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

Outdoor Life - Cat 1

This is one of the kittens running around at my parents.  He followed me around while I was trying to get pics of the hummingbirds.

Available as a print on deviantArt.

Ser Knight

I went out to Four Winds Renaissance Faire a few weeks back and was able to get a lot of pictures of the jousting tournament.  I figured that I would use them as part of a stock pack.  When I was going back through them, this one stuck out from all the rest.  This was taken right after the melee battle.

Outdoor Life - Squirrel 2

This is the same squirrel from the earlier photo...he's just hanging upside down from the bird seed bell on my porch.

This is available for prints at deviantArt and Fine Art America.

Outdoor Life - Squirrel 1

I've been experimenting with my lens (55-250mm) by taking pictures of the neighborhood critters.  I've been putting out bird seed for the birds, and now have a legion of squirrels up on the porch every day.  They now have gotten somewhat friendly and I am able to stand outside the door and take pictures of them.  The new lens really helps since I can get really good closeup shots.

This is available for prints at deviantArt and Fine Art America.

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

DDRC Logo Design

This one started out as an entry for the DDRC Logo Contest last year.  I finished it and entered it in on January 15, literally a year ago.  I was contacted right before Christmas letting me know that I won and just needed to make a few little weeks.  The original version is live on the site right now, and the updated version should be up in a few days or so.

The full color version will be used for the website, newsletters & stickers.  The grayscale & inverted will be also be used on t-shirts, as well as anything that cannot be printed in color.


DDRC Site - www.down-river.com/