Tag Archives: Melange Books

July 8, 2015 · 8:00 am

Behind the Scenes – Blood Loss

A cover for Melange Books. For this cover, we wanted to have the dark color scheme while keeping the cover light enough that the colors wouldn’t go to black in the print version. So I created the basic scene first, then played with multiple color options once those basics were in place. For the castle’s glow, I masked out all the windows, then tinkered with the lighting on layers below the castle layer. Once I had the light source, I added ‘soft light’ and ‘overlay’ layers over the castle layer. I typically use dark blue/purple for shadows, and yellow for highlights.

The proof version was fairly blurry, due to using comp images. Comp images are handy when you’re trying to see if the idea will work or not. When I created the near-final, I smoothed out the blending and adjusted how strong the gaussian blur was on the background layers, thus making it considerably sharper. Once you have the full-sized stock images, it becomes much easier to smooth out edges and see how sharp it will really go.

For the back cover, I stepped back several layers, removed the man and castle, adjusted my retouch layers, then flipped the merged image horizontally. This is the result:

SBibb - Blood Loss - Back of Book Cover

Stock images from Dreamstime:

http://www.dreamstime.com/royalty-free-stock-photo-jagged-rocks-edge-cliff-desert-image29674305

http://www.dreamstime.com/stock-photo-edge-cliff-turquoise-ocean-image47133437

http://www.dreamstime.com/stock-image-morning-fog-mountains-image22074991

http://www.dreamstime.com/stock-photography-fog-lake-image37546892

http://www.dreamstime.com/stock-photo-ruins-tintern-abbey-former-cistercian-church-th-wales-banks-river-wye-close-to-english-border-image44804119

http://www.dreamstime.com/stock-photo-beautiful-dark-woman-black-robe-sword-fantasy-legend-image48884659

http://www.dreamstime.com/royalty-free-stock-image-smoke-background-image27490166

http://www.dreamstime.com/stock-photos-floating-smoke-black-background-image36147493

http://www.dreamstime.com/royalty-free-stock-photos-hooded-man-image9241498

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Filed under Book Covers, Client Work, Photo Illustration

Tagged as Blood Loss, book cover design, fantasy, fantasy book cover art, Mathias Colwell, Mathias GB Colwell, Melange Books, photographic illustration, publishing, SBibb, Stephanie Flint

July 1, 2015 · 8:00 am

Behind the Scenes – Dusk Runner

A cover for Melange Books. For this one, we focused on conveying the genre of the book, rather than particular characters. As such, people who like other fantasy books in a similar vein to this one can easily recognize another book they might enjoy. The author suggested covers similar to those of Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series, which reminded me of the cover art for Game of Thrones. I merged the two styles, and this is the result:

For the back cover, I flipped the background from the front cover with a few adjustments. Also, I saved the bow and arrow silhouette as a smart object so that it could easily be resized and added to the spine if the publisher chooses to do so.

SBibb - Dusk Runner - Back of Book Cover

Stock images from Dreamstime:

http://www.dreamstime.com/stock-images-brown-leather-texture-image21958744
http://www.dreamstime.com/stock-photos-old-yellow-brown-vintage-parchment-paper-texture-image24082203
http://www.dreamstime.com/royalty-free-stock-image-ethnic-arrows-image22897606
http://www.dreamstime.com/stock-image-bow-image11349751

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Tagged as book cover design, cover art, Dusk Runner, fantasy novel covers, fantasy novels, Mathias Colwell, Mathias G.B. Colwell, Melange Books, photographic illustration, photomanipulation, SBibb, Stephanie Flint

June 17, 2015 · 11:13 am

Behind the Scenes – Hide and Seek

A cover for Melange Books. For this one, the publisher wanted a cover that conveyed the romance of the two novellas in this book, as well as the suspense and western themes. So we stuck with a silhouette, darker (but still romantic) colors, and softer imagery. For the back cover, I simply used part of the desert landscape imagery I hadn’t used from the front, then applied a similar treatment.

This is the result:

SBibb - Hide and Seek - Back Cover

Stock images from Dreamstime:

http://www.dreamstime.com/royalty-free-stock-images-black-tailed-jackrabbit-sniffing-southern-california-image38700799
http://www.dreamstime.com/royalty-free-stock-image-coyote-image7507496
http://www.dreamstime.com/stock-photos-arizona-desert-image9382933
http://www.dreamstime.com/royalty-free-stock-image-cowboy-couple-her-try-to-leave-silhouette-image36627786

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Filed under Book Covers, Client Work, Photo Illustration

Tagged as book cover design, book covers, cover art, Dreamstime stock, Hide and Seek, Lois Carroll, Melange Books, Romance Novel Covers, SBibb, SBibb's Photographic Illustration, Stephanie Flint

June 3, 2015 · 7:00 am

Behind the Scenes – Sojourn: The Wildlands

A cover for Melange Books. I had a lot of fun putting this one together. There are quite a few pieces in this particular cover (14 stock images in total), and I worked with the author to get all the right images and choose the best placement for them. For example: choosing what kind of bow the male model should have. Since the art form mentioned a bow, but didn’t specify crossbow or long bow, I emailed the author to clarify. Helpful to ask about these things up front so you don’t spend a lot of time masking out and fitting pieces, only to find it doesn’t fit the story. In the meantime, I enjoyed playing with the lighting and colors.

This is the result:

SBibb - Sojourn: The Wildlands - Back Book Cover
Stock images from Dreamstime:

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Tagged as BD Messick, book cover, book covers, cover art, Melange Books, photographic illustration, photomanipulation, post-apolocalyptic covers, SBibb, Sojourn, The Wildlands, YA novel

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

April 22, 2015 · 7:00 am

Behind the Scenes – Taking Chances

This is a book cover for Melange Books.

When working on book covers, some of my clients ask for suggestions for their book covers, while others come knowing exactly what they want. For this cover, we went with the latter. The author knew they wanted the cover to be in 3 panels, with a good idea of what went in each one. They even had an idea of the stock image they wanted for the skyline (which happened to be from Dreamstime, so that worked perfectly). I put the pieces together and played with color effects to give it the warm, desert glow, then blended everything together.

This is the final result:

SBibb - Taking Chances - Back Cover

Stock images from Dreamstime:

http://www.dreamstime.com/royalty-free-stock-photos-young-happy-couple-image3071658

http://www.dreamstime.com/royalty-free-stock-images-phoenix-arizona-skyline-downtown-az-sunny-day-image36673329

http://www.dreamstime.com/stock-photos-palm-cardboard-paper-texture-image28168233

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Tagged as book cover design, book covers, cover art, Melange Books, photo illustration, romance novel cover, Rose Marie Meuwissen, SBibb, Stephanie Flint, stock use, taking chances

April 8, 2015 · 7:00 am

Behind the Scenes – Murder In Her Mind

This is a cover for Melange Books. For this cover, I wanted to retain the series appearance of the previous two books (Murder in her Dreams and Murder in the Cards) while still focusing on the symbolism in this particular book. Based on the prompt from the author, I searched out the resulting images from Dreamstime, then blended them together to create a surreal image that would work as the cover. This is an example of using texturing to enhance a picture, while still making sure that the main images are individually distinguishable. This is the result:

SBibb - Murder In Her Mind - Back of Book Cover

Stock images from Dreamstime:

http://www.dreamstime.com/stock-images-swirly-grunge-image7347354
http://www.dreamstime.com/stock-image-crows-flying-image1181651
http://www.dreamstime.com/stock-photos-raven-dance-image1850963
http://www.dreamstime.com/stock-photo-swirly-grunge-image6807470
http://www.dreamstime.com/stock-image-mystical-face-image11042411
http://www.dreamstime.com/stock-images-cliffs-moher-under-cloudy-sky-ireland-image18387274

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Filed under Book Covers, Client Work, Photo Illustration

Tagged as book cover design, cover art, Melange Books, Murder in her Mind, Nell DuVall, photomanipulation, SBibb, SBibb's Photographic Illustration, Stephanie Flint, stock art in book covers, surreal cover design

March 25, 2015 · 7:00 am

Behind the Scenes – Finding Clara

This is a cover for Melange Books. In this case, the author wanted to show the main character looking into a mirror and seeing a different aspect of their life, other than what they felt. In order to portray both scenes, I looked for stock images where there were multiple images of the model to choose from, both from the back, and from the front. Though the clothing is different, I tried to choose a less obvious difference, as well as placement which would draw less attention to the outfit, and instead focus on the concept of the two different “lives.”

On a technical note, when I usually complete a near-final cover, I use auto-align to get the rough size and position for full-sized stock images based on the proof cover. Lots of layers are typically involved. Every once in a while, however, something doesn’t want to work quite right. In this case, I had a smart object (very useful for maintaining the original size of images and grouping clusters together) decide it didn’t want to be edited. No idea why the layer locked, but with a little bit of searching, I found this link: https://forums.adobe.com/message/1870944

The post of use for this situation suggested to right click the smart object layer that refuses to be edited, open up the resulting menu, then export contents. Save that as a separately named file, and when you reopen the file, it opens as the smart object you were trying to open. Quite handy, I thought.

This is the final result, including the back cover I created for it:

Stock images from Dreamstime:

http://www.dreamstime.com/stock-images-beautiful-woman-smiling-image15889714
http://www.dreamstime.com/royalty-free-stock-photography-victorian-mirror-image12415487
http://www.dreamstime.com/royalty-free-stock-photography-man-leaning-country-gate-image21409557
http://www.dreamstime.com/royalty-free-stock-photo-beautiful-woman-necklace-looking-image17998425
http://www.dreamstime.com/stock-photo-drive-autumn-woods-thanksgiving-day-image46328634

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Filed under Book Covers, Client Work, Photo Illustration

Tagged as book cover design, cover design, Finding Clara, Jannie Lund, Melange Books, photographic illustration, photoshop CS6, romance novel, SBibb, smart objects, Stephanie Bibb, Stephanie Flint

March 18, 2015 · 7:00 am

Behind the Scenes – Separate Lives

This is a cover for Melange Books. For this cover, the author requested that we create a template for the cover which could be used for future books in the series. After some tweaking, I settled on a frame to border the main image of the cover, along with placing the silhouette of the gavel and the text. It should be fairly easy to duplicate (especially since I keep notes on each layer about any blur effects and such), though we’ll need to purchase another licence for the gavel from Dreamstime for each cover.

Whenever I make proofs, I leave notes for myself in the layers, that way I can easily replicate any special effects I did for the proof on the final. For example, if I used a lens blur on a layer, I’ll make a note that looks something like “51-41-119 Lens Blur” for the name of the layer. Anything that I commonly change, I’ll make a note of. Sometimes the notes get long, and I’ll copy them into Word so I can read them, but the result is that it’s much easier to complete a final image, especially if there’s a month or so between creating a proof and receiving stock images (which happens when creating proofs in advance of a stock subscription purchase).

Anyway, this is the final cover for Separate Lives, by Rhonda Strehlow:

Also, an example of how the basic back cover might look (I set it so that color blur is optional, and they may change the signature to one of their imprints):

SBibb - Separate Lives - Book Cover Back