The Positivity Cover Art Thread

**Loerwyn** · August 31st, 2012, 10:10 AM

Simple but effective.

**Loerwyn** · September 24th, 2012, 10:14 AM

French cover for Clive Barker's second Abarat book, subtitled Days of Magic, Nights of War. The artist is none other than the man himself, who I believe has done art/covers for most editions.

Have to say I love this. It's simple and also pretty clean and clear (especially for Barker).

**KatG** · September 24th, 2012, 11:24 PM

I do like a lot of the French covers. Here are some pretties:

Stormdancer by Jay Kristoff:

Bread & Circuses, a short story collection by Felicity Dowker:

Tad Williams' The Dirty Streets of Heaven (not sure if this is the U.S., U.K. or Australian cover, suspect it's U.S.):

And I swear, Jay Lake gets the best covers. These are the next two books in his Green series:

Endurance:

And Kalimpura:

**Contrarius** · September 25th, 2012, 01:05 AM

Oooo, now that Kalimpura looks interesting. That's a cover that makes you want to know the story behind it.

**Loerwyn** · September 25th, 2012, 02:31 AM

I believe Jay Lake has Dos Santos covers, but I'm not sure if Kalimpura is a Dos Santos. Looks like one, but it also doesn't.

**KatG** · October 15th, 2012, 10:19 PM

Amir Zand has done another really interesting cover for Lucas Thorn's Nysta series, Book 2 which is called Duel at Grimwood Creek. It's in keeping with the first one (see back in the thread a bit,) but with a different color palate. This image may be too large -- I'm having sizing problems:

Yeah, it is and I can't resize it here. Here's the first one by Zand:

**Loerwyn** · October 16th, 2012, 03:23 AM

Are we allowed to show nipples on SFFW? *winky face*

But they are pretty, even if I've got an eyebrow raised over her 'armour'.

**JunkMonkey** · October 16th, 2012, 06:35 AM

Whoah! Some serious hair gel issues going on there! I'm no great fan of the whole moody bare/large-breasted female warrior in scanty armour holding something pointy shtick (put those eyebrows back down, Loer) but I actually like that second one.

The word 'elf' twice on one cover though....

**Loerwyn** · October 16th, 2012, 07:26 AM

I can't. My eyebrow appears to be stuck.

**KatG** · October 16th, 2012, 11:44 AM

She's not wearing armor. It's a Western-flavored secondary world -- think Outlaw Josey Wales, not Sir Lancelot. And she's an elf, so hair does that. The images are impressionistic, not recreations of scenes. (Also, reminder, Positivity cover art thread.)

**KatG** · October 16th, 2012, 11:53 AM

I'm also very much liking Tim Marquitz's covers, which are all different from each other. His Blood War trilogy has a kind of retro, kind of almost wood block look to it, very different from his Demon Squad series cover look, for Embers of an Age:

And then his new horror novel, Prey, has a third, gruesome funky look I like:

**Lucas Thorn** · October 19th, 2012, 12:52 AM

Originally Posted by Loerwyn

Are we allowed to show nipples on SFFW? *winky face*

But they are pretty, even if I've got an eyebrow raised over her 'armour'.

i'm totally with you on the "armour". i wanted to avoid the cliche of underdressed character, so she's never described the way she's portrayed on the cover (ie: no tight latex or skimpy tops). in amir's defence, he convinced me he was trying for something barbaric to suit the character's violent tendencies. i gave in because my wife loved it. in fairness, it captures the essence of the character more than the actual physical description, so i was happy with it. plus it does look impactful to me. i was desperate that the character be posed "strong" rather than "erotic", too. i hope we can admit that nipple or no, she's not exactly looking weak?

fingers crossed.

i guess the story also tries to sit in a violent "sword and sorcery" mixed with "western" genre, so i was going for something like a modernised impressionist version of an old conan cover...

p.s. glad everyone loves the hair.

**Loerwyn** · October 19th, 2012, 01:37 AM

Oh, definitely not. It's just something that can really get my goat. But they do look good regardless of that, I'll admit.

**Lucas Thorn** · October 19th, 2012, 02:46 AM

Originally Posted by Loerwyn

Oh, definitely not. It's just something that can really get my goat. But they do look good regardless of that, I'll admit.

totally understand. i'm actually the same. thanks for the comments, though. i did wonder if people liked those covers as much as i did (and would be forgiving on the armour).

edit: reminds me of early gemmell covers for druss. there's some old covers which have druss portrayed as a swordsman... :P sometimes the outside isn't quite what's on the inside. but it should always give an idea of the writing style, i think.