New Fantasy Book Cover

[Elwell]

Hello all, it's been a while since I posted anything new, so here's a book cover for a kid's fantasy novel I just finished. It's oil over acrylic on illustration board, about 11"x16".



After reading the manuscript and focusing in on a particular scene, I started out with these quick pencil thumbnails, showing the client several variations. They chose the second one.



I laid some quick color over the rough sketch in Photoshop to get a clear idea of where I was headed, then gathered/shot reference (lots and lots of reference) and did my final drawing on Strathmore hot press illustration board. The underpainting was developed with washes of raw umber, burnt umber, raw sienna, and burnt sienna acrylic, then sealed with several coats of acrylic matte medium to thoroughly protect the board from the oil paint. I completed the painting on oils, working from background to foreground.

[vinterdragen]

Great piece thanks by sharing

[Mic Mac]

Great work as usual. And thanks for the bits of process

[Candra H]

Wow, really lovely work. I havent had a chance to comment on your stuff so this is a nice surprise.

I loved seeing your process and how you worked from simple sketches to the final design. Can I ask how big those initial thumbnails were? Also really informative to see how people work traditionally, and how to use acrylics and oils together.

It's a beautiful painting, and the kind of cover art that would make me pick the book off the shelf. Thanks for sharing.

[LORD M]

Oho this is very nice Elwell! Great composition! Artists who knows how to work with acrylics and oil always impress me so.

[Phil Moss]

Great Piece

[kingkostas]

great work elwell!!! thanks for sharing the process

[Line]

Cool piece Elwell, I like this one a lot.

I have a couple of questions if you don't mind sharing.

In the photograph you haven't developed the underpainting to a full finish (maybe you did
later). Now, I assume you've painted over a fully developed and detailed underpainting in the
past (if not I stand corrected). My question is, how do the two methods (even if they are
slightly different) compare in your opinion, in terms of result and time management?

Lastly, I noticed that your colors changed a noticeable bit in some elements in the final (like the
clouds, and the light area of the griffon). It's a minor point I know but, I was wondering if you
decided this consciously or if there's another reason for it.

[anendlessvoyager]

I really love your work. Thanks for giving it to us to see.


Keep it up!

[Elwell]

Thanks, everybody!

Candra H, the thumbnails are 3"x4.5"

Line, what sort of underpainting I do and how far I take it varies from picture to picture, and different parts may be brought to different levels of finish. I basically take it to the point that I feel comfortable moving along to oils, whatever that may be. In retrospect, In this case I probably should have developed the gryphon further in the acrylic stage, as I ended up doing a few passes in oils to get it to where I wanted to to be.
I'm not quite sure I understand your question about the color, do you mean between the initial digital color sketch and the finish? The sketch was just to work out the general palette, I didn't feel absolutely bound by it when I moved to physical paint. I'm actually surprised it came out as close as it did, but that's just because I had such a clear picture of the color in mind from the beginning.

[Line]

Yes, I was referring to the difference between color sketch and final. I was under the impression that it was
one of many color sketches where you experimented with the color scheme. Regardless, the reason I asked
was because I wanted to see if there was any decision for the differences in between, because I've seen some
color sketches, where the colors used in the sketch, the whole harmony, the contrast, etc were fantastic and
in the final, even though the image may be excellent, was a lesser image in comparison to the color sketch
and I'm talking about a couple of very great artists, not beginners.

As for the underpainting, do you think fully developed underpaintings are useful all that much if you've developed
a fully rendered tonal sketch for reference? I mean, you have all your information right there where you can
see it. With the exception of the drawing, wouldn't it be too much to go far with the underpainting? I haven't tried
it, because I end up covering the underpainting anyway, maybe in a 3rd pass if not the first, and then I lose the
comparative information unless I have a tonal sketch. How would taking the griffon (gryphon) further help you
achieve your goal faster?

[Elwell]

Hi Line, sorry to be so long in responding.
Colors can change from sketch to final because, well, things change, especially when you're changing mediums. Some people liking sketches better than finished works is a cross artists have had to bear for centuries. De gustibus...
Underpaintings: If you're asking about my process, as I've already said, it depends. If you're asking about your process, try different methods and see what works when and how. Or, if you're happy with whatever process(es) you're using now, don't. These are practical matters, not philosophical ones. I generally don't do value sketches, at least not particularly finished ones. I've been doing this for a long time, so my process is much more abbreviated and simplified than it was when I was younger. I often scan my final drawings and underpaintings, like I did here, so I have a record to refer to if they get obscured by subsequent paint layers, so in a sense that is my value sketch. Painting the creature would have gone more quickly if I had developed the underpainting further because it took a few layers of oil paint to get the coverage and detail I wanted, whereas if I had take care of more of that in the underpainting I could have done most of it in one.

[Candra H]

Just wanted to add my thanks for answering my question and apologise for taking so long to respond. I got caught up elsewhere, oops!

[banelski]

wow your great..

[Big Bad Wolfman]

Great work!

[EricaZann]

Gorgeous work!

I love getting to see into the process as well, thanks for the glimpse.

Question: Is it standard for book covers to be done in traditional
mediums these days, or was the choice left up to you?

[Elwell]

I wouldn't say it's standard, most ADs don't care how the work is actually done as long as it looks good, although there are advantages from their end to digital work (speed, ease of revision, etc). These days they're getting a file rather than original art either way.

[Velocity Kendall]

i absolutely consumed books like this when i was a kid and always enjoyed it when the cover was of something recognizably from the story, and not just some random thing.
its so cool to see such a cover come to life.

[Dreln]

Really great piece Elwell! Love the mood and the colouring.

For your reference I'm assuming you grabbed stuff like bird legs, lion, eagle, etc. Are there any unexpected references you gathered to complete this piece? I find grabbing something that may not have direct association with the piece can sometimes help interesting elements to the work.

Thanks again and awesome work!

[warburton]

I wouldn't say it's standard, most ADs don't care how the work is actually done as long as it looks good, although there are advantages from their end to digital work (speed, ease of revision, etc). These days they're getting a file rather than original art either way.

Beautiful piece Elwell, if you don't mind me asking do you sell the original painting to your clients? Or do you just sell them the rights to use it?

[IDP]

Thanks for posting this. It's a beautiful piece and it's always helpful to be able to see the process involved.

[Harkins]

Wow that is awesome man! Thanks a lot for sharing your process.

[Elwell]

Drein: Searches, both on line and my files, for eagles/hawks/owls, lions/tigers/mountain lions (leaping/running), crows/ravens, plus pictures of griffins/gryphons (both spellings). I also shot quick lighting ref for the faces after the initial drawing.

warburton: Ownership of the original art is never included, even with complete all rights buyouts or WFH deals, unless that's specifically negotiated separately. One of the advantages to working traditionally is that there is an original, which has value and can be sold separately from the reproduction rights. For instance, I sold the original of the first book in this series to the author.

[fersteger2]

Nice work!! I love seeing the process, especially cause it's traditional. So is that the underpainting color showing through as the clouds? Or do you paint the clouds back in opaquely?

[CassandraJ]

I love your choice of colours, they seem to warm and inviting.

[giorgiobaroni]

absolutely amazing piece!
i love everything about it, from color palette (sky and clouds reminds me a lot one of my favorite illustrators, francois roca) to composition, the last thumbnail was interesting too,very norman rockwell style, but was much less dynamic.
interesting use of acrylics and oils together.
do you use oils with some sort of drying medium or you just let it dry naturally?
and using them over "many layers" of acrylic matte doesn't feel like painting on plastic?
i'm out of traditional media from long time and never used them together, so i'm just curious