A Few Updates

Stuff has been quiet on here for a while, and I'm trying to get caught up on writing posts.  I'm working on a few covers right now.  I'm hoping to have them done in a few days.  One is the sequel to Winter Prey.  The other is a mystery/romance/historical (little bit of everything).  I've been having some trouble with that one since the author wants it to look painted.  My old version of Corel Painter 4 Essentials is doing an awful job of it so I'm looking for some other program options.

I also lost the majority of my work files a few weeks ago due to a massive hard drive crash.  I was able to recover a good chunk of my files, including pictures & documents.  But all of the work files from 2010 to 2014 are gone.  So...if anyone needs stuff updates I'll have to completely redo the cover in order to work on it.  Joy.  The lesson learned here is that you can never have too many backups.

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

Sunset After the Storm

We had some nasty storms come through a few hours ago.  The rain has been stopped for a while but it's still very cloudy, giving this very beautiful sunset.  Everything was in an orange haze, and the further your moved away from the sunset, the blue was very vibrant.  The picture overall doesn't do the colors justice...but this was the best one out of the group I took.  The others kept coming out blood red due to the way the light was filtering.

The only edit I did was to use Worm Wire to remove the power lines, which were running across the middle of the image.

Prints available on deviantArt.

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…

New Year Updates

It looks like 2015 is going to be a busy year.  I already have a few cover that I'm starting some prep-work for, and there are several that I know for sure that I will be doing during the year.

As far as conventions go, I've gotten a weekend pass for Who Fest 2.  I want to get a rent table, but I don't know how much they will be right now.  I also don't know if I will have much else besides the leftover FenCon posters...mostly due to time constraints & table info limbo.

FenCon will also be a go this year too.  I am planing on having buttons of varying sizes this year, possibly some books of authors I've done some covers for (possibly C.L. Smothers & Alexander Fernandez), steampunk jewelry (made by my mom), and some crochet/arm knit things in Doctor Who colors/theme.

I will also have some things out at the Beckham Spirit Fest too, but probably not a whole lot.

Beware a visit from Gryla!

Made for zemenz for the Secret Satan Exchange hosted by dA-Morgue

Meet Grýla, mystical giantess of Iceland & mother of the Yule Lads.  She devours naughty children. 

I had originally wanted to do the Yule Lads, but I got flooded with last minute commissions & my daughter got sick (then passed it on to me)...so I didn't have anywhere near the amount of time to work on the project.  Yule Lads next year, I promise.  I'm not overly familiar with the legend of Grýla, and there really wasn't much about her online as far as how she would look.  I ended up crossing her between the newer, old lady/witch version with the horned oger pics I found.  It's still missing something, so I may make a few changes later.

Icelandic Translation: Beware a visit from Grýla!  (I used Google so it might be way off)


Stock Used:

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

Horns - Horns psd

Eyes -  Eye Iris Brushes

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

Background - Premade Background

Blood - Blood Drip

Font - Note This www.fontsquirrel.com/fonts/Not…

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

Store Now Open!

I have officially opened my store via Squre: https://squareup.com/market/angela-rogers-2.  I'll be adding things to it as I have prints done & canvases done.  I will also have the option to pick up canvases if you live in the DFW area.

Right now, I have the Doctor Who prints up, and I will be adding some others things before Friday as well.  I have several canvases right now, but I'm not sure how much the shipping will be for those so they will be listed as 'Pick Up'.  If you want them shipping, I will have to get an estimate.

Tears for a World Cover Wins Honorable Mention

The Tears for a World cover has won Honorable Mention in the 2014 MarCom Awards.  I'm very excited that I got any mention at all, being that there is a lot of strong competition in the contest.  I will definitely try to enter again next year.

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…

PRE-ORDERS OPEN -- 11x17 Doctor Who FENCON EXCLUSIVE Print

I'm taking pre-orders on the Doctor Who poster prints I'm having done for FenCon.  They will be mailed in a flat mailing envelope using Joodlez's shipping method.  That way it will keep the cost down (because tubes are super expensive) and the posters shouldn't get creased.   

At this time, I will be shipping to US only.  Depending on how well they sell, I may open to international orders later.

Price: $8 each + $3 Shipping + PayPal fee ($0.64 for one poster)

You can determine the PayPal fee by using the Fee Calculator - http://thefeecalculator.com

Please email me if you want more than one poster so that I can adjust the shipping cost for you.

Sending Payment:

Send full payment via PayPal to amjackson@hotmail.com.

Shipping:

US only.  No international orders.  The posters will be printed sometime after the 1st of September.  I will try to have all pre-orders out before FenCon.  Make sure to check back here or at my site for updates.  This is my first time shipping prints like this so it may take some time.

Cutoff Date:

You must have your pre-order in no later than September 1 @ midnight CST.

Doctor Who

I couldn't resist doing a Doctor Who themed piece for FenCon this year.  I initially planned on just having a general TARDIS pic, but at some point the lighting coming out of the windows ended up looking a lot like a regeneration.  I find this ironic since we are getting a new doctor later this month, but I've been left at a total loss of what to call it.

The overall process was fun, and I really enjoyed making the gas giant.  I wanted to put rings around it, but could never get them to come out right.  The most tedious work was the TARDIS.  The base image, while a police box, looking nothing like it does now.  I made the top signs & the door sign.  I had to completely redo the front doors but copying the visible side panel and adjusting it to fit.  There is a side-by-side comparison on my Facebook page if you want to see it. 

Funny story:  the comparison pic caused some hilarity.  My friend's sister saw it after he shared it on his page.  She glanced at it and thought that the 'before' pic was taken in my backyard (the fences look similar).  She immediately came running over with her phone to take pictures of it.  Her trip resulted in being barked at by my dogs. 

There will be a canvas print available for sale at FenCon in the art auction.  I'm looking into getting some small posters printed as well to sell at my table. 

PRE-ORDERS OPEN - 11x17 FENCON EXCLUSIVE PRINT

Stock Used:

TARDIS -
     Base - www.dollarphotoclub.com/stock-…
     Font - Gill Sands MT fontsforweb.com/font/show?id=1…
     Light beans - darkonelh.deviantart.com/art/L… & freshemedia.deviantart.com/art…
     Wood Texture - sed-rah-stock.deviantart.com/a…

Background -
     Planet & star field - drkzin.deviantart.com/art/Cori…
     Nebulas - glennclovis.deviantart.com/art…
    
Gas Planet - camille-besneville.deviantart.… (tutorial) & www.deviantart.com/art/Sky-4-b… (base texture)

Comets - www.deviantart.com/art/Space-P…

Outdoor Life - Pelican

I was on vacation last week, and got a chance to test out the new lens on something other than squirrels.  This guy was overly friendly, but had a sadistic streak a mile long.  He let me walk right up to him and take pictures.  He seems to like the attention and was preening.  When he realized that I was going to follow him around, he started moving up and down the fishing pier.  At one point he flew off into the water by the shore where my family was sitting on a bench.  After I trudged all the way back down the pier and almost to the bench, he flew back to the pier...making sure to fly directly over me along the way.  He was a smug little bastard when I got back over to him.  The guy fishing at the other end of the pier was laughing.


Location - Port Aransas, Texas

Grassman Process Images

Here is the work progression on the Grassman for the Dead Man Ohio cover.  Most of the detail work that went into it was lost once I covered over to the cartoon look, so this way you can see what I did.   These are all screencaps that I was sending to T.M. so she could see the work I was doing.  If you have any questions about what I did, feel free to ask in the comments.

1.  This is the original picture I took of my husband in our office.  The background has been removed and is on a transparent layer.

2.  Using the hair brushes, I layered from the bottom up using a two-tone color to created the body fur.  I thickened his eyebrows, added long hair (same brush, just larger size), and added a beard.  I went back in with some lighter and darker colors to give some depth.

3.  Using the skin wrinkly brushes, I added lines to the face to give it a more leathery, aged appearance. 

4.  I fixed his eye, sharpened the teeth, and covered over his metal cap on the bottom back molar.  I also a soft round brush and blackened in around the eyes, then set the opacity very low to give it a shadowed look.

5.  The lengthened the teeth some more and darkened the skin in.  I also added the skin wrinkles to the hands and drew longer fingernails. 

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

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.