graphic design

Friday Free For All: Where, No One Knows Book Cover and Trailer Updates

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Book cover, concept artFirst up, an updated image of my proposed cover art for Where, No One Knows. Still a bit rough around the edges, but I’m liking it so far. It’s a combo of digital art made in Photoshop and 3D models created in 3DS Max. I’m still figuring out what type-face I want to use and text placement, so any input that may be had is appreciated.

book trailer, concept art, blakwood empire, where no one knows
Rigel Rinkenbach, Roderick La Pierre, and Klaus Klaudhopper, crew of the Pernicious Platitude

Next up is a group shot of some of the other characters in the novel, featuring some of the art I’m working on for the novel’s trailer. I’m aiming for kind of an art nouveau look for the trailer. Not sure how I landed on it, other than I like it. Can’t really think of a better reason for anything than that. I’m probably completely off base on what art nouveau is (my quick definition: illustrations with really heavy outlines), but whatever. I’ve put too much work into the trailer thus far to change the look of it now. It’s fly or die time, at this point.

Friday Free For All: Where, No One Knows Book Cover and Trailer Updates

Friday Free For All: Where, No One Knows Book Cover Preview

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Pixie Sinclaire, Digital painting,Blackwood Empire, Where No One Knows, Preview, Book cover
Pixie Sinclaire, reporting for duty!

Today, I’d thought I’d share some of the character artwork I’m working on for the book cover of my novel, Where, No One Knows.

I’d thought I had a pretty good piece of art to use already, but it’s been about a year and a half since I did that, and I’ve learned a few things since then. Until now, whenever I’ve done an illustration for a story I’ve kept the line work to hide my deficiencies as an artist, and waving it off as a choice of style. But I’m trying to get to a point where my illustrations look decent without the lines containing different areas of color.

The above image isn’t anywhere near complete. I haven’t yet started detailing the fabric, or figured out what I want the background to be (probably something similar to the old illustration), much less smoothing out the edges. I’m working in Photoshop and every color has its own grouping of layers, so I’m waiting to merge everything before tackling that. On the upside, my new computer doesn’t chug whenever I have more than a couple layers open, so I’m able to work with a fuller view of things. I’m even able to use brush dynamics (although, more than a couple of those and things start to slow down.)

Hope you like it, and as always, have a great weekend!

Here are some other posts featuring the character of Pixie Sinclaire, for comparison:

Character Profile: Pixie Sinclaire

Book Trailer Update

Speaking of that Book trailer:

When my old computer took a dive in January, I lost all progress I had made on it. I also lost an almost entirely revised copy of the manuscript. The book itself being the priority, I tackled finishing that up, first. I’ve only recently begun working on the trailer again, but I hope to have something to show soon. Maybe next week?

Friday Free For All: Where, No One Knows Book Cover Preview

Well, this is embarassing…

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But I don’t have new picture, or a new video (at least not one that I’m willing to show just yet without some major overhauls). I do have a story, but it needs some polishing, and I want to do a few illustrations for it, so maybe next week, or the week after.

I’m currently beleaguered by a 3D modeling assignment and 3DS Max is being a pain in the posterior. It has little to do with technical limitations or bugs, however. I’m just having a hard time molding the little dots and lines into something worth showing people.

So, having nothing to show for the moment, I dug out this cheesy looking mock movie poster I did for a class I took on film production. It was a pretty interesting class that took us through the steps of conceptualizing a movie, writing a treatment, working out a budget, and pitching it to a studio. Here:

The-Longest-Journey-Movie-PosterSmall

That’s so 1990’s direct to video, right? Yeah? Damn, I was fishing for compliments by being self deprecating. That backfired, didn’t it? Now I’m being all meta and shit.

Anyway, I decided to do mine as an adaptation of a video game I like called, “The Longest Journey.” It’s one of those properties that’s half a movie anyway, and seems like a no-brainer to translate to the screen. And while the game itself isn’t really aimed at the YA crowd, you could easily market it that way, which is pretty much a license to print money. Unless you’re Lemony Snickett. Or Spiderwick. Or that one movie that had Al Swearengen in it as a kind of Obi Wan, mentor type figure. Or…damn. It seems I’ve underestimated the YA crowd.

I’m kind of wishing I hadn’t brought that movie up now. At least I didn’t mention Pirates 4…ah, #@$!

Of course, taking that route would likely alienate fans of the game. All twenty of us. Just kidding. I’m sure we’re in the hundreds or something.

 

 

Well, this is embarassing…