Let’s talk about the cover of The Meldling! Here’s the evolution from first sketch by Katrianna all the way up to the final product. Click on the image to see the very big version.
Really all I wanted was to get the main character, Suzanna, onto the cover. When I sent the description to Katrianna, there were plenty of different details, especially in her clothes. And after I got the final image, I actually went back and rewrote some descriptions to match it!
The worst thing about book covers is that there’s an inevitable amount of text there that covers up the artwork. It can’t really be helped, unfortunately. It’s a real shame when the art is just so damn good. On the website header on the main page, you can see (if you have a good monitor!) some of the detail that goes into this kind of digital illustration.
Major props to Katrianna. She did a fantastic job based on little more than my half-assed rambling.