As usual, you can see larger versions by clicking on the picture to go to its Flickr page and then choosing “all sizes” above the picture.
(Update: Greer Gilman’s website has gone live, with a page for Cloud & Ashes)
LCRW decided they liked the dashed design but would prefer the face to be in profile. I did some tests to see if I could get the dashes around the nose without it being too hooked, then sketched up a larger version in pencil, put plain typing paper over and set to inking it.
I ended up doing more than one version to correct malformed birds and to do versions with the lines following the outline and with the lines starting more abruptly out from it. This is the final line version.
I had found a scan of some old paper online which had a nice effect, but I could not get in touch with the copyright holder to get permission to use it. Next time I went back to visit my parents I dug out some of my old books and found a page sufficiently aged and mottled to do what I wanted (I think it may have been from Mr Dalton’s Prescription, which I’ve used elsewhere since then).
I reworked the title font to make it less ambiguous (Cloud & Fishes?) and changed the font of Greer Gilman’s name (something Uncial-esque).
I scanned the final inked image, the font and the page and combined them in photoshop, fiddling with colours and levels and positioning to get a blue that I liked. Then I sent it to Kelly and Gavin, who asked for the text as a separate file. Now, the text only looked the way it did because it was combined with the other three layers, so I learned how to extract it and have been using those techniques in new ways ever since.
This is the front cover with text (my positioning – it is differently aligned on the final).
And here is the wraparound cover (before title, blurbs etc are added).
I have heard that it is arriving in people’s hands!
Previous:
Falling off of chairs
Roughing out of thumbnails
Anything as much fun as simply messing about in photoshop?
May 12, 2009 at 8:26 am
[...] At work on the final Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)Illustration Friday: LegendaryIllustration Friday: [...]
May 12, 2009 at 8:34 pm
Yay! I’ll need a copy… and with the reviews I just read from Margo Lanagan and Diana Wynne Jones it’s suddenly a must-read… Can’t wait!
May 13, 2009 at 12:55 pm
Me too :)
May 14, 2009 at 7:46 am
[...] and I’ve put up the last of the work-in-progress posts for the book cover. Now I’m just waiting for the book! Possibly related posts: (automatically [...]
May 14, 2009 at 3:32 pm
Can you believe that it took “would prefer the face to be in profile” for me to notice that there actually was a face? I liked the cover, but I thought you’d only used the hair structure.
(Now I’ll have to read it, of course)
May 15, 2009 at 10:10 am
Wow! It is great.
May 18, 2009 at 5:40 pm
Irina – yes, you will:)
Jane – thanks!
May 24, 2009 at 10:47 pm
Cover looks gorgeous! Very understated yet poignant. Just love it!
May 25, 2009 at 1:48 pm
Thank you, Karen! The books should be shipping soon (if not already) so I hope to be able to put a photo up of the real thing.
April 1, 2010 at 12:10 am
[...] gilman | Leave a Comment Greer Gilman’s Cloud and Ashes (and, by association, its cover) was one of the two winners of the Tiptree Award! I missed this because my superpower is [...]