but as usual that didn't make it past marketing. I would say 90% of the time I am asked to stick to realism as it sells better. I totally understand this, but I love playing around with proportions and pushing things. It just doesn't have as much of a demand as the more realistic work out there.

The process was super fast for this. I would send a sketch in, get feedback, send another sketch in -get more feedback and that was it. I painted the front in time for the sales pitch, and later completed the rear of the wraparound.

I feel there is a slight gamble to rush jobs. If you underestimate some factors such as time, your energy , or complexity of the job you can turn in an image you might not be completely thrilled with. On the other hand, you can really put yourself in good graces with an art director by helping them out. Fortunately, everyone was pleased with the outcome. Of course, all artists rarely have praise for their own work - I am no different in that regard.

I received the wraparound without the book in the mail the other day, and I thought it would be cool to show the final product. I have a whole blog post about wraparounds in mind for the future. They are a somewhat different beast than the single, front cover illustration. For another time ....
Thank you-S.