Tag Archives: cover design

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

Leave a comment

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

January 20, 2016 · 6:59 pm

Behind the Scenes – A Wolf Slayer Saga: Sword of Doom

This is a cover for Melange Books. For this cover, we based the style on the first book, Dragon Sword (See the cover of the first book here). The wolf at the top of the cover is the same, as is the placement of the text, and the border on the right side of the book. We also used the same model, though I used two separate images to get the right mood for the cover. I also did a bit of work with the puppet warp and liquefy tools in Photoshop CS6 to get the right build for the character (You can see the original photos in the link of stock images below).

This is the result:

SBibb - Sword of Doom Back of Book Cover
Stock images from The Dollar Photo Club:

2 Comments

Filed under Book Covers, Client Work

Tagged as book cover, cover art, cover design, designing a book cover, epic fantasy, fantasy, Melange Books, photographic illustration, photomanipulation, Richard Dawes, series design, Stephanie Flint, stock images, Sword of Doom, The Wolf Slayer Saga, using multiple stock images in a cover

January 8, 2016 · 9:10 pm

Behind The Scenes – The Devil’s Third Book Cover Remake

Lately, I’ve been working on remaking the book covers for Rebekkah Ford’s Beyond the Eyes trilogy, and I just finished remaking the cover for the final book, The Devil’s Third. (You can see the other two book covers remade: Beyond the Eyes and Dark Spirits).

For the updated version, we settled on using an angel as the character on the cover. The author found a couple images she liked (we cycled through a few before choosing these two), and got the advice of her fans before settling on the current model. Then I found an older image I’d taken of a bird with outstretched wings, did some inversions to the colors (this was actually the inner portion of the wings, rather than the outside shot), and put together the composite image. Of course, we also tried to stick with the same placement and feel of the other two covers.

Needless to say, I think I’ve improved a lot since I first started making book covers. Now, here’s the remake of Rebekkah Ford’s The Devil’s Third, a paranormal romance.

Before:

SBibb - The Devil's Third - Wrap-Around Book Cover

After:

SBibb - The Devil's Third - Wrap-around Book Cover Remake

Stock images from Shutterstock:

http://www.shutterstock.com/pic.mhtml?id=95544481 – man

http://www.shutterstock.com/pic.mhtml?id=309884051 – graveyard

All other images are my own.

Leave a comment

Filed under Book Covers, Client Work

Tagged as Beyond the Eyes, book cover design, book cover remake, book covers, cover art, cover design, creating a book cover, designing a book cover, paranormal book covers, paranormal romance, Rebekkah Ford, SBibb's Photographic Illustration, series, Stephanie Flint, The Devil's Third, trilogy

December 16, 2015 · 8:49 pm

Behind the Scenes – One More Night – Book Cover

For this cover, we wanted to keep to a similar theme as the first book, Separate Lives, but with enough differences to show the different tone and themes. So I kept the same general format and images, but found new silhouettes to link to the new characters. To distinguish the modern-day character, I gave him a dark, shadowy appearance that still let some of his features show through, unlike the ghostly characters in the background. For the back cover, I simply changed the color scheme of the first book’s back cover to mimic the color scheme of the second book.

This is the result:

SBibb -One More Night - Book Cover Back

Stock images from Dreamstime:

http://www.dreamstime.com/stock-photo-judge-gavel-image16964080 – gavel
http://www.dreamstime.com/stock-photography-texture-creamy-white-rice-paper-torn-edges-isolated-white-background-image29821402 – paper texture
http://www.dreamstime.com/stock-images-brown-package-paper-torn-to-reveal-white-panel-ideal-copy-space-image34962594 – torn paper texture

Stock images from Dollar Photo Club:
https://www.dollarphotoclub.com/Search?k=77165739 – saloon
https://www.dollarphotoclub.com/Search?k=95395250 – lady
https://www.dollarphotoclub.com/Search?k=60664546 – farm guy
https://www.dollarphotoclub.com/Search?k=70544393 – captain
https://www.dollarphotoclub.com/Search?k=80095962 – man

Leave a comment

Filed under Book Covers, Client Work

Tagged as book cover design, cover art, cover design, design process, designing a book cover, Melange Books, One More Night, photographic illustration, publishing, Rhonda Strehlow, sequel covers, Stephanie Flint, stock imagery, stock images, using stock images in book covers, using stock images on 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

2 Comments

Filed under Book Covers, Client Work

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

November 11, 2015 · 5:25 pm

Behind the Scenes – Dark Spirits – Book Cover Remake

This is a cover for Rebekkah Ford. For this cover, we were revamping an older series of covers I did for her a few years ago. The goal was to more clearly give the books the paranormal romance aspect (rather than horror), and possibly center the books toward an older audience. (You can see the new cover for Beyond the Eyes here, and you can check out Rebekkah Ford’s website here).

Before:

After:

For the new covers, we chose models with visible faces, and we’ve been placing them in approximately the same position for each cover. We’ve also changed the text to be more straight-forward. The back covers are easier to read and now include an author bio and photograph. I also made the testimonials easier to spot. Overall, this should have a more professional look. (Not that the originals were bad, but my skills have improved, and book cover trends have changed).

Stock images from Shutterstock:

http://www.shutterstock.com/pic.mhtml?id=133833233 – man
http://www.shutterstock.com/pic.mhtml?id=237688516 – spooky entrance

1 Comment

Filed under Book Covers

Tagged as before and after, Beyond the Eyes, book cover design, book cover redesign, book cover remake, cover art, cover design, cover remakes, Dark Spirits, new adult, paranormal romance, Rebekkah Ford, revamping a book cover, Stephanie Flint, young adult

September 7, 2015 · 8:17 pm

Behind the Scenes – A Wolf Slayer Saga: Dragon Sword

This is a cover for Melange Books. Since we knew we had a sequel coming, we put a little more focus in setting up the basic structure of the cover… the wolf head at top, the series name on the side, and the placement of the title and author name. We also played with the mood, choosing the dark blue color for the forest and the red of the title to create a dramatic, dangerous tone. We chose a model with multiple poses, though I did a bit of photomanipulation to make him look more like how the character is described in the book. I also made both him and the wolf have a more noticeable scowl, and I played with the depth of field to put more of the emphasis on the model.

For the back cover I went with a simple leather texture to match the edge of the front cover with the series title. This is the end result:

SBibb - Dragon Sword - Back Cover

Stock images from The Dollar Photo Club:

https://www.dollarphotoclub.com/64831097 – leather texture
https://www.dollarphotoclub.com/48895294 – wolf head
https://www.dollarphotoclub.com/59929394 – swordsman
https://www.dollarphotoclub.com/45294831 – snarling wolf
https://www.dollarphotoclub.com/58438380 – winter forest
https://www.dollarphotoclub.com/19521274 – wolf group

2 Comments

Filed under Book Covers, Photo Illustration

Tagged as A Wolf Slayer Saga, cover creation, cover design, Dragon Sword, fantasy covers, Melange Books, photographic illustration, photomanipulation, Richard Dawes, SBibb, Stephanie Flint, Valka the Wolf Slayer

September 2, 2015 · 8:00 pm

Behind the Scenes – Sojourn: The Deadlands

This is a cover for Melange Books. For this cover, we chose to keep the theme similar to the first book in the series, Sojourn: The Wildlands. To do this, we kept a few key elements: the two characters walking with their backs to the reader, a desolate landscape, similar placement of the title treatment and author name, along with the late evening lighting. Though we tried a couple different proofs before this, we found this one to have the strongest appeal.

This is the end result:

SBibb - Sojourn: The Deadlands - Back of Book Cover

Stock images from The Dollar Photo Club:

6 Comments

Filed under Book Covers, Photo Illustration

Tagged as BD Messick, cover art, cover design, Melange Books, photographic illustration, photomanipulation, post-apocalyptic, Sojourn: the Deadlands, Stephanie Flint, ya, young adult

August 5, 2015 · 8:00 am

Behind the Scenes – Orphans’ Inn

A cover for Melange Books. For this cover, we wanted to give the book a historical feel. The author had found an image of the actual inn in the story, which I used to look for similar buildings. Though we ultimately chose to focus on the feel of the book, rather than use an exact image, the author was able to obtain permission to use a cropped photo of the inn on the back cover. So the picture of the actual inn will be on the back cover, a piece of history that adds to the book’s theme.

I used a similar treatment for both the front and back of the book, using the picture of paper that was nailed to a wall as the guidelines for a frame. The composite image on the front gives a feel for the time period, characters involved, and genre, while the back cover provides room for text. I adjusted the back cover image to make room for the barcode and publisher information.

This was my first time using stock from the Dollar Photo Club, a new stock site that Melange Books uses. While I found that the comp images were very small (which made it hard to render a full mask, which I can usually do with comps from Dreamstime), the final image quality is about the same. I had no problems using Photoshop to resize and align the images with the proof cover.

This is the end result:

SBibb - Orphans' Inn - Back Cover
Stock images from The Dollar Photo Club:

https://www.dollarphotoclub.com/80507187 – map texture
https://www.dollarphotoclub.com/61586012 – town
https://www.dollarphotoclub.com/73464105 – wagon
https://www.dollarphotoclub.com/56496709– girl body
https://www.dollarphotoclub.com/65625942 – curly hair
https://www.dollarphotoclub.com/84585040 – paper on wall

3 Comments

Filed under Book Covers, Photo Illustration

Tagged as Bullocks Inn, cover art, cover design, historical cover art, historical novel, Martha Deeringer, Melange Books, Orphans' Inn, photographic illustration, photomanipulation, Stephanie Flint, YA historical

May 6, 2015 · 7:00 am

Behind the Scenes – Mira’s Last

A cover for Melange Books. This is the third in The Sword of Lumina series. (See the previous covers: Mira’s View and Mira’s Hope ). Though I used a similar model for the face, I was able to find a working image of the same model for the body, then made sure the style of the covers matched the complete series. The title placement remained the same, while the mood of each cover was matched to the mood of the particular book.