Another cover for Melange Books.
So much stock. So many smart objects. O_O
Seriously, the smart objects may have been one of the most useful things for this particular project. That, and layers and groups. And working directly with the full-size images since the publisher had the stock subscription. I will say this was fun to do, largely because I was leaning towards creating something that reminded me of those old pulp science fiction covers. First thing that popped to mind when reading what they wanted for the cover. So… this is what resulted:
Again, so many layers. I pretty much piece-parted the lady. Since I was looking for a particular pose, one in which I could add a torn dress, I tried looking for a base model in relatively little clothing (hence the note that it may not be appropriate at school or work), then found the dress, and a tattered dress, and the head and kneeling pose. And the rope. And the logs.
More images went into this one part of the image than in most of my usual book cover designs. Cue same process with the wolf. Cowboy and horse. Cowboy not quite right clothing style, so let’s use stock from another horse rider’s pants to create the right texture and we’ll digitally paint the rest. Change colors. Add wolf head. Hat. Hat ornamentation. Ears… don’t forget ears. Give wolf expression. Add in weapon’s belt and saber. Tinker with lady smart object and wolf smart object for best positioning. Reposition the saber. He’s supposed to be rescuing the lady, not stabbing her. Add background. Not necessarily in that order. Play with lighting.
Voila! Done! 😀
So, if you want to see all the original pieces, look no further:
Stock Images From Dreamstime:
Woman:
http://www.dreamstime.com/royalty-free-stock-photos-tied-hands-image16075868
http://www.dreamstime.com/stock-photo-environment-marsh-wetlands-image13942960
(Note: This one might not be work/school appropriate) http://www.dreamstime.com/royalty-free-stock-photos-bondage-style-sexy-woman-dressed-lingerie-image28236238
http://www.dreamstime.com/stock-photo-fluttering-hair-beautiful-young-woman-white-dress-studio-dark-background-image31721650
http://www.dreamstime.com/royalty-free-stock-photos-pretty-blonde-image27702508
http://www.dreamstime.com/royalty-free-stock-photography-wood-image14293727
http://www.dreamstime.com/royalty-free-stock-photo-cutting-dress-sexy-woman-ripped-cut-wedding-holding-scissors-image33608235
Werewolf:
http://www.dreamstime.com/stock-image-wolf-rock-bavaria-forest-germany-image32146421
http://www.dreamstime.com/royalty-free-stock-photography-us-cavalry-hat-isolated-white-image30307817
http://www.dreamstime.com/royalty-free-stock-photos-man-riding-horse-snow-image12987028
http://www.dreamstime.com/stock-photography-rearing-horse-image20507052
http://www.dreamstime.com/stock-photos-heritage-days-image2981113
http://www.dreamstime.com/stock-photography-russian-dragoon-saber-sabre-cavalry-sword-image5451252
http://www.dreamstime.com/stock-photo-19th-century-cavalry-saber-image24282160
Stephanie Flint - Author and Artist 
Brilliant Cover Stephanie, makes my book cover efforts look puny but I genuinely and gladly bow to your greatness and skill 🙂
Thanks! I’m glad you like it it. 🙂
Do you have your book cover designs online anywhere? I’d be curious to see them. 🙂
Only on one of my blog sections, they can be seen at:
http://thestoryreadingapebookcase.wordpress.com
The images are mainly to let people see what I can do with my 3D software at present, but I’ll be making a post in January to show how they can be converted into nice Book Covers, complete with Titles and author names,
Four covers I made and are already published are at:
http://thestoryreadingapeblog.com/tsra-doings/
I’d appreciate any comments or advice from you Stephanie 🙂
Cool, thanks for sharing. 🙂
The first thing that came to mind might be working with typography when you’re putting the covers together. It’s a part I struggle with, and I like to look at recent covers in the genre I’m working on and try to mimic the style. Spacing of letters, placement, and font. I picked up a pack of some 10,000 fonts a while back at a reasonable price, and I use those quite often. Granted, I try to avoid using some of the over-used ones, but it gave me a wide selection to choose from.
I’m not too familiar with 3D modeling (obviously I tend to work with stock photos), but I think your stronger points are your landscapes/space-scapes. Since I haven’t worked as with 3D software, I’m not sure what exactly to suggest, but I’m thinking you might want to play with blending some of the elements in a bit more, maybe with the use of additional textures. If you can, try pulling the image from the 3D software into a program like photoshop, and tinker with finalizing it in there. 🙂
Hopefully that might be of some help. 🙂
That’s a great help Stephanie, thank you for taking the time to look and help me, I’ll certainly try out those ideas 🙂
You’re welcome. I’m glad I could help. 🙂