But the interesting thing is, the more successful a book is expected to be, the less information the artist often times gets. Typically with a cover assignment, the Art Director will pass along a ‘cover brief’ (which outlines what they are looking for), and a manuscript (which is usually in an unfinished state). Because I also painted the other covers in this series, and the overall look was already established, I was able to jump right into the project with surprisingly little trouble, despite the lack of manuscript. So the real challenge an illustrator often faces is distilling the whole book down to a single “flavor”, and then trying to capture that flavor in a single image. Sometimes that’s really hard to do.
Is it going to be an action piece? An epic world shot? A romantic embrace? There are so many options available for a good story, which usually contains a little of each of these elements. One of the hardest parts of designing a cover is trying to figure out the right mood and look for that specific book. Not too long ago, I was asked to paint the cover for the sixth novel in Patricia Briggs‘ bestselling Alpha & Omega series, ‘Wild Sign’.
0 kommentar(er)
