Cover art :: All Things Andy Gavin

Archive for Cover art

Untimed Cover Reveal!

Sep05

I just received the final version of the Untimed cover painting by Cliff Nielsen. I’d thought Cliff knocked The Darkening Dream cover out of the park (it’s even won a number of awards) but this one is on fire.

The art above, cool as it is, isn’t intended to be a complete composition. This is a book cover painting, and so there is extra space to work with around the central figure as well as fairly monochromatic areas for the titles and to the left for the back cover (paper edition). I crop different sections out of it as needed for different uses, such as the banner above or the current front cover composition to the left. The logo and text composition aren’t set in stone yet, either, I’m still noodling on them.

You’re probably wondering who the hell the clockwork man is. Meet Rapier. He’s nearly indestructible, dresses in time appropriate blue uniforms, carries a sword, and kills time travelers on sight. History is his playground. He can be anywhere or anywhen. And no one has a clue what he or the other Tick-Tocks want. Which is all a bit of a bummer for our time traveling protagonist, Charlie.

The scene above is inside the church of St. Bartholomew the Great, London, in the year 1725. At the time, a young Ben Franklin worked there (oddly enough, the building was used as a print shop). When Rapier gets in on the action, the paper is literally hot off the presses!

Be sure to leave your thoughts on the new cover in the comments!

Vote on logo options here, check out some interior illustrations, or

Untimed – Logo Faceoff

Aug29

A while back, Cliff Nielsen, the amazing artist who created the cover for The Darkening Dream, finished the amazing new cover painting for my second novel, Untimed. This is going to replace the stock photography clock cover to the left, but I’m not ready to reveal it (I will in a week or three) but I’ve been experimenting with logos and wanted to collect your opinions. As a side note, I’ve been doing my mechanicals myself. Not only is it cheaper, but my photoshop skillz have gotten moderately elite — at least for a programmer/author.

Below are three takes on the logo. You can even see just a hint of the cover illustration here, but I cut it tight to be a tease (and content aware filled out a bit of someone’s head!).

A fairly heavily “styled” version where the text is inspired by antique clock parts (this is after all a time travel novel with clockwork killer machines). Thanks to longtime friend Jason Rubin for help on an earlier variant of this logo.

A similar brass treatment, but using a more strait forward lowercase type treatment. The font is modeled after an 18th century typeface.

Same deal as above, but all uppercase.

Similar to the top-most one, but with arabesque tooling in the metal instead of brushing. This new variant was added 9/12/12, after most of the comments. Since people liked #1, I wanted to work in that direction.

So, dear readers, which version do you like? Let me know in the comments. None of the above is a viable opinion, but please give reasons.

The back of a Breguet watch, I was going for a similar sort of vibe with the arabesque tooling.

By: agavin
Comments (26)

Posted in: Untimed

Tagged as: Art Design, Book, Cliff Nielsen, Cover art, Fiction, Logos, Time travel, Untimed

Award Time!

May24

I’m excited to announce that The Darkening Dream recently won some International Book Awards, including:

Winner: Best Cover Design- Fiction

and

Finalist: Fiction- Fantasy

I want to offer a shout out to my collaborators who helped with this: The cover artist Cliff Nielsen and cover designer Pete Garceau as well as my brilliant and hard working editors.

Find out more about the cover or the book.

And you should buy it if you haven't!

By: agavin
Comments (6)

Posted in: Darkening Dream

Tagged as: Andy Gavin, Cliff Nielsen, Cover art, Cover Design, Fantasy, International Book Awards, Literature, Science Fiction, The Darkening Dream

Untimed – Meet the Tocks

Mar13

I finished the line editing on my second novel, Untimed, last December, but that doesn’t mean the work is really over. On one front, it’s out to various agents and editors, but on the other I’m working on spit and polish.

I had it professionally proofread and just finished going over all those little fixes. This is just an extra step to make sure it’s as free of errors as possible and that the comma, hyphen, and spelling niceties are as consistent as possible. And apparently I don’t like commas half as well as I should.

But far more exciting is that I’m having the book illustrated! I know it’s relatively rare to illustrate novels, but I love art and believe — well done — that it really adds to the overall experience. Working with the agent who represented the awesome cover artist for The Darkening Dream, I found a talented illustrator named Dave Phillips (his website is here and some portfolio samples here). He has a real knack for character (see this for example) and knows how to capture lifelike personality in his figures. Over the last few weeks we’ve been developing character designs and now the first (more or less) finished image.

To the right, our hero Charlie (in front), confronts the mysterious Tick-Tock, a rapier-wielding clockwork man who serves as the only link to Charlie’s missing father.

But Tick-Tocks are full of surprises, including the ability to punch holes in time!

Two free Naughty Dark tickets to the first reader who guesses the exact physical location of the scene (reply in comments here). You must not be one of my beta readers or one of their relatives. Hint: “Ghost H…”

By: agavin
Comments (4)

Posted in: Untimed

Tagged as: Andy Gavin, Arts, books, Cover art, Dave Phillips, Fiction, Illustration, Tick-Tock, Tick-Tocks, Time travel, Untimed, Writing and Editing

Paperback Getting Close

Jan12

The “beta” of The Darkening Dream‘s Trade Paperback cover has come in and I submitted another proof. With any luck I might get it on sale next week, the week after for sure. The interior layout has been complete for almost a week too. I can’t wait to see this puppy in the flesh. It should look great.

You can see some of the old paper test versions below. My long standing Lulu (ick) ARC on the left and an older CreateSpace proof on the right. Even with that hybrid cover the CS proof is looking and feeling great.

Apple also finally turned on my iBooks account today and so the iBookstore version should be up in… well however long it takes them to approve it. Given that it took ten days just to validate the account it might not be instant. All the sites except for Amazon and slow slow slow. For example, I uploaded the new cover to Barnes and Noble a week ago and it still hasn’t updated!

By: agavin
Comments (1)

Posted in: Darkening Dream

Tagged as: Amazon.com, Andy Gavin, Apple, Book Cover, Cover art, Cover Design, CreateSpace, IBooks, iBookstore, Lulu, Paperback, The Darkening Dream, Trade Paperback

The Final Cover

Jan05

And if you believe I’m really done, I’ve got a bridge to sell you…

But anyway, I’m done for now.

Click to embiggen.

As you may have noticed if you were following the last cover post, I went with the orange — again for now. The gray is perhaps prettier, but the orange pops. I also changed up the author font to a more vintage typeface to imply the 1913 time frame of the novel. And we made various other tweaks like brightening the girl which is mostly for shrunken E-Book versions of the cover where she got lost in the shadows.

Anyway, I’ve already uploaded the new version to all three E-Book sites I’m currently live with. Amazon has already updated, but the lamer, slower other sites will lag behind. If you downloaded the old cover and want to upload I suspect you can just “delete” the book from your Kindle app and retrieve the new one from the archives. I’ll test that myself soon.

So you should just go and buy it if you haven't

By: agavin
Comments (0)

Posted in: Darkening Dream

Tagged as: Andy Gavin, Book Cover, Cliff Nielsen, Cover art, E-book, The Darkening Dream

Cover Takes – Opinions Wanted!

Dec31

Even after the product launch has begun, I’m still tinkering — and such is the way of it in the new world of agile product development. My current cover (to the left) now has an awesome image, but the overall effect isn’t quite bookish enough. So in the interest of total transparency (or mind numbing boredom?) I’ll continue to let you in on these intermediate steps of the creative process.

My cover designer, Pete Garceau, has whipped up a couple concept sketches. To the right is a darker colored take and below one in the original color scheme. You can click them to embiggen.

These are NOT in any way finished. Just concepts.

What I want to know for you, reader, is:

1. Which color scheme do you like, and why?

2. Your opinion of The Darkening Dream font/logo?

Please let me know in the comments!

Discover more about my novel, The Darkening Dream here or on all sorts of other links in the left sidebar.

It’s worth noting, that in the specialized world of book design the book designer (interior), the cover designer (logo design cover layout), and the illustrator (who paints the image on the cover) are sometimes all different people!

NOTE: I updated this post at 10:43am PST with slightly newer takes on the covers. The “older” two can be found here and here.

By: agavin
Comments (19)

Posted in: Darkening Dream

Tagged as: Andy Gavin, Book Cover, Book design, Color Schemes, Cover art, Cover Design, Covers, E-book, The Darkening Dream

New Cover Art is here!

Dec22

The new cover for The Darkening Dream is almost done! To the left is the current mockup (click the double spread below if you want to see a large version). It still needs a few tweaks and real titles (those are NOT final titles), but it’s real close.

As I’ve discussed before, I commissioned a new cover a couple weeks ago from artist Cliff Nielsen, worked through a whole batch of ideas and sketches, shot the model in the studio, and voila!

I’ve basically got the E-Book interiors done too, having learned over the last two days how to generate MOBI and EPUB files from my base HTML. I even caught and reproed a bug in Calibre which a super responsive programmer fixed in an hour. These files took a lot of work but they look really awesome with all the little interior illustrations and very nice, clean, formatting.

My last thing is to get real titles done and then I’m ready to go with the E-Book version by around the New Year! Although, titles and Amazon approval might drag that out by a couple days.

Please write in the comments what you think of the cover.

The old cover -- made by yours truly

To see photos from the cover shoot, click here.
For more info on the new cover artist, click here.
For more information on The Darkening Dream.
For more posts on writing, click here.

By: agavin
Comments (6)

Posted in: Darkening Dream

Tagged as: Andy Gavin, Art, Book Cover, Cliff Nielsen, Cover art, Darkening Dream, E-book, The Darkening Dream

Making of a Cover

Dec19

On Sunday we shot the live model for my new cover for The Darkening Dream.

The artist, the amazing Cliff Nielsen, works out of a 1903 former power station! This was totally awesome given the 1913 setting of The Darkening Dream.

The interior is even crazier!

And our studio location where Cliff has set up his stage area and lighting.

The artist behind his camera. Turns out he’s a Canon 5D Mark II shooter as well!

Enter our lovely young protagonist, Sarah Engelmann, played by the talented Dana Melanie.

It just takes a bit of costume and some hair styling to take her back a hundred years! This cover is a bit allegorical. In the book, Sarah is plagued by dreams of violent super natural deaths, and entangled with more than a bit of the violent supernatural during her waking moments.

So for the cover we are trying to capture a bit of a nighttime Sarah caught in the junction between these waking (natural) and sleeping (supernatural) worlds. Just a note for total verisimilitude, Cliff will have to Photoshop off the nail polish (like 2 minutes work) because Western women didn’t wear nail polish between late antiquity and the 1930s! (Although the Chinese did)

Cliff earning his keep.

He shot using the 24-70 2.8L which is a great lens for studio work.

Hair fix.

I thought this shot during break an amusing contrast of period and modern.

Dana was a fantastic sport and even put up with a second — and creepy — crucifixion pose. In the context of The Darkening Dream this isn’t really Jesus type crucifixion, but more Conan on the Tree of Woe or Odin sacrificed and hung from the world tree Yggdrasil. Rest assured, it has certain magical/occult significance in the story.

Cliff had to shoot from high up on a ladder.

During this part of the shoot it was suggested that I draw in a small dark mustache and cultivate a sinister silent movie villain laugh.

Or perhaps it’s the reverse.

All in all, it was a fantastic shoot and we got great images. I can’t wait to see the finished cover in a couple of days.

By: agavin
Comments (4)

Posted in: Darkening Dream

Tagged as: Andy Gavin, Book Cover, Canon EOS 5D Mark II, Cliff Nielsen, Cosmetics, Cover art, Dana, Nail polish, Photoshop, Sarah, The Darkening Dream

The New Cover Concept

Dec17

As I’ve discussed before, I commissioned a new cover a couple weeks ago for The Darkening Dream. Well I’ve got a concept sketch now (to the right, click it to embiggen). You can compare it to the old cover at the bottom of the post.

NOTE: This is still just a sketch, not the final new cover and the titles are quick hacks that I whipped onto the concept sketch. Still, I wanted to see what people think.

We shoot the model this weekend. Cliff Nielsen, the artist uses a composite style in which he blends photographic and hand drawn elements. The final result will even better and much much more detailed and specific. This sketch is to get a sense of layout, color, and positioning.

Overall I’m stoked.

The interior is also rocking along and I hope to have the E-Book on the “shelf” (i.e. Amazon etc) right around the New Year.

So write in the comments: What does this cover say to you, would you pick up the book and see what it’s about? What do you think it’s about?

The old cover -- made by yours truly

For more info on the new cover, click here.
For more information on The Darkening Dream.
For more posts on writing, click here.

By: agavin
Comments (12)

Posted in: Darkening Dream

Tagged as: Andy Gavin, Cliff Nielsen, Cover art, Darkening Dream, Design, E-book, The Darkening Dream

Cover Commission

Nov15

Cliff painted this gorgeous cover to steampunk novel: The Map of Time

I’ve officially signed a cover artist for The Darkening Dream. His name is Cliff Nielsen and he’s a very experienced artist using a cool ethereal multimedia style. You can check out his work on his website but I pasted two into this post. I originally found him though this image of the dude with the watch. I was searching the web for “clockwork men” since the villains in my second novel, Untimed, are… you guessed it… clockwork men. Google brought up this image and I had to find out who the artist was. Then I discovered I already owned a decent collection of books he drew the covers for (e.g. City of Bones, which I reviewed recently).

My homebrew TDD cover

A lot of covers these days are just simple photos (like my homebrew tree cover below) or stenciled vector art. But I’ve always been partial to “painted” covers, so in researching cover design options I kept coming back to commissioning an original illustration. Perhaps it’s because of my early years as a 70s and 80s Science Fiction and Fantasy reader, where nearly every cover was painted. Back then, photographic covers were always a sign of some cheesy film tie-in.

In any case, Cliff’s art resonated well with my own style. Although it must be noted that the above clockwork man is far too 19th century for the mysterious “Tick-Tocks” in my second book (who blend their outfits into whatever era they visit), but it’s still a great image and very evocative.

Another Cliff cover: The Thief and the Beanstalk

So Cliff is reading/skimming the book and I hope to have some content sketches back shortly. I can’t wait. One of the best things about working with artists (and I was fortunate to have worked with dozens of great ones at Naughty Dog and my other companies) is seeing your ideas realized in a visual form.

For an interview with Cliff, and a photo, see here.
For more information on The Darkening Dream.
For more posts on writing, click here.