New cover art! Station Down is the forthcoming science fiction novel from Alice Sabo. I’ve worked with Alice long enough now to bypass the concept sketch stage of work and just dive into the final artwork. We always enjoy a fruitful author/artist relationship, which is one of the keys to success of getting the cover art you want on the front of your book.
My free digital publication chronicling the creation of Alice Sabo’s cover art has been updated.
The newly revised edition of The Art of A Changed World, and now includes the artwork for Alice’s recent books, Shattered Landing, Willow’s Run and Entangled, alongside the creative process behind each cover.
Click the cover image below to download The Art of A Changed World (revised edition) in PDF format.
I spent a large part of my childhood drawing Doctor Who. Any other fans out there will understand how an obsession over something like this can grip you, especially at a young age – and to have some drawing ability meant that I could visualise my own worlds and adventures (usually at the expense of homework!). But, my comics would often remain half finished (or half started) or they would just be another excise to draw the Daleks.
My obsession with the Daleks was probably equal to my obsession with the show – and still is. I loved drawing them (though they were, are, and will always be challenging things to draw!). But, until this year, I hadn’t drawn any Daleks for many years, and it was literally over twenty years since I had last done any kind of Doctor Who illustration whatsoever, especially as in the last decade, my science fiction work and cover art has been at the fore.
Earlier this year when I became involved in both Blackpool Remembered and Terraqueos Distributors’ Unofficial 1989 Dr Who Annual, I found myself returning to line-art and really enjoying it. In the past I would always prefer to work with ink on paper for line-art, but once scanned in, the results never looked as good, so I decided to work entirely digitally, which isn’t without its challenges on a graphics tablet.
The pieces for Blackpool Remembered were obviously heavily inspired by the original Blackpool exhibition; the lighting and colours in particular. But I also wanted to pay a subtle homage to the vintage annuals of the 1970s – the 1975 Daleks Omnibus in particular, at the same time as putting my own stamp on the pieces. Even though both book projects were complete, I felt that old urge to do some more, so set about doing more Daleks, Davros (based on Terry Molloy’s take on the character in the 1980s) and another old favourite of mine, the Sontarans.
Taking stock of this recent output, I realised that this collection of pieces – depicting some of the Doctor’s most famous alien adversaries as well as good old K9 – deserved to be more than digital files sitting on my hard drive or in social media feeds. They simply needed to be something to have and hold, and this led to the production of a limited edition sets of prints.
I’m really proud of this set – not only because of the project that spawned them, but rediscovering both my passion for illustrating Doctor Who and establishing a particular style was very rewarding, but also because it feels like a culmination of so many years of fandom and the simple joy putting pen to paper (or pixel).
The prints are A5 and finished with a matt lamination that gives extra protection without losing any of the artwork’s vibrancy. Each pack is assembled by hand and numbered. There’s only a limited quantity available, so anybody after a set, head over to the listing on eBay: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Doctor-Who-character-art-prints-A5-pack-of-6/363211090432
Here is my cover art for Greenvale, the latest offering from Alice Sabo, and the second book in her new fantasy series, Tales of Haroon.
Here is the front cover artwork for Desperate Measures – book five of Alice Sabo’s Changed World Series.
This cover was an enjoyable challenge. Alice had a rough idea of the kind of thing she wanted, but wasn’t sure how or even if it would work as a book cover, so that’s when it fell to me to come up with an atmospheric and thought provoking image, that would also sit comfortably alongside the other books in the series.
With most of Alice’s previous covers, I have always worked up one or two rough sketches beforehand, whereas with this one, I launched straight into the actual artwork.
Desperate Measures is out now – check out Alice’s blog for further information.
I have just completed the cover art for No Space for Justice, by William N. Gilmore – and here it is.
The story sees Earth’s best homicide detective shipped off to a strange alien world with no police, courts or crime, to solve an 800-year-old murder, and it was crucial to get a feel for this in the cover art.
Stay tuned for more details about the book’s release this coming December, plus a look at the back cover illustration…
I’m pleased to reveal my most recent cover illustration, for the latest book in Alice Sabo’s Asher Blaine mystery series, Blood Relations.
The cover art follows the same visual and typographical style to the previous two Asher Blaine titles. For this new book, Alice came to me with a fairly clear idea of what she wanted to see on the cover – Blaine, standing in a cornfield, with vultures circling overhead. My immediate reaction was to set the scene at sundown, with a golden haze enveloping our subtly blood-stained protagonist.
Below is the full front, back and spine design for the paperback version.
To find out more about Blood Relations and Alice’s other books, visit her blog.
The Light Dreams 