Oh, how I never cease to be surprised by sudden bursts of inspiration. Ever since I finished my latest round of revisions on the novel version of Redefining Evil, I’ve wanted to make it a nice cover. I had a nice colored cover for the first manga version from 10th grade that, in terms of digital coloring and of color choice, was pretty high quality for my stuff then. Then, when I came up with the image of Sotoka-Khepri on strings (that was a long time ago), I knew I wanted to incorporate that into the cover. And partly thanks to that image from Mulan where her make-up face is on one side of her sword and her man is on the other (I realized this comparison today and figured I’d beat you all to the punch) and how perfect it is for the story, I also wanted to have Danny on the cover.
Unexpectedly upon my return with my family (and my nephew WHO FARTS A LOT), I had this urge to give that cover another go…which brings us to now, its long-awaited conclusion and unveiling.
It’s digital. O_O; I designed it traditionally, of course, but the actual image doesn’t rely much on anything besides the concept of the traditional. For me to even be happy with it (in my terms) is…wow. And that I did it with my precious PSP7, and not a single Adobe project…W00T. Take THAT, mainstream digital artists!
I feel like talking about all of the technical crap sort of ruins it, because this really, really speaks for itself, and it encompasses all the most important aspects of the novel so succinctly. :O And since it’s too wide for this layout, and I don’t want to ruin the presentation by having it hang out all over the place like a fat chick in short shorts (been there). So it’s a pop-up.
PHEW. First of all, yes, the blood stuff on the dead side of his face FREAKS ME OUT, too. Both that and the ink running down the middle are from here, and let me tell you, they’re significantly less textured than I expected to add to the finished product. I ended up liking how clean his live side was, even though it puts on full display my lame vector shading. AND SOTOKA. GAH. HE’S PERFECT. I mean, that’s how he always is in the story – running around like crazy…whilst on strings.
And it’s weird how much I believe the title fits where it is and the text it is. o.o I first didn’t have a script-based font because I thought that would make it cleaner, but then I tried this font (Jellyka something or other) and couldn’t go back.
MAN I WISH that I had the version where I was about to give up saved on my computer. xD Danny had a bow in his hair, drool on his chin, and pink eyeshadow! 😀 It suit him. It offended his masculinity, but the truly masculine need that now and again. Oh, and his smile was also a result of this temper tantrum, but I ended up liking the line I’d made. xD
OH MY GOSH HIS HAIR WAS SO FUN TO DO. BAHAH.
And I could just stare at his eyes for hours – both, ’cause they both have their own sort of appeal! 😀
I hate to be fangirling on Danyil when I should be all nice and composed and artist-like, but really, it’s about time I did him justice in a full-scale image like this! I mean…this image below feels like the last time I did one like it!
I…must be tired, because I sound awfully flaky in that.
Now that I realized that, on the pictures page, I have the original RE cover up (“So Much for That!” as was), I’m sort of tempted to put all three next to each other…just uh…to er…brag about my growth…all right, not gonna do that.
You’d think that, on a week when I need a story like Sanctus floating around in my head to keep myself in perspective, I’d just finish it instantly. But I’ve only gotten like a scene and a half done in the last few days, and now I have no idea what to do (my main possible solution is too…convenient). So I guess I’m glad I managed something worthwhile to show for this hellish, hot, tense, stressful, upsetting week. Now I feel like reading through RE just to get lost somewhere before I go to bed.
