Have you ever had to create a really good-looking image from something in the public domain? If so, you will know the sort of struggle my cover artist Ruth Germon experienced when she came up with this one. For a start, there are basically no good dragon images in the public domain. Check for yourself. Everything is copyrighted. The reason for this is obvious. You can’t just go out and snap a picture of a dragon and stick it on the internet. That’s why there aren’t heaps of them floating around. Dragons have to be drawn or animated. And this means that people are going to copyright their images.
So when I said to Ruth that I wanted a dragon on the front cover of this book, I may have scared her a little. I certainly scared myself a little, but I knew Ruth was capable of miracles. And if she decided she wasn’t up to it, we could always have left the cover blank and said the dragon was invisible like in Elliot and the Dragon. Just kidding.
Anyway, Ruth found a very ordinary image to use - a dragon statue, probably photographed somewhere in China. It was obviously stone and really only contained the front claws, neck, and head of the dragon. Then a pedestal sat beneath the structure, making it look like… well, a statue.
Ah, the power of editing - Ruth’s editing, that is. Would you have guessed that the silhouetted dragon depicted on the cover is a statue? Probably not. When she was finished with the cover, I nearly forgot where the original image had been sourced from. Add some flame here and some texture there, pick a good background colour, and ask Tristan to animate some lettering in Captain of the Pirates font, and there you have it - a brilliant cover. Once again, Ruth and I went for a simple central image against a striking background. But thanks to Ruth’s ingenuity, it paid off.
To create covers like that, you really have to be able to see the miraculous in the everyday. It’s an artist’s gift. The next time you see a statue of a dragon, you may not think of it the same way!
Purchase this brand new book here.
Alternately, start the series with Rafen, marked down to a dollar today!
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So when I said to Ruth that I wanted a dragon on the front cover of this book, I may have scared her a little. I certainly scared myself a little, but I knew Ruth was capable of miracles. And if she decided she wasn’t up to it, we could always have left the cover blank and said the dragon was invisible like in Elliot and the Dragon. Just kidding.
Anyway, Ruth found a very ordinary image to use - a dragon statue, probably photographed somewhere in China. It was obviously stone and really only contained the front claws, neck, and head of the dragon. Then a pedestal sat beneath the structure, making it look like… well, a statue.
Ah, the power of editing - Ruth’s editing, that is. Would you have guessed that the silhouetted dragon depicted on the cover is a statue? Probably not. When she was finished with the cover, I nearly forgot where the original image had been sourced from. Add some flame here and some texture there, pick a good background colour, and ask Tristan to animate some lettering in Captain of the Pirates font, and there you have it - a brilliant cover. Once again, Ruth and I went for a simple central image against a striking background. But thanks to Ruth’s ingenuity, it paid off.
To create covers like that, you really have to be able to see the miraculous in the everyday. It’s an artist’s gift. The next time you see a statue of a dragon, you may not think of it the same way!
Purchase this brand new book here.
Alternately, start the series with Rafen, marked down to a dollar today!
Want to know more about these books? Sign up to the newsletter here.
