Behind the Crow's Rest Cover Art

So by now you all have likely seen the cover for the Crow & Pitcher Press edition of Crow's Rest, due to be released on May 22. But just in case, here's what it looks like:

What may be news to you is that the cover features my own artwork, as well as a little Photoshop magic from my designer. I scheduled a shoot at Preston Castle in July 2017 with model Renee Sprouse, with an eye to getting some shots for the covers of all three planned books in the Faerie Crossed series. (The view through the arch is another of my photos from Bunratty Castle in Ireland, incidentally)

I wanted to use my own artwork for the creative challenge of it, but also to avoid licensing conflicts or fees. It made it slightly more challenging for designer Kelley York of X-Potions Design but I'm well pleased with the results. The photos we've selected for Merlin's Stronghold and Spellmeet are going to be fantastic too!

I've been holding back on sharing some of the photos while we made our final decisions on which ones to feature on the next two books, but I wanted to share some of my other favorites from the shoot here. Enjoy!

As you can see, we edited out Renee's tattoo in the cover--it just didn't fit Avery, although it's a cool design. And Renee looks remarkably composed, considering it was 106 degrees the day of the shoot! We were both so tired by the end.

There is one more photo that I'm using to make an all-new teaser in May. So check back for that one! Pre-orders for Crow's Rest should be live soon too, and the best way to get the inside info is to sign up for my newsletter, Crow Tracks.

The Cover That Almost Was, And the Cover That Is

Today is my cover reveal day! It's over on Operation Awesome (among other places), so please go check it out--I'll wait!

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Are you finished staring at that luscious piece of artwork already?!? I think I'll be staring at it for weeks to come. At least, when I'm not working on the copyedits.

But I wanted to share some more images--at one stage of the cover art process, I mentioned to the higher-ups at Spencer Hill Press that I have access to models who fit the main characters, Avery and Daniel, very well.

My niece, Renee Sprouse, is trying to build up her modeling portfolio (she also acts,dances, and sings--is it still a Trifecta if it's four things? A Quadfecta doesn't have the same ring to it) and her then-boyfriend was actually named Danniel! They both have a slightly retro/rockabilly/vintage look going on, and great taste in fashion. Danniel has also done some modeling and is a musician--too perfect!

I got permission to do a test shoot with them, and then if that worked out well we could schedule an actual shoot at Preston Castle. So I grabbed my photographer friend, Eliya of Eliya Photography (the same one who did my author photos), loaded up Renee and Danniel, and we headed to some local photo spots--including an historic cemetery and a shopping center with Italianate architecture. Eliya and I both took photos, and these are some of my favorites from my portfolio:

So even though we ended up going a very different direction for the Crow's Rest cover, I wanted to make sure these great photos had their day!

OA Today with Nancy Herman!

Whew, that was some Mystery Agent Contest yesterday! All my tweeting and sharing must have helped, because we had some new names in the entries.

Over on Operation Awesome today, I have a fabulous cover reveal with critique partner Nancy Herman! Hop on over and give her some cover love.

Cover Design Mockup for Crow's Rest

Even though I know I won't have much control over a book cover (unless I self-publish) for my work-in-progress, Crow's Rest, I've been having some fun designing how I would like to see my book represented.

I started with what I didn't want (caveat: I've actually seen these done so well, but they're just not right for my book):

*Girl in a fancy dress (although Avery could totally work a fancy dress, it's not what she would choose)

*Closeups of boy and girl faces (I specifically like to leave how a character looks up to the reader)

*Abstract paint splatters (I'm always, "what does that have to do with the story?" with these)

*Kickass girl in an anatomically impossible pose


So, that means I could either use a photo of the real-life castle that inspired the book, like this one (click on it to view it bigger):

I'd put the title scrawled across the ceiling like graffiti. Or, I could create something different altogether, using some artwork that still includes elements of the book without specific faces. So I came up with this:

I'm not entirely happy with the font, and will probably end up designing my own Celtic-inspired font, with dragon/bat wings coming off the C in Crow's Rest. Bonuses: this looks good in grayscale (like on an e-ink screen) and has a visual pun too (can you find it?).

And this is a really old one that I did

What do y'all think? Do you ever play around with artwork as another interpretation of your story?

RTW: Cover Songs

Road Trip Wednesday is a "Blog Carnival," where YA Highway's contributors and followers post a weekly writing- or reading-related question and answer it on their blogs. You can hop from destination to destination through the YA Highway site and get everybody's unique take on the topic.

This week's topic: What are your all-time favorite book covers?

As a teen, if a book cover had a horse on it, I was almost guaranteed to pick it up. This meant I read a lot of bad romance novels with artwork done by folks who were savvy to the horse factor in book-buying decisions.

Have you ever noticed just how many historical romances from the 80s have horses on them? It's a formula of cleavage (her decollatage and his pecs), tight breeches, and wildly blowing long hair (and it seems that wind-blown-hair look also appears in YA book covers.), with a horse thrown in somewhere. If not horses, unicorns would do in a pinch, and they more often appeared in SF/Fantasy.




But over time my taste in cover artwork has changed, influenced by my own experiences with painting, sketching, graphic design, and photography. I find that I like covers that are simplistic and graphic-looking




or photographic with a twist




and lush and artistic (still love some of the girls in period dresses but they are becoming overdone and it's harder to make yours stand out)




I'm not much into abstract covers. What about you--what covers have caught your eye?