Book covers

Volume 3:

Volume 3 was easy too. More glowing windows, done in a way that looks better in my opinion, with Amber on it this time. Like volume 2, the Painter9 colours had a better effect over the Photoshop version, so I just chose the Painter 9 colours right away.

Volume 2:

Volume 2 was relatively easy. To keep this “common thread” running through the covers of all the books, it made sense to have another “backlit window with silhouette” thing happening there. So it was relatively easy to agree on what the cover of volume 2 should look like. There was a mild scuffle over the colours though - not because I did them differently, but because I discovered the colours looked more atmospheric in the painter version (see below) as opposed to the photoshop version (despite the picture being originally done in photoshop). So the painter version wins.

Volume 1:

I didn’t do many covers for volume 1 - I already know what I had in mind, and so only wanted to do that. However, I was obliged to do more since I needed to give more choices to my editors, so I ended up drawing more anyway. I had a bunch of ideas, but I’m not very good at cover art or illustrations, so I wasn’t really thrilled by what I came up with either. Somewhere out there are many people better than me at doing cover art. Here’s one thing I’m not very good at, which I don’t particularly want to work more at, but which I must work more at because it’s so important.

Here’s the final version for Volume 1!

Everything else was added inhouse by TOKYOPOP’s team. I’m glad I didn’t have to design the logo and binding myself, because I would have done a terrible job. I wish I could leave everything to the experts.

Here’s the finished version of the original picture I submitted as a final cover. It was done morely in Corel Painter, with blurring effects. I still am not familiar with Corel Painter, and quite frankly, will take a while before I can come up with something I consider a good cover. *sigh*

Here’s a draft version of the original cover. Draft covers are great, if only so you can work out a semblence, especially in terms of colour, what the final cover will look like. They always look ugly though.

Would you believe there’s another draft cover. I disliked this cover quite a bit - it’s got a sort of ghoulish look for it that is totally wrong for the tone of the series. Looking at the cover, you’d think the book was some 1940s schlock horror comic, with screaming heroines running from vampires and nightwalkers and all. My editor agreed.

I was asked to do a “toned down” version of the schlocky cover, so at least the editors and production department will have something to choose from. I didn’t like this version either. It’s incredibly boring, not to mention pretty inexplicable. Geez, I need to take lessons in doing covers or something.