Cover Art: The Blackstar Gambit

I‘m so thrilled! I finally had a chance to do my first sci-fi cover and I really am pleased with the result.

Often, if you have read my previous posts, you’ll notice I create line-art in Adobe Illustrator; well, this was one of the few exceptions I have had where I really didn’t use that program at all.

This time, since I was dealing with a space theme I chose to go to the best source I could think of for inspiration…the Hubble website; boy did I find inspiration!

I’m not sure if many of you know it or not but most of their images are royalty-free. People are free to use them as long as they credit where they found the images. I don’t know about you, but I find that a completely reasonable request, especially considering the quality of their images.

Did you know the color of the images you see in Hubble photographs isn’t actually real? Nope, the Hubble telescope only takes photographs in black in white; it’s actually someone like myself who takes those photographs and adds color to them, don’t they do an amazing job of it?

So, if you look closely at this cover you may recognize a few things, then again you may not. I have taken my own artistic license with the photographs. I have added filters, altered colors, added images, blended images….everything just to create what you see now. I’m truly pleased with how it worked out.

I’ll tell you a secret too….this is one of the fastest covers I have ever created, seriously. I really expected this was going to take hours and hours of dedicated work. I took a total of 6 hours for me to create, from inception to completion and author approval.

So, for my sci-fi and thriller fans out there, check out this Col Sec Series by Jan Domagala, I’ve read this book, I really think you’ll like it too!

What do you think of this cover? Would you have taken a different approach? Does it peak your interest? As always thoughts or comments are always welcome, I enjoy the interaction.

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