Category Archives: Client Work

December 3, 2014 · 7:00 am

Behind the Scenes – For the Love of Ruthie

This is a cover for Melange Books.

For this cover, I wanted to portray a happy, light-hearted tone, so I used bright, vivid colors. I also used a font with a swirly influence to give the title and author name a fun, romantic feel. The pig is Ruthie, so I gave it a prominent place on the cover. The text I wrapped around the couple in the scene so that the faces remained clear. The author requested that there also be a cat and tri-colored basset hound pup on the cover, so I included them near the couple’s feet.

Once the concept was approved, I blended the full-sized stock images together (using multiple layers and masking, and retouching the background between layers).

This is the result:

Stock images from Dreamstime:

http://www.dreamstime.com/stock-photography-young-couple-standing-over-white-background-image37973502
http://www.dreamstime.com/royalty-free-stock-photos-cute-basset-puppy-image23115808
http://www.dreamstime.com/royalty-free-stock-photos-pink-pot-bellied-pig-image29172888
http://www.dreamstime.com/royalty-free-stock-image-abandoned-wooden-farm-house-image23179806
http://www.dreamstime.com/royalty-free-stock-images-cat-yawning-image19233539

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Filed under Book Covers, Client Work, Photo Illustration

Tagged as book cover design, book covers, creating a fun romance cover, farm romance, For the Love of Ruthie, Melange Books, photographic illustration, romance novel, SBibb, Stephanie Bibb, Stephanie Flint, Tenaya E. Jacob

November 26, 2014 · 7:00 am

Behind the Scenes – Tangled Roots

This is a cover for Rebekkah Ford. I’ve created the cover for her Beyond the Eyes trilogy, and this is a New Adult companion novel. Unlike the previous covers, this one uses primarily stock images. We tinkered a lot with finding the right font for the book. I also played a lot with creating the right mood for the cover. I ended up finding a decent tutorial on how to turn a day shot into night (see the end of the post for a link). I also used a bit of digital illustration to get everything blended right and to add the roots around the girl on the cover.

And this is a promo piece (a rack card) I did for this book:

You can buy the book here: http://www.amazon.com/Tangled-Roots-Rebekkah-Ford-ebook/dp/B00NH84NNW/ref=la_B00896OMB0_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1414362849&sr=1-1

Stock images from iStock:

http://www.istockphoto.com/stock-photo-3484986-sad.php?st=bf175e0
http://www.istockphoto.com/stock-photo-24247276-south-carolina-lowcountry-angel-oak-tree-charleston-sc-nature-scenic.php?st=3795837
http://www.istockphoto.com/stock-photo-36846782-full-moon.php?st=4df0d5b

Useful tutorial for making a day image look like night: http://www.ephotozine.com/article/how-to-turn-your-day-shot-into-night-with-photoshop-14852

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Filed under Book Covers, Client Work, Photo Illustration

Tagged as Beyond the Eyes, book cover art, book cover design, how to turn day shot into night, istock, NA, new adult, paranormal romance, photo illustration, Rebekkah Ford, SBibb, SBibb's Photographic Illustration, Stephanie Flint, Tangled Roots, witch

November 12, 2014 · 7:00 am

Behind the Scenes – The Doors

This is a cover for Melange Books.

For this one, I used texture overlay (the mosaic around the edge), as well as scene creation to create the desired stormy atmosphere and remove some of the birds from the original haunted house stock photo. I added in the girl, then at the author’s request, gave her longer hair. There are benefits to finding pictures where the hair is similar in color and goes roughly the desired direction you want it to go.

My original proof for this cover was too dark and gray, looking more like a horror novel than paranormal, so I lightened it a bit with the various blue and green tones to give it the sea/ocean-side feel, while still keeping the stormy atmosphere.

For this blog post, I’ve also included what I did for the back of the book. I usually keep these fairly simple, and in this case, I took part of the stock image that wasn’t used on the front cover to complete the back. That way the atmosphere remained consistent, while offering something a little different to look at. I used the same texture overlays and adjustment modes to keep the covers consistent, and included the publisher’s logo and barcode information on the back. I also include a separate layer with the author name and book title, that way the publisher can adjust for the spine as needed. I also flipped the back cover image so the white clouds act as a line, leading the eye back to the spine, and so that the dark blue mosaic would act as a frame.

Stock images from Dreamstime:

http://www.dreamstime.com/royalty-free-stock-photo-man-walking-field-towards-haunted-house-scary-dark-atmosphere-image35050105
http://www.dreamstime.com/royalty-free-stock-images-dark-storm-clouds-image2046209
http://www.dreamstime.com/stock-photo-calgary-beach-mull-scotland-bay-located-north-west-framed-low-hills-broad-area-machair-grassy-meadow-image42890362
http://www.dreamstime.com/stock-images-beautiful-teenage-girl-outdoors-portrait-jeans-wear-looking-away-image36670484
http://www.dreamstime.com/royalty-free-stock-image-broken-green-wall-tiles-image19929346
http://www.dreamstime.com/royalty-free-stock-photos-sad-girl-image22656428

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Filed under Book Covers, Client Work, Photo Illustration

Tagged as Alice J. Black, book cover design, cover art, designing a back cover, designing a book cover, horror, Melange Books, paranormal, SBibb, Stephanie Bibb, Stephanie Flint, the Doors, ya, young adult

October 29, 2014 · 8:00 am

Behind the Scenes – Mira’s Hope

This is the cover for the sequel to Mira’s View, from Melange Books.

For this cover, I wanted to keep the same style as the first, with the prominent characters and soft background, as well as the text placement. I added in the snow (see the link at the bottom of this post for the tutorial I referenced) to bring everything together and add extra “oomph.” We experimented with a couple different backgrounds before choosing this one. I also included a second character who plays a large role in the story, and considered bringing in a third character, except that I worried the cover would look busy. I was able to use the same models (Yes, plural. Body and head were different, so as to fit the character description) for the female character, though I did use different stock images of them to help keep the covers varied. It’s the benefit to using Dreamtime’s “Other Stock Images With This Model” link when searching for suitable images. We also included a logline, provided by the author, to help create interest in the story. This is the result:

Stock images from Dreamstime:

http://www.dreamstime.com/stock-image-elf-image37703101
http://www.dreamstime.com/stock-image-portrait-young-beautiful-woman-long-flowin-image24770171
http://www.dreamstime.com/stock-photography-old-rusted-broadsword-image24282162

http://www.dreamstime.com/stock-photography-snow-winter-wood-image13044892

http://www.dreamstime.com/royalty-free-stock-image-man-long-hair-sword-down-holding-to-his-serious-expression-his-face-image36385946
http://www.dreamstime.com/stock-image-attractive-young-man-long-hair-image23350511

Useful snow tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0-4p_65vxQ

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Filed under Book Covers, Client Work, Photo Illustration

Tagged as cover art, designing book covers, Dreamstime, Erin Elliott, including logline on book cover, Melange Books, Mira's Hope, Mira's View, Other Stock Images With This Model, photographic illustration, SBibb, SBibb's, sequel book covers, Stephanie Bibb, Stephanie Flint, stock images, wrap-around book cover, wraparound cover, YA covers

October 15, 2014 · 8:00 am

Behind the Scenes – Murder In the Cards

A cover for Melange Books, the sequel to Murder in her Dreams.

For this cover I kept to the same, dreamlike colors and textures as the previous book, only this time with symbolism from the second. I kept the same text placement and fonts (and border style), so series/brand recognition can be easily recognized. I also worked to have a central focus on the cover, while blending the various images so they would seamlessly morph from one image to the next.

This is the end result:

Stock images from Dreamstime:

http://www.dreamstime.com/royalty-free-stock-photography-old-grunge-creased-paper-texture-perfect-retro-vintage-background-image30556007
http://www.dreamstime.com/stock-photo-teen-witch-tarot-card-image8216840
http://www.dreamstime.com/royalty-free-stock-photo-cobra-2-image14695145
http://www.dreamstime.com/royalty-free-stock-photography-man-running-work-out-image23320007
http://www.dreamstime.com/stock-photography-grunge-background-old-style-rusty-image35967692

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Filed under Book Covers, Client Work

Tagged as book cover design, cover art, Dreamstime, Melange Books, Murder In Her, Murder In the Cards, Nell DuVall, photographic illustration, SBibb, Stephanie Bibb, Stephanie Flint

September 17, 2014 · 8:14 pm

Behind the Scenes – Bluffing Is Murder

This is a cover for Barking Rain Press.

For this one, the publisher wanted to keep the style used on the previous cover in this series. So we stuck to the same cover model, though we did use different pictures of the same model to create this image, since she looked a bit too happy for this cover in most of her summery images. Though I didn’t use the same font, I tried to keep it close. Other than that, I worked to blend the various elements of the cover to create the scene for this mystery novel.

Stock images from Shutterstock:

http://www.shutterstock.com/pic.mhtml?id=204693931
http://www.shutterstock.com/pic.mhtml?id=33978022
http://www.shutterstock.com/pic.mhtml?id=92073581
http://www.shutterstock.com/pic.mhtml?id=204693934
http://www.shutterstock.com/pic.mhtml?id=202591288

All other images (textures) are my own.

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Filed under Book Covers, Client Work

Tagged as A Lauren Rousseau Mystery, Barking Rain Press, Bluffing Is Murder, cover art, cover design, murder mystery, mystery novel, photographic illustration, photomanipulation, SBibb, scene creation, shutterstock, Stephanie Flint, Tace Baker

August 27, 2014 · 7:00 am

Behind the Scenes – Seven Days to Goodbye

A cover for Barking Rain Press.

For this one, the main character is training an Australian Shepherd, and since the main stock image we wanted to use had a different breed of dog, I ended up swapping out dogs. We tried a couple different versions, but this is the one we finally settled on. We also changed the girl’s hairstyle. In order to get everything to look natural, I used Photoshop CS6’s overlay blend mode in layers and used the black and white paint brushes to change the lighting of her hair so that it would match the lay of the hoodie underneath. I also applied lighting techniques to the dog, and covered part of the dog’s paws to look more natural.

This is the result:

Stock images from Shutterstock:

http://www.shutterstock.com/pic.mhtml?id=91979300
http://www.shutterstock.com/pic.mhtml?id=3724855
http://www.shutterstock.com/pic.mhtml?id=86808145

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Filed under Book Covers, Client Work, Photo Illustration

Tagged as Barking Rain Press, book cover art, book cover design, contemporary fiction, photographic illustration, photoshop CS6, SBibb, Seven Days to Goodbye, Sheri S. Levy, shutterstock, Stephanie Flint, stock images

August 20, 2014 · 7:00 am

Behind the Scenes – SirenSong

Another cover for Melange Books.

For this one, I wanted to convey the idea that the man is the siren, and so I used the fish scale texture and a sort of rippling texture (a slightly Gaussian blurred image of quartz) to hint at the idea of the ocean. The author requested the gold and red tones, and mentioned that the siren works at a theatre, so I played with those colors and the background to give the cover a richer, classy feel. While I usually peruse Dreamstime for stock images, for this one, I looked through the images that Melange Books had purchased earlier during their stock subscription to see if anything matched.

This is the end result:

Stock images from Dreamstime:

http://www.dreamstime.com/royalty-free-stock-photos-young-guy-long-hair-naked-image23337038
http://www.dreamstime.com/royalty-free-stock-photos-gothic-castle-interior-image9182498
http://www.dreamstime.com/royalty-free-stock-image-rose-quartz-vertical-image858416
http://www.dreamstime.com/royalty-free-stock-photos-skin-blue-siamese-fighting-fish-image7645918

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Filed under Book Covers, Client Work, Photo Illustration

Tagged as book cover art, book cover design, Dreamstime, Gaussian blur, Megan Hussey, Melange Books, photographic illustration, romance, romance cover design, SBibb, siren, SirenSong, Stephanie Bibb, Stephanie Flint, textures

August 13, 2014 · 7:00 am

Behind the Scenes – Fallenwood

Another cover for Melange Books.

This is actually for the book prior to Forgetting Fallenwood, but the book is being re-released by Melange Books, and so it’s getting a new cover. For this one, I tried capturing the feel of the other covers I’ve done for this series, including text placement, colors, blur effects, and the fonts I used. I quite enjoyed playing with the concept of the unicorn, as well. The author had mentioned on the art form that it might be neat to have the unicorn somewhere on the cover. I took the idea and ran. 🙂

This is the end result:

Stock images from Dreamstime:

http://www.dreamstime.com/stock-photo-black-horse-runs-image14200120
http://www.dreamstime.com/royalty-free-stock-photography-woodland-glade-image22617867
http://www.dreamstime.com/royalty-free-stock-images-wild-eland-image5106959

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Filed under Book Covers, Client Work, Photo Illustration

Tagged as black unicorn, book cover art, book cover design, book covers, Fallenwood, fantasy, fantasy novel, Leslie D. Soule, novel, photographic illustration, SBibb, Stephanie Bibb, Stephanie Flint, unicorn

August 6, 2014 · 7:00 am

Behind the Scenes – Moth and Rust

Another cover for Melange Books.

Oiy, this one was a doozy. I finally got a chance to play with anthropomorphic characters again, and these aren’t your usual species… here we have a spiny anteater and an armadillo. Let’s just say I got to really play with character creation and setting creation. This one took a bunch of stock photos to complete, and this is an example of where it’s helpful to have a stock subscription to be able to pick up everything at a lower cost. Melange Books had the stock subscription, so that helped. I put together the mock first, and then did the final tweaks once we had the basics. Some stuff went together really easily with the use of auto-align layers, while other pieces had to be separately liquefied or smudged or drawn in. Meanwhile, I tried using fonts and word placement as close to the previous books in this series as possible (we were trying to give the series a more ‘adult’ feel to it by changing styles), while keeping the consistency.

Overall, I’m really pleased with the final result.