Hierion Tubes

My most recent draft of a fantasy book cover.
See below for information about the images
from diviantART that I used in this composite.

As described in my previous blog post, I've been trying to devise some cover art for Thomas Iwedon's fantasy novel, Daveed the Luk'ie. To the right on this page is my latest incarnation of the book cover.

That's Daveed down there in the lower right corner. He has been carefully crafted to have a human appearance, but he is a Luk'ie, a being with the special ability to communicate with the Sedronic Domain.

The 3 Domains of the Universe
The Luk'ie normally inhabit the Hierion Domain, and in this image that's where Daveed is, but he's just about to cross over into the Domain of we Earthlings. There, just on the other side of the Hierion Tube, is a pek, ready to pull Daveed through the Tube to where she is waiting, on Earth.

Don't be disoriented by the mismatch between the gravitational field of Earth and that being experienced by Daveed. The Hierion Domain is like a bridge that connects the Hadronic Domain of our daily existence to the Sedronic Domain. The Hierion Domain exists outside of the usual flow of time as we experience it here on Earth.

Image Credits

the magical pek

Kayla Davion

As described in my previous blog post, I went searching through the "stock" images at deviantART to find the elements for this new cover image. I modified the image of Kayla Davion to make the magical pek for this cover image.

I modified the eyes, ears and nose to create a non-human elf-like appearance.

The pek are artificial life forms and able to take on any desired shape and form. However, in my attempt to create the feel of a fantasy book cover, I tried to use a well-known fantasy element. I fear that the pointy elf ear is not easy to notice among the decorative leaves on her head. Also, the pointy nose does not show up well unless you zoom in.

stock background image #46 by user lifeblue at deviantART

For the background, I found a stock image by user lifeblue at deviantART. I wanted to use this particular image because it looks like a magical portal between Earth and the artificial Hierion Domain.

There are several other images (including #61 and #70) in lifeblue's background gallery that struck me as possible representations of a portal between our world and the Hierion Domain, but #46 was my favorite.

The large swinging door is what prompted me to tilt the portal by 90 degrees, allowing everything to fit more gracefully onto a vertically-oriented book cover.

jason aaron baca dec3068free vas

To represent the fictional character Daveed, I found a suitable image of Jason Aaron Baca in a photograph by Portia Shao. Jason has a gallery of images that he freely shares for use in non-commercial settings and he also sells his high quality photos for use in commercial book cover art. I needed to find a model who was in a pose that was complementary to that of Kayla.

The vase became a way to magically link the two characters at the interface between the two Domains.

I fear that my instincts are still largely based on science fiction themes, but hopefully my lighting effects are able to pass as magical rather than disrupting the fantasy theme with the feel of SciFi laser beams.

Science and Magic by Thomas

I found an inspirational painting by Thomas at deviantART that helps me think about the difference between cover art themes that are appropriate for either science fiction or fantasy stories.

brooch detail

Does the "Nuclear powered Super heroine Atomic Blonde" use cold fusion? I love the brooch that holds her scarf in place (see image detail to the right, click image to enlarge).

Be sure to take a look at the high resolution version of this drawing that is available for download.

belt detail (source)

Also, take a look at the original "Nucular Lass". I like the belt decoration (see detail to the left). 

 How is this for a super power: "give everyone cancer by talking to them".
Wait...I've known some people like that...

fake magazine cover

I could not resist making a fake pulp magazine cover for the Atomic Blonde. This "Atomic Science Stories" cover (shown to the right) is inspired by a classic pulp science fiction cover created by Lawrence Sterne Stevens for the Super Science Stories April 1949 issue.

source

Why did Thomas Iwedon write A science fiction story called "Atomic Blonde" and how did the drawing "Science and Magic" get used for the cover art of a magazine in in 1957?  I'm imagining that Atomic Science Stories was published in the Ekcolir Reality. Maybe Trysta liked to view the deviantART website in our Reality from within the Ekcolir Reality and she showed "Science and Magic" to Stevens.

Next: another fantasy book cover by Thomas Iwedon's Return to Tar'tron.

More imaginary book covers

visit the Gallery of Book and Magazine Covers

Deviant Me

"May Queen" by Marcus Ranum
(click image to enlarge)
Is this Sarah Ellis?

I finally decided to look into the deviantART online community. The "straw" that finally broke this camel's back was a Google image search that I did for elements that I could use for a fantasy genre book cover (to pick up the trail of that search, see this blog post). My image search kept turning up interesting images that led me to the deviantART website. I was intrigued by mention of dA "stock" images that photographers have made available for other people to use.

I've long been impressed by people who, while trying to make a living with photography or other artistic skills, post some of their work on the internet and invite other creative folks to use their photographs or art work. Some people engage in this practice as a form of advertising: "use my works as you like, but just make a link back to me". In the case of Marcus J. Ranum, it sounds like he set out to have some fun at the deviantART community.

deviation by Ana Fagarazzi

Here is what Marcus wrote on his website: "Recently I've been amusing myself by producing stock images for other artists to play with. For that purpose, I have opened up a stock account on deviantArt. It's great fun: I post stuff and other artists make composites from what I posted. Some of the results are absolutely amazing!"

In the past seven years his photographs on the deviantART website have been viewed about 7,000,000 times and variations (deviations) of the original "stock" photographs can now be found all over the internet. For example "signs of spring" was made by Ana Fararazzi starting from the "May Queen - S - 7" photograph.

"Blackbird 10" by Janna Prosvirina

In the cover art for the fantasy novel Daveed the Luk'ie, I want to depict a pek in the act of performing some magic (specifically, conjuring Daveed into the Hadronic Domain). My first problem is that the pek are a type of artificial life that can take on any convenient shape. However, since Daveed is a guy, I want the pek to be using a female form, as the pek tend to do when visiting primitive planets like Earth. I would not mind giving the pek character in the book cover image a slightly non-human morphology. My other concern is that I want the pek to be doing something interesting and have a natural pose. In "signs of spring", I think Ana did a great job constructing a scene that matched the particular pose that Marcus had photographed.

Janna's DA fantasy stock photography

"Blackbird 10" shows the kind of magical pose I'm looking for. Janna Prosvirina's deviantART stock photography gallery contains many photographs that strike me as examples of realistic or naturalistic poses. I love the black cloth with the white stones, but for my purposes, I was thinking about this figure being on or near water. However, this photograph has me imagining all sorts of alternatives....sadly most are more suited for science fiction than fantasy.

This "Goddess of Earth" is Kayla Jane
Photographer: Heiko Warnke

In addition to the gorgeous pose, "Goddess of Earth" is even a great name for the pek character that I am trying to depict. Every goddess of Earth should carry a big stick.

I can picture Daveed taking her hand and being pulled from the Hierion Domain into a new existence on Earth. Also see "Goddess of Wind".

Kayla's deviantART journal has a thank you message to other folks for "the amazing art you create from my stock images".

For how I used this image of Kayla in cover art for the imaginary book Daveed the Luk'ie, see my next blog post.

Goddess Deviations
Here are some deviations for "Goddess of Earth".

"A gift for my friend"

"A gift for my friend" by Mark Frost. Is that a dragon egg?

"An Offering" by Keith Mathis. Great horny skulls!

"An Offering"

"Maga" by Ricardo Esparza. I like the luminous helix zapping around the stick.

"Maga"

Photographer and Model Preferences

source

One of the interesting aspects of deviantART is that the users sometimes post rather long and detailed accounts of the conditions under which their photographs and images can be reused. For example, Kayla Davion wrote these instructions: "Feel free to use my Stocks for creating Art BUT ... 3) do not mutilate them/me in any degrading or perverted way".

When I'm making whimsical book and magazine covers, I like to "mutilate" human figures by substituting alien features for the human features of the people in the photos, people who are usually celebrities or models. For The Sedron Monopoly, I tried to depict two alien-looking passengers in a spaceship by removing the human heads and Photoshop splicing alien heads into the image.

Leymaygn and Vozgrow (source)

Maybe some models would be offended by having their image altered so as to make them look "alien". For my Exode character Vozgrow, I needed to create an image of an old and partially alien human who is slowly taking on Fru'wu physical characteristics.

This depiction of Vozgrow (image to the right on this page) might well annoy the model whose image was altered to create an alien-like feel for the imaginary Vozgrow character.

As stated here: If I'm using one of your images without attribution, please let me know, I'd love to give you credit. If my use of your work is offensive (or, in your view falls outside of the "fair use" domain), let me know, I'll remove your image from my blog.

source

 Deviant Dozen
Follow these links to some of my blog posts with more "Deviations":
Robots and Hybrids
Imaginary Book Covers
baseball in 1941
illustrating Trysta and Ekcolir
illustrating Foundations of Eternity
To Live for Anney
rise of fantasy
other futures
The Phasian Elf
Lieserl Einstein
The Urak Intervention
Searching Earth
Time Travel Television
Replicoid Secrets
Marta
Nereids
Nicotinic Anney
Image Attribution Project

Visit the Gallery of Book and Magazine Covers.