Filing Woes

It's all quiet on the cover front this last week so I've decided to try and get my files in order. (Ha ha .. sounds like I'm about to write my last will and testament LOL!). I have so many stock photo's clogging up my HD as well as burned discs everywhere. I really need to get a system going so that I can find things easily, without the mess.

The poor old puty is getting slow so I can't ignore it any longer. I'm not quite sure how I'm going to tackle it yet. I love order but I never quite seem to manage it. *sigh* Oh well. Better not put it off any longer. Wish me luck!

The New Covey Awards

Wow! Author Lexie Davis just contacted me to let me know that her book Rain Fell Down has been nominated in the New Covey Awards. It's one of my covers - how cool is that!


So, if there's anyone out there ..... (echo .. echo .. echo ..) Head on over and vote for us - The New Covey Awards ;)

Hmm ... probably should let people know that I have a blog LOL!

Cheers,

It's been awhile, demon wind

Here are the covers I've been working on this month.

Demon Wind is probably my favourite of this group, and really tested my skills. The original couple were clothed so I had to paint out their swimmers. Even went to the extreme of painting the woman's nipple, only to be told it might be a bit too sexy LOL! I tried to paint in some wet cloth, but I ain't that talented, so went with shadowing instead.

Whipped probably took the most time as there were quite a few redo's and touch-ups but I'm pretty happy with how it came out.

Da Twins

Okay, it's been a while, eh? :D So here's the 'twins' I was talking about. Turned out okay, although looking at it now I could have probably toned down/darkened the twins a bit. They seem to really stand out. Obviously it's the same guy, just in a slightly different position.

The woman originally had red hair so I had to darken it to black. Gawd I hate hair. It's probably one of the few things when it comes to manipulation that I dislike doing. There's a fine line between having it look 'normal' and having it look like a wig. Still, I think I pulled it off this time ;) Not so sure about the guy's though.

What to do

I'm in absolute agony today, thanks to my gym instructor getting me to do walking lunges. O.M.F.G! I have not felt this sore in the legs and butt since my horse riding days. I try to get to the gym 3 days a week, considering the amount of time that I spend planted on my ever expanding backside at the computer. I've been going for a few weeks now, but of course life gets in the way. If it's not sick kids, I have to work at the shop or we get cut off from town due to flooding. Anyway, looks like I'm back into the swing of things and I even took a photo of myself to put up next to the computer/fridge/pantry so that I can see what I 'really' look like. Let's just say 'It ain't pretty'. I'm definitely NOT the svelte, sexy thing that parades around in my head dammit! LOL

So, I've currently got 5 covers on the go. I'm stuck on the first, of course. The damn thing has twins in it. So I guess that by having twins we need to see their faces, which means that I need two images of the same guy but both slightly different. Otherwise it might look a bit clone-ish. So after some fiddle farting around with the fabulous Claire over at TEB we finally decided on some stock that might work. Now I just need to give the guy's curly hair and change the heroine's hair from red to black. God I hate hair! All the more reason to chop off their heads.

Anyway, brings to mind something else that I have been thinking of lately. I have never done a course in design/photoshop/cover art, etc, so there is every chance that I am spending hours on something that could be easily done in a few minutes. I've also noticed that most of the cover artists are Graphic Designers, which makes me feel a bit of a ring-in. I wouldn't mind doing a course in Graphic Design but am not quite sure what it entails or if I'd even be able to qualify. Being a mature aged student and all. Something to look into anyway - It's a bit scary, but exciting at the same time.

No doubt I'll post my journey here too :D

Latest Work & Gay Covers

My latest cover for TEB.
Which brings me to the topic of gay covers.

M/M erotic romance really seems to be taking off and no matter which e-publisher you frequent you will always find a m/m book in the latest releases. So where do cover artists get their stock from? The usual resources, of course. Istock, Dreamstime, etc, etc, etc. Do a search on gay or homosexual men and you will find the usual illustrations and the odd awkward looking couple but very, very rarely will you find an image that will have an author (or reader) gushing. It seems people don't want to see scrawny pre-pubescent looking gay men on their covers. They want to see real men *rolls eyes* with six packs and boobs bigger than mine (and that's saying something) . So where does that leave us cover artists? Pulling together a couple of 'real' men from different sources and trying to play match-maker and all the while hoping no-one takes a dislike to it.

So when a fellow cover artist tells me a popular stock photographer doesn't want his models on gay covers I thought I'd better look into it. No cover artist wants to have to re-do a cover purely to replace one of the images. Here's an example of one of the stock sites license agreements:

(a) Prohibited Uses. You may not do anything with the Content that is not expressly permitted in the preceding section or permitted by an Extended License. For greater certainty, the following are “Prohibited Uses” and you may not:

1. use or display any Content that features a model or person in a manner that (i) would lead a reasonable person to think that such person uses or personally endorses any business, product, service, cause, association or other endeavour; or (ii) that depicts such person in a potentially sensitive subject matter, including, but not limited to mental and physical health issues, social issues, sexual or implied sexual activity or preferences, substance abuse, crime, physical or mental abuse or ailments, or any other subject matter that would be reasonably likely to be offensive or unflattering to any person reflected in the Content;

Kinda limiting, isn't it. Especially when cover artists and erotic romance publishers alike rely on stock from these sites for their covers. So I guess you could say that we take liberties when it comes to the above license, all the while hoping to god no-one gets offended.

I must add that I am amazed that no-one has cottoned on to the fact that gay images with good looking, well built men are really popular. Hell! If I knew how to use a camera and had access to some good looking gay men, I'd submit some myself!

So spread the word folks!! We need more gay cover models!!!

Prime Suspect & Stock

This is my latest approved cover. Prime Suspect by KS Augustin. Probably up there as one of my favourites.


I've just purchased a stock subscription so am now madly downloading as much stock as I can :lol: Lord only know's if I'll ever use any of it. Still, it can't hurt I guess. Considering I have a limit of 5 downloads a day, I want to make the most of my money. Lucky I like doing photomanips so if I don't use them on a cover, maybe I'll use them in my artworks.

Anyway, I feel like I'm just writing things to fill a blank :lol: So I'll stop now until I have something more interesting to add ;)