Another year. They seem to be passing with speed that’s on a
logarithmic scale. It feels like tomorrow I’ll be wishing everyone a happy
2015, but common sense tells me that time has not sped up, just my perception
of it. It’s scary.
Sorry my blogging has been so erratic. My whole life has been erratic to tell the truth. I’d like to think that this year, things will settle down, but it’s not looking promising so far.
On the good side, I did get that one book published in 2014
and the website I started in the hope of selling book covers has grown and is
getting a satisfying number of hits each day. I’ve been privileged to create
covers for some really great books. I’ve also done some maps and of course more
troll illustrations for the wonderful Smelly Troll books by Rosen Trevithick.
 |
| Photo manipulation |
Those of you who are friends with me on Facebook will know
that I spent some of the money I’ve earned through book covers to buy myself an
Intuos Pro, a drawing tablet from Wacom. I already had a Bamboo tablet, but it
was tiny and I found it very restrictive. This is huge and I absolutely love
it. If I’d had lots of money, I would have bought a Cintiq which allows you to
draw straight onto your picture on the screen. But I didn’t have lots of money,
so the Intuos had to do – and it’s proving pretty good. I love being able to do
the whole illustration from sketch to finished product straight onto the
computer. No messing around with pencil and eraser, no trying to scan the
drawing to a satisfactory quality. Just straight onto the screen, multiple
layers and then all sorts of lovely effects you can get through Photoshop.
 |
| Original art plus photo |
One thing that has become clear to me over the year and with
using the tablet is that my penchant really is for children’s book covers and
fantasy covers. Photo manipulation is fun, but I just love being able to create
the whole cover out of my head or turning photos into my own artwork. I don’t
suppose that surprises me. I’ve always loved creating fantasy/illustrations,
but I wonder if there’s a market out there for original artwork covers?
Something for me to find out this year: how many authors are actually willing
to pay for full rights to an original cover?
On the writing side, I have a work in progress – a novel
based on “Orlando’s Gift”, the short story I had out on Amazon for a while. It’s
very different from the short story because I’ve devised a whole other tale to
intertwine with it and that’s rather taken over, but from the reaction I’ve had
on Critique Circle to the chapters I’ve written so far, it’s going down all
right. I just need to knuckle down and keep writing. I already have the cover
done, just to keep me motivated! I'd love to show it to you, but that would spoil the effect later, wouldn't it? I still don’t have a title. I’m waiting for it
to hit me as I write.
 |
| Original art |
To all of you who read this blog, a very belated Happy New
Year…unless you celebrate Chinese New Year, in which case, I’m a few weeks
early! Here’s to a year of getting done what you want to do, surrounded by
supportive friends and family.
