Cover Artist
I design all my own cover art, and I also occasionally take commissions for freelance cover illustrations from other authors, depending on my writing and publishing schedule. I love the design process and find it to be an enjoyable sideline. Plus I like knowing that I’m helping other independant authors put the best face forward on their novels. Here are some examples of designs I’ve done for myself and other authors. All the illustrations pictured below are completely custom–no clip art or stock images here.
I created this cover for Ordinary Angels to replace the one done by my first publisher. The original cover wasn’t terrible, but the stock image the publisher used didn’t reflect what Zoe, the main character, looked like to me, nor the tone of the book. The original cover made it look like a straight romance, not even showing the paranormal aspect of the book!
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This cover for Loose Screw was a ton of fun to do. We wanted to capture the idea that “this is a mystery novel” as well as the whimsical tone of the book. Although it doesn’t depict an actual scene from the novel, it incorporates many of the ideas Lori Devoti (who wrote this novel under the pen name Rae Davies) wanted: the setting (Montana), the theme, the main character, and her dog.
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This was the second illustration I did for this series. In some ways, trying to match something that already exists is more challenging than starting from scratch!
The author wanted something that would fit with the theme of her first book cover in this series (which I also designed), and show the unique story elements that would set her book apart and draw readers in.
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For this cover, Shannon had some photos of a real life setting she used in Karma’s a Bitch. I used her images to pick up colour cues, and her character description to draw the woman at the table. Every detail–from the dog, the tea, what the character is wearing–is designed to draw the potential reader’s eye and give a snapshot of the story.
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When Talli Roland left her publisher, she wasn’t sure what she was going to do for a cover, but she knew she wanted Build A Man to fit in visually with her other books. So we took the font her original publisher had used on her older books, mimicked the playful alignment, but also tried to give this cover a little more impact by incorporating a striking character on the cover and a bold colour scheme.
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Heather Webber is a well-known and bestselling author, and the series for Trouble Under the Tree was already well established. However, she wanted to move from the painted images her previous publisher had designed to an illustrated style, while at the same time, maintaining the look and feel of the series. This was no small task! (Not to mention that she wanted lots of Christmas sparkle with a little murder thrown in.)
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This was the very first illustrated cover I did, for a novel I haven’t finished. I don’t know what the fate of the book will be, but this continues to be one of my favourite covers I’ve ever done. Looking at it now, I would probably change the font on the author name and lighten the colours a bit, but the flow and magic of the illustration still work well.
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If you would like more information on having me design a book cover for you, you can contact me here. Like you, I am a writer, so I understand that all authors have a vision for their novels. My favourite part of this process is helping authors achieve success with their own books.
