Saturday, June 26, 2010

So...

I haven't posted in a while. Work has kept me pretty busy in a mindless sort of way, although every so often I get some covers that I really enjoy. I have started working in Illustrator and am having fun with it. It can be a really good tool.

As for my life, I have been spending a lot of time getting past some things that I was not strong enough to get over. Time does make pain lessen, and at least it didn't break me this time. A year and a half in and although I doubt I will ever be over it, I think I am almost past it.. so that is nice. It just sucks that I have to take the long way around. Dancing helps. :P I have found that being away from Ringling has made me a much happier person and I am almost completely back to the plucky guy I was before that acursed place.

As for art, I will post some covers that I have done. I just finished my first traditionally painted book cover and it was approved depending on the approval of the author. I will post that if it gets approved. I think later tonight I will be able to post some covers if I can find them. I guess I will go look now.

...

The flash drive was sitting right in front of me. Smart Dan.

These two are done pretty much completely in illustrator.



Here are some covers done in photoshop, illustrator, indesign and grabbing tons of assets from shutterstock. My relationship with shutterstock is kind of love/hate right now because I am working on a fantasy cover, finished a version and found out that the knight wears chain mail and not plate... so I have to start over and can't find any good shots. Grrr. Arg.

I like the Amusing Ourselves cover... it was fun, but am starting to wonder why I keep getting books about Nazis and the World Wars. :\ The Rinehart book is a mystary. I think I have done about 15 covers this month, but these are my favorites. Support your local libraries. Check 'em out.


EDIT / UPDATE: The Shadow Hunter cover was just approved by the author, so I am able to show it. Took about 5 - 6 hours to paint it, the bear and boy vector is from a sketch while I was brainstorming the cover and I liked it so much I had to add it. I think I would have liked the cover much better if I had time to do the piece in oils (I don't think the clouds are very convincing), but I like how the mountains turned out in the watercolor. A Wreath for Rivera is the first in a series of old murder mystery novels that I am redoing the covers for the library version of the audio books.


I think one of the best parts of working with an audio book company is access to all the audio books that I can listen to... which is quite a lot.

I am taking a hiatus from shooting right now because after this last photoshoot I was in a rush to get back in town and forgot to reclose my gear bag... meaning that when I pulled it out of my car my 5d went flying. Lens is in two pieces, battery grip's catch is broken but the camera looks ok. Could have been a lot worse. I switched back to my non L series lens before heading back because it fits in the gear bag better... saving a $2000 lens and only damaging a $400 one.... so I guess I was lucky. Might as well show some from that shoot. Make it a more complete update.

I will see what I can do about posting some 3d updates too, but I will save that for later.

-d