Dragons In The Sky

The finished cover art is actually the third design I produced. I made numerous sketches and played around with various combinations of Roseberry Topping, Captain Cook’s Monument and Eston Nab, but nothing seemed to work. Somehow I found myself repeatedly looking at the idea of triangles, and even attempted to link the three peaks, reflecting the triangular form from chapter 15. Eventually I settled on Roseberry Topping and made two preparatory paintings, but they were rejected. Looking back I can see how they work as landscapes but didn’t capture the essence of the book.

The image on the cover was actually from an early sketch which found its way onto the pages of the book as an illustration. I’d initially resisted using it as a cover design as I thought it gave away too much information about the story, but gradually found myself drawn back to it. I made a quick preliminary painting to achieve the correct colour balance before settling down to paint it as the cover, but even then it wasn’t finished. There is much more detail in the cover painting than the illustration image on chapter 15, and this is because the image looked very flat on a larger scale. The black triangle needed greater texture and form to lift it off the page so I added edge details and panelling, and made subtle changes to the tones on the underside, therefore pulling the shape forward.

Right up until the final brush stroke the cover design was more of a work in progress than a preconceived design. Altogether the painting took about ten hours and was painted using acrylic paint on heavy duty cartridge paper. This medium of drawing, by the way, leaves many surprised. I guess people expect that with all the advancements made on computer and broadband internet technology, it makes more sense to use online media/applications when drawing but that just isn't the case - hand drawn designs are still preferred by artists and publishers.

Shattered Truths

The concept for the cover artwork was inspired by a painting I've always admired called The City Ships of Alpha, by fantasy artist Angus McKie. I wanted to try and create the same sense of adventure and exploration that I feel when I look at that painting, and opted for the Exploration Vehicle from the book.

As with cover of Dragons in the Sky, this cover was painted using acrylics on heavy paper. I worked in layers, laying down the sky first, and then putting in the background hills and canyon wall, including the floor rocky. Because of the time constraints I was working under I dried each layer of paint using a hair drier, which allowed me to work layer on layer using a loose scumbling technique. You will notice I didn't paint in actual rock detail, but relied on creating the impression of a rocky environment. I finished the background with highlights and deep shadows using a small brush.

The Exploration Vehicle - or EV - went through several design stages before I settled on the vehicle you see, yet couldn't have too many angles that would become lost when the internal artwork was reduced in size.

I found this cover the most engaging of the two to paint. It is also my favourite.

Unfortunately these 'in progress' images of the cover art are of poor quality, but the development of the artwork can still be seen. In this first shot the sky has been laid down using a broad brush and horizontal strokes. Only four colours used throughout the whole cover. Foreground elements are laid out in pencil.

A detail shot of the finished vehicle and foreground. Here, most of the vehicle detail has been applied and the foreground boulder and rocks are complete. Detail was applied with a fine brush and a steady hand, and final shading gave the vehicle its destinctive shape. I also applied highlights to the observation domes, windshield and a few rocky edges in the background.

Note the brush marks and limited palette used throughout.