Gallery Post - A Public Domain Project

This project will hopefully kill two birds with one stone. I've been interested in producing some pocketbook sized paperbacks of classic sci-fi in the public domain. I also need to brush up and practice some typesetting. And so here we are.

Towards a Viable Production Time

FURTHER TO MY LAST POST, I wanted to say something about production time, as this is key to the viability of creating images like these for the self and indie publishing market.

The faux paintings (click the images for a larger view) were created using the method outlined in the tutorial here and from opening Poser (the 3D staging program) to exporting the faux painting from Art Rage (a natural media paint program), each one took just 90 minutes to produce.

This time was achieved largely thanks to preparation. I had a selection of characters already set up in Poser, I knew the content I had ready and had a good idea of what each of the images was going to be before I started. I also got lucky. Frankly, setting up a pose can take that long alone, so I try to use pre-set poses that I modify for my needs – it happens that in this instance, it proved very quick to set up.

Taking the resulting render into my photo editor (Affinity Photo), I used a practised process, starting with some adjustments layers (highlights/shadows, brightness/contrast, and colour balance), then using the Topaz Simplify plug-in. The result was then taken into Art Rage for painting.

Vicious Vignettes - Some Covers For A Friend

A VERY GOOD FRIEND OF MINE has just finished a second collection of flash fiction and needed a cover to match the first, which was done by someone else on Fiverr. I suggested a fresh start with matching designs for both. I tried to keep it simple but fragmented the text panel to suggest the nature of the content.

The title is Nightmare and the tag line is Ascelon, both from The Scriptorium (www.fontcraft.com). The author's name is, of course, in Lydian, one of my favourite fonts. I had originally used white for her name but thought to try a pale cream instead, which I much prefer, having a softer contrast.

I have designed full covers for print editions but will post those once they are finalised.

As always, click the images to see a larger size.

Steps to Faux Paintings

HERE ARE A FEW 3-step examples of taking a 3D render to a faux painting using the method outlined in the tutorials here. Click the images to see at full size.

Gallery Post - Mike Shayne Design #1

CLICK THE IMAGE to see at a larger size. This is the first of two after classic Mike Shayne cover designs. This design, including the primary font and Robert McGuiness art, can also be found on Spanish editions of some Mickey Spillane novels. I'm afraid that my little portrait isn't particularly good but I did manage to figure out the lined effect found on this version of the covers, so I'm satisfied.

It's a great exercise in branding that works very well in a thumbnail. However, this comes at the expense of the artwork which needs more contrast to be seen at a small size than is found in some of the original art.

The main font is from the Scriptorium and is called Shayne, having been based on this line of Mike Shayne books. I'll discuss these as part of a post about cover design at a later date.

Gallery Post - Fragments of an Idea

CLICK ON THE IMAGE to see at a larger size. This is based on a couple of covers from, I believe, the sixties. I'll talk about them more in another post focusing on different cover designs. I built this on into a full template for future projects.

Gallery Post - Gold is the Coldest Color

CLICK ON THE IMAGE to see at a larger size. This was another experiment in colour. The title uses a free font, called Merienda Bold, which I think works well for this project. The tag is in Ascelon, while the author is in Lydian.