So, Yet Again, I’m Not an Artist

Remember how I was all proud of what I’d done with the temporary cover for A Perfect Sunset?

It’s still not bad. Really.

So here it is again, as a refresher:

sunset try small

Now…

Take a look at what the real artist did with it:

perfect_sunset_cover

Yeah, so that’s the reason why she makes the covers and I don’t.

Temporary Cover Art for Two Serials

Okay, so I only had a bit of the concept for this first one and the cover artist used her expertise to put it together really quickly, but here’s the temporary cover for A Stolen Name.

stolen_name_cover

Then, because my cover artist had to go to bed, I thought I’d not have one for A Perfect Sunset, but with the help of a cool tutorial that I could only partially follow, I created this:

sunset try small

(Yes, I am absurdly proud of myself even though it’s not that good.)

Want to Be of Artistic Assistance?

I could use some help in creating a temporary cover art for the pages to introduce my latest serials.

I actually made a couple that I really like, but alas, I don’t have the rights to use those images. So I have to create something that will work in the meantime to make them look nice until the cover artist is able to do a full original piece for them.

Anyway, the two stories in question are A Perfect Sunset and The Stolen Name aka Identity Theft. The first is sort of fantasy, and the second is a historical mystery of sorts set about the end of WWI.

So I have a few stock photos I’m thinking of using as a basis, but I need to narrow them down, and so if you want to give me your input, I’d appreciate it.

I have a lot of possibilities for A Perfect Sunset, but most of them feature the queen (I could go cloaked figures for the Nebkasha) but I could use any of these:


Bride

Medieval Dress

Wings

Cage

Butterflies

I had a hard time finding good ones for the historical. If anyone knows of better ones, let me know.


Vintage Pregnancy

Vintage Birds

An Art Related Dilema

So I have a bit of a dilemma, a conundrum, a debate with myself.

A long time ago, I thought that I had picked out a perfect divider art for the entire Nickel and Dime series.

It was such a simple concept, and the graphics side of Kabobbles took the concept and made a picture. I thought it was what I wanted, but as soon as I tried to use it in the file, I changed my mind.

I don’t know that a nickel and a dime really fits the story. It’s got a connection: Effie’s store is named Nickel and Dime. Her family’s name was Nickell. There’s a few lines about nickels and dimes. There is even a character named Tennant.

It’s just… I don’t think it’s right.

The graphic artist said she would change it from this:

divider for nickel and dime

to this:

divider for nickel and dime rev 1

and that should help.

I don’t know. I still don’t know that I want it as the divider. Bear in mind that they would be a lot smaller in the book. I’m just including the big versions for comparison and best quality as I try and get some thoughts from others.

Is the writer being irrational?

Sketch of Cover

The design part of Kabobbles has been putting a lot of work into the cover for The Consultant and the Cat.

This would wrap around like a print book’s cover. We will be offering to print versions as well as the ebooks, but the print version may not be available at the same time as the ebook release. Not all of this image will end up on the front, but here’s a sketch to show the general idea.

I added in a bit of text, but it probably won’t stay where I put it, and the colors aren’t quite right yet. The leopard will be black, not just an outline, but this gives you a sense of what’s coming.

consultant and cat cover sketch

At Last, More Art

The two halves of Kabobbles came together to make a beautiful piece of art.

Okay, yes, the author had very little to do with anything but the concept, but that doesn’t mean that the picture’s not very close to the concept and true to the characters, thanks to the talents of the graphic artist of the team.

in the family cover art

The story is still in the process of being edited, but this title will be available as soon as the edits are completed.

Hello, Katya

One of the things that we at Kabobbles like to offer as a part of our ebook experience is divider art. It enhances the reading of the story not just in having a pretty picture, but as some ereaders do not seem to keep spacing between scenes and chapters like they should, art makes a nice differentiation between the scenes.

 

Well, yesterday, the design half of Kabobbles made an absolutely wonderful divider art for The Consultant and the Cat, one almost too good just to be divider art.

 

Therefore, it must be shared.

 

leopard divider art