Damocles Files 2: Seeds of Destruction

Here is the cover I did for the awesome new book in the Damocles series!

Available now through amazon

Ebenezer

I was approached by the ever-fantastic Duncan Ralston to do another cover for him, this one for a Dickensian John Wick epic: Ebenezer! He does come up with some epic concepts.

We bashed out a few concepts and then settled on this cool image with the city skyline mirrored by bullets, the man himself looking moody, the silenced pistol and the crest of the mysterious Bleak House.

Took a looong time- very small details and fiddly bits. My phone crashed just as I finished the pistol and I lost the whole thing. Which sucked as I genuinely was quite proud of it.

Logos done in inkscape. Art done in sketchbook on my note 3.

Layout etc. by Duncan himself (he also did that sweet little gif).

Show some love and buy the book HERE

Video Nasties

Well, this one was a hell of a lot of work but I think it paid off!

I worked very closely with Duncan Ralston (the authour) on getting it just right. A lot of back and forth. Many, many emails and pictures bounced back and forwards. (Communication is key in a good project- both sides need to engage in prompt and open sharing of ideas and opinions. This is where the creative process flourishes and bears the best fruit. Artists: talk to your clients. Clients: importantly!; talk to your artists! Respond to emails. Acknowledge emails. Share ideas. Listen.)

The logo was the first thing we tackled and I came up with a load of ideas. Half a dozen of them got to be fully fleshed-out and solid designs which all worked really well but we picked the one that really popped out to both of us. It was definitely the best choice for the project (the others are really great- it was a very inspiring project- so I may end up using the designs for other stuff).
We wanted an 80s, retro feel for it. Something visually interesting. From the intial passes we picked the hand coming out of the box. The aim was to suggest all of the evil contained within and to homage Evil Dead a little.

Drawing the image tool a while- those tentacles are fiddly. Then I went in to the painting. Midtone flats (trust your midtones- you pick a base colour for a reason). Shadows (2 layers of these- faded airbrush then a solid one for definition). Highlights. Then put on an overlay layer and wash the whole thing in a fade of 2 or 3 colours to tie it together. Drop the transparency of this overlay down. Don't be afraid to flatten layers as you go- treat it like a real painting.

I hand-painted all of the stickers and textures. Those stickers are some of my most favourite things I've ever made.

I warped the logos onto the box in perspective on photoshop. Warped the whole image onto itself so it looks like it's coming out of the same box image.

I drew a couple of spot illustrations to go on the back. Then put in thumbholes where you can see a vhs tape (front and back) peeking out at the bottom of the box. Then painted on weathering textures with some splattery and cloudy brushes.

Then, after a little resizing to fit, we had our wraparound cover. So many elements and a lot of work to get them all to play together as one piece but I think I pulled it off. I hope you like it.

If you do, you can buy the book here!

Woodland Warriors

I got a chance to do the cover for the new edition of the Woodland Warriors RPG for Beyond Belief Games (brought to you by the visionary Simon Washbourne of Barbarians of Lemuria, etc.) so I jumped at the chance. It was an opportunity to try something different in a fun style (plus, something I could show my daughter that she might like!)

The concept came out pretty full-formed, even down to the colour palette. I wanted to try and catch an 80s Bakshi, Saturday morning kind of vibe, with a hint of Ghibli thrown in.

The foreground was done with solid linework and mostly flats with one overlay layer of dropshadow. The character designs kept simple and distinct so they would work in a cartoon.

I took the bold step of not drawing the background and fully painted it. Which I think worked out ok. I am really please with those clouds.

There ar a couple of layers of noise and blue over the top for a slight accent to the cartoony feel.

I designed the logo- working up from a font in sketchbook by hand and then converting it to a vector in inkscape.

I think it came out pretty well. I sure had a lot of fun doing it!

You can get a hold of a copy of it here.

Into Fear

New book with a cover by me has just been announced!

I did the whole thing in this- illustration, logo, design and pdf.

Awesome fun.

And I'm super pleased with how it turned out.

Here is some blurb...

Daniel Marc Chant releases INTO FEAR on 1st October. 22 tales of despair and dread. Zombies, Godless beasts, Eldritch horrors, serial killers and more lurk between its pages in wait to lure you into dreams, into nightmares, Into Fear!

Duncan Ralston, author of WOOM, said it was, "one of the best collections I've read in a while."

PRE-ORDER TODAY!

UK LINK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01IIJ2YSK
USA LINK: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01IIJ2YSK

Dark Frontiers

Little logo/branding work for a short story anthology.

Done on a quick turnaround.

Kids -cover

My next cover for Dark Minds has been released. This time around it graces the cover of 'Kids' by that top-notch fellow, Paul M Feeney.

This cover is the third in a series, using the black and red on white style established with the first one.

The cover images were all done in Sketchbook on a Samsung Galaxy Note 3 (the images were then increased in resolution in Photoshop). Pdf design and production was done in Inkscape.

The cover image is based off a picture of my own little psycho-killer, Kitty Jean, who is currently 6.

If you wish to purchase one for yourself, here are the links:

Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Kids-Dark-Minds-Novella-3-ebook/dp/B01HOI6YRS/ref=sr_1_1_twi_kin_1?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1467822678&sr=8-1&keywords=paul+m+feeney

Amazon US: https://www.amazon.com/Kids-Dark-Minds-Novella-3-ebook/dp/B01HOI6YRS/ref=sr_1_2_twi_kin_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1467822745&sr=8-2&keywords=Paul+M.+Feeney#nav-subnav

Crimson Blades

Crimson Blades

Here is a blow-by-blow of process shots for the Crimson Blades cover which I did for Beyond Belief Games.

We wanted to invoke a classic pulp feel. Strong blacks, red and white were on the mood board.

I chose to overlay a painted texture on the blacks to give it more of a 60s/70s feel. To suggest the magic and mystery in the game. It also served to unify the design by bringing it together more. The original blacks popped a little too much.

All work done in Sketchbook on Galaxy Note.

The process is hopefully fairly clear from the shots, but if anyone has any questions, let me know.