Tag Archives: Melange Books

May 20, 2016 · 2:00 pm

Behind the Scenes – Sword of the Quest

A cover for Melange Books. For this cover, we wanted to match the covers of the previous books, Dragon Sword and Sword of Doom. The font and border placement remained the same, as did the leather textured background. The difference was the scene on the front. We tried a couple cover options before we came to this particular setup. (As a note, if you’re the cover artist working on multiple books in a series, and you have all the art forms for each of those books, make sure you don’t accidentally blend ideas from each form.)

Since there’s a lot going on in this cover, the lighting played an important role in balancing the cover. I made sure to have the main character fully lit, and thus in the spotlight. Next up was the woman, but I put her in slight shadow. The reader’s gaze falls first on the man, then her, then finally on the cloaked shadow in the background. The cloaked figure I shadowed the most. Partially because the figure is supposed to be mysterious, but also so the figure doesn’t attract the initial attention from the main character. Then, once all the pieces were in place, I added the specific lighting from the emerald, that way the whole scene fell together.

For the runes on the altar, I drew them in one color on a separate layer and then tinkered with the “bevel and emboss” special effect until they looked like they were part of the stone.

This is the result:

Behind the Scenes - Sword of the Quest - Book Cover

Stock images from The Dollar Photo Club (Stock site sold to Adobe Stock, individual links no longer work): katana // wolf // woman’s head / man’s arm / man’s legs / man’s torso
Stock images from Dreamstime:
http://www.dreamstime.com/stock-photo-angkor-wat-temple-inside-corridor-walls-cambodia-image26822490 – temple

http://www.dreamstime.com/royalty-free-stock-image-leather-clad-warrior-image265556 – leather tunic

http://www.dreamstime.com/stock-photography-ancient-roman-stone-pedestal-image12983352 – stone pedestal

http://www.dreamstime.com/stock-photo-emerald-isolated-image16275280 – emerald

http://www.dreamstime.com/stock-photo-dangerous-vampire-catacombs-full-skulls-bones-horror-fantasy-image64756682 – cloaked figure

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Tagged as book cover design, book covers, cover art, cover design, covers, designing a book cover, fantasy, fantasy art, Melange Books, photographic illustration, Richard Dawes, scenes on covers, series of book covers, Stephanie Flint, Sword of the Quest, Valka the Wolf Slayer Saga, Working with books in a 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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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

March 25, 2016 · 2:00 pm

Behind the Scenes – On A Midnight Clear

This is a cover for Melange Books. For this cover, the author wanted something that showed a cabin in a snowy region and kept with the dark mood of the story. They had already found an image that they felt worked well, so I was able to find a similar one from the stock site we normally use in order to create the cover.

My first attempt at a proof for this cover included silhouettes of the characters, but it didn’t convey the right mood. So I went a more simple route, using the mysterious, dark purple color as the base of the cover, with a narrow focus on the cabin in question. I also changed my initial font to something a bit more bold.

This is the result:

Book Cover - On A Midnight Clear

Back of Book Cover - On A Midnight Clear

Stock image from Dollar Photo Club:

https://www.dollarphotoclub.com/70616736 – cabin

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Tagged as book cover design, book covers, cover art, designing a book cover, designing a novel cover, ebook covers, Henry Hoffman, Melange Books, mysterious book covers, mystery, On A Midnight Clear, Stephanie Flint, thriller

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:

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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

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

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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

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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

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

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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:

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

August 12, 2015 · 8:00 am

Behind the Scenes – Oh Wicked Escort

A cover for Melange Books. For this cover, the author already had a pretty good idea of what they wanted it to look like, and they provided a mockup along with the art form.

My job, then, was to find the appropriate stock images, the right font, and position those images based on what they had. In addition, I added the gilded, embossed effects to enhance the feeling that the book came from the particular era. I was a little concerned about being able to find an actual omnibus, as they requested, but once I went to the idea of using the gilded effect, I searched through the stock site’s illustrations along with photos, and found something that worked. This is the end result:

SBibb - OWEbackcoverblog
Stock images from Dreamstime:

http://www.dreamstime.com/royalty-free-stock-images-brown-leather-book-cover-image7811399
http://www.dreamstime.com/royalty-free-stock-images-vector-image-omnibus-th-century-image30204939
http://www.dreamstime.com/stock-photo-street-lamp-isolated-white-background-image51506457

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Tagged as book cover design, book covers, cover illustration, DL Robinson, historical suspense, Melange Books, Oh Wicked Escort, photographic illustration, SBibb, Stephanie Flint, Victorian London

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: