I’ve been thinking about doing a tutorial series on both fantasy art and book cover art, as I know that these times are tough for everyone. Authors without a lot of design knowledge and skills would be ill-advised to do their own covers, of course, but art to accompany freebies, shorts, promo material, etc., is …
I started a Patreon under a different name because I was interested in doing something completely new in order to keep my art from becoming stale. As anyone who has ever made the change from just having fun with something to it being their only source of professional income knows, it’s wonderful to be able …
I’m starting an experiment with predesigned book cover art that is somewhat customisable. I’ve tried this before, and ended up with people who wanted a full custom cover for the predesigned price, but I think it’s worth trying again. The problem with custom covers is that increasingly they are done with a design-by-committee approach, as …
I’ve come to a decision that I’m going to request that authors that I’m currently working with don’t post rough mockups and work in progress to various groups, Facebook or otherwise. Previously I’ve allowed it as long as the author stated that it was a rough mockup. I’ve always said that I prefer showing more …
Now we’re ready to start actually putting our cover together. Below is a very basic video on how I work; I’ve tried to keep all of the techniques as basic as possible. There are so many complicated techniques that designers use in Photoshop, but for the purpose trying to put together your own book cover …
Previously: Part One, Part Two, Copyright and Daz Studio In this last section we’re going to talk a bit about how to do some basic customisation on both figures and clothing. This just touches the surface of this software, of course – if you were creating a main character model for a series, for example, …
Creating Custom Art with Daz Studio Models, Part Three Read More »
Note: Part One of this series is located here. This is going to be a long post, as I’m doing it with images and text. Yes, it would be easier for me to just record a video, but I really hate using video for tutorials just because Wurdz R Hard. Sometimes written instructions are easier …
Creating Custom Art with Daz Studio Models, Part Two Read More »
After writing the last post I found a discussion on a book cover designers’ group about the legality of using software programmes such as Daz, and thought it might be worth repeating my understanding (which no doubt has deeper legal issues than I am listing here, as I am not an attorney*). Daz Studio models, …
I’ve always been good with colour and shading in my art, but my actual freehand drawing skills? Good enough for my mom’s refrigerator, but nothing that would lead to a professional career. It was a revelation when I started using stock photography as a base for a finished image in Photoshop, working with layers and …
Creating Custom Art with Daz Studio Models, Part One Read More »
I have a selection of predesigned covers available here, and will try to keep this updated. For the moment, I still have all predesigned covers available here (although I’ll make a decision which portfolio of covers to keep: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/ravven/pre-designed-book-covers/
