A Diplomatic Death eBook Cover

I liked doing this one since it was for a spy thriller/mystery, and I've never done a cover for one before.  The hardest part was trying to find someone that looked like a government agent who wasn't holding a gun.  I ended up have to clean up some of his facial hair and darken his goatee in some.  I also thickened his hair too.  After playing with the font for a while, I went with the red text for 'Death'.  I figured that it would help draw attention to the cover.


J K Moore Website - Coming Soon

eBook Links - Coming Soon



Stock Used:

Agent - www.dollarphotoclub.com/stock-…

Hair - www.creativemac.com/articles/v…

Building - www.dollarphotoclub.com/stock-…

American Flag - jellolicious-stock.deviantart.…

Files/Documents - stock created by me; available in a stock pack soon

Top Secret/Confidential Labels - brushportal.deviantart.com/art…

Font - Futura STD

Tears for Love eBook Cover

This is the continuation of Tears for Love...and boy did it take me a long time to get it done.  I originally had my sister-in-law and her boyfriend pose for the models, but the pics didn't come out at all what I wanted them too.  After several days of searching,  I came across the Dead Companion series by syccas-stock & instantly knew that I had to use it for the cover.  Alexander and I are so thankful that she gave us permission to use it.

I also learned something very, very important:  I absolutely hate painting/drawing hair.  PERIOD.  I even broke out my Intuos 3 and still couldn't get it to come out right.  Although, I did end up using my tablet for most of the work for a change...something I never do since I'm too used to using the mouse.  But still, hair is a no go.

CreateSpace Version - Coming Soon!


Stock Used:

Background - kiwiaa-stock.deviantart.com/ar… & elandria.deviantart.com/art/Th…
Models - syccas-stock.deviantart.com/ar…
Hair for Woman - cindysart.deviantart.com/art/H… & wcs-wildcat.deviantart.com/art…
Additional Hair on Man - wcs-wildcat.deviantart.com/art…
Skeleton Parts - markopolio-stock.deviantart.co… & markopolio-stock.deviantart.co…
Cracked Skin - xenomorphaka.deviantart.com/ar…
Dirt on Clothes - redheadstock.deviantart.com/ar…
Rips on Jeans - redheadstock.deviantart.com/ar…

Font - Trajan Pro

MP-1 Full Cover

C L is fixing to put MP-1 up for print on CreateSpace, so here is the full sized cover.  There were a few changes made, primarily adding in a spaceship & adjusting the size of the title.  I left the original solar flare in place to account for the lighting on the ship.  Now they can double as laser blasts.


C L Smothers Website - www.clsmothers.com

eBook:  Amazon
Paperback -  Coming Soon


Stock Used:

Planet - superiorgamer.deviantart.com/a…

Starship - Dollar Photo Club  www.dollarphotoclub.com/stock-…

Flares - hakeryk2.deviantart.com/art/FR…

Moons - theedeonknight.deviantart.com/…

Nebula - ineedfire.deviantart.com/art/N…

The Wormhole Project Full Cover

This is the full sized cover for the print edition of The Wormhole Project.  I had some issues with Photoshop wanting to keep flattening all the layers on me at random, but I was able to get this one done pretty quick.


CL Smothers Website - www.clsmothers.com
Amazon - www.amazon.com/The-Wormhole-Pr…


Stock Used:

Planet - superiorgamer.deviantart.com/a…
Nebula - ineedfire.deviantart.com/art/N…
Moon - theedeonknight.deviantart.com/…
Astronauts/Satellite - Dollar Photo Club www.dollarphotoclub.com/stock-…
Wormhole - distortion of background; used 'Create a Wormhole' tutorial for reference www.durbanwebdesign.com/index.…

Font - Super Retro M54 www.dafont.com/super-retro-m54… & Garamond

Deliver Us From Evil Cover

This one was a fun one since I hadn't done a steampunk cover before.  The story itself isn't very heavy as far as stempunk goes & focuses more on the hell hounds/dark stuff, so I wanted the cover to reflect that.  I met the wonderful Evremonde VonWare at FenCon in September, when T.M. first started working on the story, and she was very excited to be the cover model.  She gave me free reign to use any of her photos. 


T.M. Simmons - www.iseeghosts.com

Amazon Link - Coming Soon!


Stock Used:

Model - Evremonde VonWare  www.facebook.com/queenvonware

House - Abandoned 24

Sky -  www.dollarphotoclub.com/stock-…

Eyes - www.dollarphotoclub.com/stock-…

Font - Renny Hybrid  www.abstractfonts.com/font/155…

Dead Man Ohio Cover

I love doing the covers for the Dead Man Mysteries....especially when I get to turn my own husband into an Ohio Grassman.  The majority of the detail work I put in was lost when converting it into the cartoon style, but I have several progression images for that which I will put up on my blog later so that you can see it.  It was a huge hit with everyone, and my sister-in-law included one of the preview pics in her computer class final project much to the amusement of her teacher.

The pig was actually T.M.s' son's pig that I went out and took photos of.  It kept running away from me, probably because I looked at it like it was a pile of bacon, so it took a bit to get a few pics.  I also edited out a lot of the branding on the police car.


Kindle Link: Coming Soon!

T.M. Simmons: Website & Facebook


Stock Used:

Police Car - theshelfs.deviantart.com/art/D…

Skeleton - twins72-stocks.deviantart.com/…

Pig - own stock used; pack coming soon

Bigfoot -  Base Model: Jason Rogers (my husband); fur: www.creativemac.com/articles/v… ; wrinkles bongistka.deviantart.com/art/H…

Skull (in branding) - jennatalia.deviantart.com/art/…

Fonts - BONES (title/author) www.acidfonts.com/typeface/bon… & Garamond (branding)

The Wormhole Project eBook Cover v2

CL is working on getting The Wormhole Project ready for CreateSpace printing, and he wanted the cover to match up more with MP-1.  I used the same planet, background & moon from the MP-1 cover, and created the wormhole by distorting the nebula background in a separate layer.

The hardest part was finding the astronauts and satellite that was needed.  I eventually stumbled across Dollar Photo Club, a new stock site.  I had to get approved to join by sending them a line to my portfolio.  You can also get in if a member sends you an invite.  They have a lot of great stock and their prices are beyond reasonable.


Amazon - www.amazon.com/The-Wormhole-Pr…


Stock Used:

Planet - superiorgamer.deviantart.com/a…

Nebula - ineedfire.deviantart.com/art/N…

Moon - theedeonknight.deviantart.com/…

Astronauts/Satellite - Dollar Photo Club www.dollarphotoclub.com/stock-…

Wormhole - distortion of background; used 'Create a Wormhole' tutorial for reference www.durbanwebdesign.com/index.…

Font - Super Retro M54 www.dafont.com/super-retro-m54…

Tears for a World Full Cover

The second part of the Tears of a World commission.  The back was made using the same background stock from the front.

EDIT:  Caught and fixed a few typos on the back in the book description.


Amazon Link - Coming Soon


Back Cover Stock

Background - elandria.deviantart.com/art/Th…

Foreground - elandria.deviantart.com/art/Th…

Sunbeams - hand drawn

Font - Garamond


Front Cover Stock

Background - elandria.deviantart.com/art/Th…

Foreground & Tree - elandria.deviantart.com/art/Th…

Sunbeams - hand drawn

Ivy -  mysticmorning.deviantart.com/a…

Woman in Tree - mjranum-stock.deviantart.com/a…

Skeleton Woman Base Model - Dreamstime www.dreamstime.com/stock-photo…

Hair (Skeleton Woman) - cindysart.deviantart.com/art/H…

Skeleton Parts - markopolio-stock.deviantart.co… (back) & markopolio-stock.deviantart.co… (hands/arms)

Cracks - :iconxenomophaka: xenomorphaka.deviantart.com/ar…

Dress - designed & sewn by me; modeled on Barbie doll (stock pack available soon)

Font - Trajan Pro

Tears for a World eBook Cover

Here is the first half of a commission order for Tears for a World.  It the first in a fantasy trilogy that will be available in eBook & print (CreateSpace).  This one was a lot of fun, especially since it is my first hard-core fantasy design.  This took a lot longer then normal because of trying to get the woman in the tree to blend it (I had to start over several times) & because I had to make the dress.  I'm not used to using my sewing machine, so it took me a bit to get the hang of it.  The dress was made for a Barbie doll and modeled on one.  I originally tried painting the skin on it due to the difficulty of finding a model.  It ended up being too bright and not meshing in well at all, so I went back to looking for some model stock.

I also diverged a bit from the norm and used Perfect Effects 8 to help bring out the shadows, detail & to give it an overall surreal/fantasy look. 


Full Sized Cover - policegirl01.deviantart.com/ar…
Amazon Link - Coming Soon


Stock Used:

Background - elandria.deviantart.com/art/Th…

Foreground & Tree - elandria.deviantart.com/art/Th…

Sunbeams - hand drawn

Ivy -  mysticmorning.deviantart.com/a…

Woman in Tree - mjranum-stock.deviantart.com/a…

Skeleton Woman Base Model - Dreamstime www.dreamstime.com/stock-photo…

Hair (Skeleton Woman) - cindysart.deviantart.com/art/H…

Skeleton Parts - markopolio-stock.deviantart.co… (back) & markopolio-stock.deviantart.co… (hands/arms)

Cracks - :iconxenomophaka: xenomorphaka.deviantart.com/ar…

Dress - designed & sewn by me; modeled on Barbie doll (stock pack available soon)

Font - Trajan Pro

Witch Angel Cover

Trana wanted me to go back and redo one of her Belgrave House covers to see if it would help generate some more sales.  We decided to experiment with the look a little to make it stand out from her other romances since this one is  more sexy/sensuous than the others.  She really likes it, so we may go back and redo the other ones as well at a later date.

I didn't have to do much with the model aside from adding extra facial hair and some chest hair to the man.  I added a bait of hair to the woman to help cover up a section where I wasn't able to remove the original background (dark grey) cleanly.  I blurred the models just slightly to give them a softer look and help them fit into the background better.  The font was the hardest to find since I wanted to use something that looked like old-time script to match the setting in the book. 

Quick Note: The cover will go live sometime next week.


Kindle Link: tiny.cc/rkuc8

Trana Mae Simmons: Website & Facebook



Stock Used:

Background -Dreamstime (provided by Trana Mae Simmons)

Couple - Hot Damn Stock (provided by Trana Mae Simmons)

Facial/Chest hair on man - creativemac.digitalmedianet.co…

Fonts - Garamond (Author & Slug) and Porcelain

Upon a Midnight Clear Cover

Cover for T.M.'s yearly Christmas short story. It took a bit to figure out what to do with this one, since she originally wanted the panther to be walking beside the woman. It's hard to find panther stock without pay a few hundred for it on some of the other big stock sites. I eventually came across the one we used and had it reflected off the moon. I also had difficulty with getting the background image dark without pixelating bright spots, which is why I ended up using the Photoshop action to get the base color set and then adjust from there.

Amazon Link

T.M. Simmons: Website & Facebook


Stock Used:


Woman - greendaygurlstock.deviantart.c…

Footsteps - effing-stock.deviantart.com/ar…

Background - isostock.deviantart.com/art/Wi…

Snow on ground - tuku-stock.deviantart.com/art/…

Moon - ideasplayer.deviantart.com/art…

Stars - kuschelirmel-stock.deviantart.…

Panther (on moon) - Dreamstime www.dreamstime.com/royalty-fre… (provided by T.M. Simmons)

Night action (to get colors right) - lieveheersbeestje.deviantart.c…

Font - www.dafont.com/font-comment.ph…

Ghost Hunting Diary Volume 5 Cover -- Full

My first full sized cover.  T.M. is putting Volume 5 up on CreateSpace, so I upgraded her ebook cover to full.  I used all the same stock from the original ebook to created the back cover, aside from the addition of the wood pile.  I tried to line up everything as close as possible, but I think it's still a little off.  I didn't have a lot of time to get it perfect since she needed it same day.  Printed copies of the book will be available for sale at the Bechkam Hotel in Mineola, TX once it opens.


Amazon

T.M. Simmons: Website & Facebook



Stock Used:

House - fairiegoodmother.deviantart.co…

Sky - purplestripedbrain.deviantart.…

Grass - fairiegoodmother.deviantart.co…

Lightning - ObsidianDawn.com (bought commercial license)

Treeline (in background) - dierat.deviantart.com/art/Foli… & coffinkittie.deviantart.com/ar…

Additional scrub around the house - derangedhyena.deviantart.com/a…

Wood pile - perisheddoll.deviantart.com/ar…

Fence post - frostbo.deviantart.com/art/Fen…

Barbwire - frostbo.deviantart.com/art/Bar…

'No Trespassing' sign - showna-stock.deviantart.com/ar…

Mist - spiritsighs-stock.deviantart.c…

Shadow person

Font - OptimusPrincepsSemiBold (front & spine) & Veranda (back)