Icons and Covers and Doodling, oh my!

  • Post category:Writing
The Wolves We Are Sketch

Part of the push to create an eBook of The Wolves We Are is to create actual cover art that’s not just a simple photo-manip. (To be honest, I probably need to redo every story icon I have, but I’m starting small.)

I’m an artist, of sorts, but I’m not a designer– as you can tell from the simplicity of the Saturday Story Prompt collections covers. Unfortunately I can’t afford to hire a real one, especially for a free eBook, so for now I’m going to have to make do.

And that means keeping the art as basic as possible.

After a boatload of sketches I ended up deciding to use a stained glass motif of the Baron and his sevens sons as the main Baron’verse icon. It’s a pattern that should shrink well and 90% of the use will be as an icon instead of a bookcover.

Baron’verse Sketches

I’m planning on mimic the Kindle Worlds covers and having a bar at the bottom of the covers that indicates what ‘verse the story is from. And maybe an icon for genre. *pokes sketches* Hmm…

I’m torn for the moment on using the wolf’s head with the human eye or the more descriptive wolfdog + bonfire + shadow + moon cover for the short story. The first is a lot more generic and I could use it for almost any Baron’verse story, but the second will take a lot more work.

I think for now I’ll do both and then take a survey of folks to see which looks better. If all else fails I can always use the first one for something else… *wanders off to finish the large scale versions*

Baron’verse Icon Sketches

Martha Bechtel

My name is Martha Bechtel and I write fantasy and science fiction stories, paint small model horses silly colors, cast resin and plaster magnets, code random code (and Wordpress plugins)... Come on in and join in the fun!

This Post Has 2 Comments

  1. Navimie

    I look forward to seeing the cover art. And of course anything with wolves is awesome IMO ๐Ÿ™‚

    1. Martha Bechtel

      I’m torn between going digital and actually doing the paper art… I think I may try both this weekend. ๐Ÿ™‚

      And if you like wolves, I should have the Sparklewulf posted soon! ๐Ÿ˜€ (Safari Ltd. White Wolf repainted to faux-Grey Wolf in metallic purple)

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