Tag Archives: book cover art

January 12, 2018 · 1:19 pm

Cover Reveal! — Glitch: Whispers in the Code

Guess what!

Today is the reveal for the cover of Glitch: Whispers in the Code!

*Squee!*

There’s several things that coincide with its release (new newsletter specifically for the Distant Horizon universe, updating the cover for Distant Horizon, and the new website for the Distant Horizon universe), so I’m trying to get everything organized. We’ve finished the read-aloud for Whispers in the Code, so all that’s left is formatting. Yay!

In the meantime, I’m proud to present the cover for the first book of the Glitch saga.

SBibb - Rising Sun Cog Divider

Upper YA/NA Sci-Fi with Horror Elements

SBibb - Glitch: Whispers in the Code Book Cover

SBibb - Rising Sun Cog Divider

Blurb:

A haunted airship made from living people…

Nineteen-year-old hacker Tim Zaytsev is a traitor, but he never expected his betrayal would earn him the highest honor among the international community—a place among the Camaraderie’s elite council.

Ushered into a glamorous lifestyle of fancy airships and a chance to use his programming skills to better the world, Tim is assigned the task of finishing their secret Legion Spore project—a living airship made from shapeshifters.

Inside the Legion Spore, dozens of humans have been forcibly hooked to the vessel’s computer, but fragments of their memories reside in the airship’s internal code as glitches. Their faces appear in the walls, and their whispers invade the code of the Camaraderie’s base. Tim’s ability to telepathically connect with computers means that he’s the only one who can make the ship fully functional.

But programming a computer is one thing. Dealing with a haunted, living airship will not only test Tim’s wit, but his sanity. If he can’t learn to trust himself and his abilities, his mind will be trapped in the Legion Spore as just another whisper in the code.

I don’t have store links yet, but in the meantime you can add it to your Goodreads shelf. 🙂

SBibb - Rising Sun Cog Divider

I hope you enjoyed this post! Stay tuned for updates about the release date and upcoming newsletter. 😀

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Filed under Book Covers, Business Ventures, Writing

Tagged as book cover, book cover art, cover reveal, fantasy, Glitch, horror, Infinitas Publishing, Isaac Flint, new adult series, new book, sci-fi, scifi with horror elements, Stephanie Flint, whispers in the code, young adult series

May 9, 2016 · 9:57 pm

Behind the Scenes – Red Sun Over Mexico

A cover for Melange Books. For this cover we wanted to stick with the same theme as the first book in the series, Red Sun Over Panama. I kept most of the same imagery, including quite a bit of the retouching I’d already done, and inserted an image symbolic of Mexico.

To figure out which image to use, I emailed the author about symbolism relevant in the book. Other than the Japanese Red Sun, pulled from the first cover to give this a historical touch, he mentioned the temples as a landmark. So that’s what we went with.

The publisher repurchased a licence for each of the images we used a second time, as well as picked up the new image we needed.

Keeping with the first cover, I hid part of the title behind the landmark. In this one, more of the title is hid than in the first, but I was careful to make sure that the title was still legible.

This is the end result:

SBibb - Red Sun Over Mexico - Back of Book Cover

Stock images from Dreamstime and Dollar Photo Club.

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Filed under Book Covers

Tagged as book cover art, book cover design, book covers, H. Paul Doucette, historical novels, Melange Books, photographic illustration, Red Sun Over Mexico, Red Sun Over Panama, SBibb, sequels, Stephanie Flint

April 22, 2016 · 7:37 pm

Behind the Scenes – The Rovers

This is a cover for Melange Books. For this cover, the author already had an idea of what image he wanted used for both the front and back. However, the stock image we looked at initially was marked “editorial only,” so that one wasn’t available. However, we did find a similar photograph on the Library of Congress website that didn’t have any known restrictions, in part due to its age.

So, though it was black and white, I retouched the image and filled it in with color, along with sharpening the picture. (Ironically, while I retouched the back cover image as well, I removed the color from that one). We also found a free font that resembled the baseball logo of the referenced team. This was the result:

Book Cover - The Rovers

I changed the border a bit for the front and back of the print covers, due to the trim lines.

Book Cover - The Rovers - Print Edition

Back of Book Cover - The Rovers

Primary stock images from the Library of Congress: https://www.loc.gov/item/91725980

We had a modern-day image we considered using, but couldn’t due to licencing restrictions.

Post Card Border from The Dollar Photo Club (Now Closed)

http://www.dreamstime.com/stock-photos-quinn-abbey-image18602883 – Churchyard

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Tagged as black and white pictures to color, book cover art, book covers, cover design, Paul Ferrante, photographic illustration, photomanipulation, retouching an old photograph, SBibb's Photographic Illustration, Stephanie Flint, The Rovers

March 16, 2016 · 6:23 pm

Behind the Scenes – In the Camp

This is a cover for Melange Books‘ young adult imprint. For this cover, the author wanted a symbol rather than a scene, and in their art form they mentioned that their story revolves around elves using nature to reclaim the modern human cities after a devastating war. Based on that, and since the author said that there was a phone that played a large role in the story, I tinkered with the idea of having an old, cracked phone on the cover.

Vines partially cover the phone (showing nature beginning to take over again), and I added the “reflection” in the phone’s screen to show more of the setting (a swampy area). To give the cover a dystopian feel, I used a couple grungy concrete textures in addition to the concrete background. For the text, I tried a bolder font to keep with the genre, and added a more “computery” text to the phone for the series title.

This is the result:

Book Cover - In the Camp

SBibb - ItCBackcoverBlog
Stock images from Dollar Photo Club:

https://www.dollarphotoclub.com/86638759 – concrete wall
https://www.dollarphotoclub.com/87991955 – ivy
https://www.dollarphotoclub.com/72301540 – cracked phone
https://www.dollarphotoclub.com/95588080 – Night Sky
https://www.dollarphotoclub.com/75505794 – abandoned warehouse
https://www.dollarphotoclub.com/69503655 – swamp
https://www.dollarphotoclub.com/84770412 – concrete grunge texture

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Filed under Book Covers, Uncategorized

Tagged as book cover art, book cover design, cover art, cover design, designing a book cover, In the Camp, Margeaux Nall, photographic manipulation, SBibb's Photographic Illustration, Stephanie Flint, YA dystopian, young adult book covers

November 20, 2015 · 6:46 pm

Behind the Scenes – A Day Without a Night – Book Cover

This is a cover for Melange Books. We wanted to match this with the cover for the first book in the series (Note: I did not make the cover for the first book), so we kept the black background and the same styles and general placement of the text. The author had a few ideas for symbols that they wanted to use, so they found the corresponding stock images. After tinkering a bit with placement, this is the final result:

Stock images from 123RF and Dollar Photo Club.

https://www.dollarphotoclub.com/Search?k=5187071 – sword
https://www.dollarphotoclub.com/Search?k=88389030 – background
http://www.123rf.com/search.php?word=29866867 – moon and sun emblem
http://www.123rf.com/search.php?word=10707247 – book

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Tagged as A Day without a Night, book cover, book cover art, book cover design, book covers, cover art, cover design, designing a book cover, fantasy, JTAdeline, Melange Books, Stephanie Flint, stock art

May 27, 2015 · 7:00 am

Behind the Scenes – Rogue

This cover (for Melange Books) one was an example of where having masked layers and the auto-align tool in Photoshop CS6 can be useful. This particular cover was comprised of 13 stock images in total, with a few of them being used more than once in various places across the manipulation (the explosion was made larger/smaller, flipped, and masked in different portions to create the multiple explosion effects). Not only that, but the two people were comprised of seven images, in order to create the pose that was requested. Made it really handy to have all the pieces in place, so all I had to do was replace the stock proof images with the full-sized ones (adjusted with auto-align, of course). My proofs tend to look fairly close to the final image, but not as smooth/retouched.

One part of this particular cover I wasn’t looking forward to finalizing was replacing all the little bullet holes with their full-sized stock image. However, once I got to looking closely (and tested placing the full-sized image), I realized I didn’t need to. The small size and texture affects rendered the slight watermark running through the particular bullet hole unnoticeable. So while the publisher picked up the stock for licencing reasons, I didn’t actually replace that particular stock image. Something handy to keep in mind when finalizing parts of covers that have a strong illustrated tendency to them (just don’t forget to purchase the original stock image).

This is the result:

SBibb - Rogue - Back of Book Cover

Stock images from Dreamstime:

http://www.dreamstime.com/royalty-free-stock-photo-giant-explosion-image11961605

http://www.dreamstime.com/stock-photos-miami-skyline-image18771783

http://www.dreamstime.com/stock-photo-office-building-image37590020

http://www.dreamstime.com/stock-photo-woman-soldier-beautiful-young-gun-image45220857

http://www.dreamstime.com/royalty-free-stock-photos-woman-military-clothes-army-girl-full-length-gray-background-image31818118

http://www.dreamstime.com/stock-image-elegant-young-handsome-bodybuilder-image23014601

http://www.dreamstime.com/royalty-free-stock-photography-young-man-gun-image19881447

http://www.dreamstime.com/stock-photos-handsome-man-sexy-outdoors-playful-smile-image33633873

http://www.dreamstime.com/royalty-free-stock-images-couple-photographing-themselves-beach-young-ocean-image33893019

http://www.dreamstime.com/stock-photo-beautiful-woman-military-clothes-isolated-sexy-fit-army-girl-full-length-white-image46894231

http://www.dreamstime.com/royalty-free-stock-photos-lone-hiker-brick-sidewalk-image939658

http://www.dreamstime.com/royalty-free-stock-photos-blue-fire-flames-image7329188

http://www.dreamstime.com/stock-photography-bullet-hole-image8175422

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Filed under Book Covers, Client Work, Photo Illustration

Tagged as action covers, book cover art, book cover design, cover art, cs6, laura ranger, Melange Books, photomanipulation, photoshop, rogue, SBibb, SBibb's Photographic Illustration, steve soderquist, thriller covers, using stock images

May 13, 2015 · 7:00 am

Behind the Scenes – The Curse of the Fairfield Witch

A cover for Melange Books.

For this one, the author and publisher already had a few of the stock images chosen that they wanted to use for the cover. I took what they had, tweaked the placement, added the title information, tinkered with coloring to give it the spooky graveyard look, then did the retouching.

Since they already had the model chosen, and already had the full-sized stock image, I went ahead and did the major retouches on the proof image. It saved time in the long run, especially since I made that image into a smart object so that I could easily move it around.

The author later found the background he liked, which I retouched and manipulated (removing the lampposts) to fit better with the graveyard in the story. We played with the idea of adding headstones in the background, but they proved to be too distracting on the near-final, so we removed those. Sometimes less is better, especially when you’re trying to design a cover that will catch the eye and not make the potential reader sit there trying to figure out what a particular element is. (Unless you want that particular surreal effect, then go for it).

For the back cover, the author requested we use one of my first proofs for the background, only edited to work as the back.

This is the result:

SBibb - The Curse of the Fairfield Witch - Back of Book Cover

Stock images from Dreamstime:

http://www.dreamstime.com/royalty-free-stock-photography-portrait-beautiful-gothic-girl-wearing-halloween-costume-studio-shot-black-background-image34206917

http://www.dreamstime.com/royalty-free-stock-image-old-misty-graveyard-night-mystery-group-tombstones-image34053926

http://www.dreamstime.com/royalty-free-stock-photography-gothic-graveyard-3-image12561567

http://www.dreamstime.com/royalty-free-stock-images-blue-fog-dark-forest-fog-night-image37184209

See the previous books in this series: Spirits of the Pirate House and Roberto’s Return

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Tagged as A T.J. Jackson Mystery, book cover art, book cover design, Dreamstime, Melange Books, Paul Ferrante, photographic illustration, photomanipulation, photoshop CS6, SBibb, SBibb's Photographic Illustration, Stephanie Flint, The Curse of the Fairfield Witch

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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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

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: