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.

Gallery Post - Blood Flows in Shades of Red

CLICK ON THE IMAGE to see at a larger size. This one was a bit of an experiment in shades of red. The title font is Nightmare, which you can get from The Scriptorium and was based on an old book font. The tag text is in Ascelon, again from The Scriptorium, while the author's name is in Lydian.

Gallery Post - A Night Not For Sleeping

CLICK THE IMAGE TO SEE at a larger size. The title font is Area of Suspicion and the tag text is Ascelon, both from The Scriptorium, The author's name is in Lydian.

Cover Tutorial - Underwater

UNDERWATER IMAGES NEED a couple of additional tricks to pull off. I'm going to assume that you've looked at building templates and the First Cover tutorial already and will dive right into this one. 'Deep Sea Thrillers' seem to be very popular these days, if only with the writers, so if you're going to supply for the modern pulp market, this is a genre you should work with.

If you are using 3D staging software like Poser, then fortunately, there are a lot of underwater monsters available to buy a very reasonable prices. You can find fantasy monsters, a giant octopus, creatures direct from Lovecraft's imagination, along with a large assortment of sharks, dolphins, and whales. Even a few fish. Best of all, there are lots of prehistoric beasts, most by a chap who sells under the name of Dinoraul. I shall do some posts featuring his work at some point but really, if you mean to do pulp at all, burn that name into your brain - great prehistoric models, and great fantasy beasts. The creatures in this image are his.