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…