Zombie Artist George Silliman

Today on the I Left my Brains in San Francisco virtual book tour, I bring you my cover artist, George Silliman.  George has done both covers for the zombie exterminator books.  Welcome, George!  To start, can you tell us a little about yourself?

I am a 39-year-old self-taught artist living in New York. My specialty is horror but I do venture out into other genres from time to time. I confess to having an endless passion for drawing and painting. I'm willing to try anything that allows me to experiment and further my boundaries as an artist. My fondness of horror influences every piece of my work. 

I'm currently on the art staff of DAMNATION BOOKS and LNC STUDIOS. My artwork over the years has been published in many magazines and book covers. You can also visit me on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/george.silliman

1. You paint a lot horror themes. What is it about the subject matter that attracts you artistically?

There are no limitations in horror. You are only limited by your imagination. I feel drawing horror-related pieces is a good stress reliever from the everyday things that can stress a person out.

2.  Why zombies?  What do you find the most fun about drawing zombies?

This isn’t the first time I’ve been asked this question...there really is not an easy answer. I guess you can relate it to something like dressing up for Halloween. It’s fun ! Zombies are something that has stuck with me throughout my art career and I get asked to do them a lot. It’s something I never get tired of drawing.  There are a lot of possibilities for a zombie drawing.

3.  What’s the biggest challenge of drawing zombies or monsters?

This is a good question. When working for a publisher or author I find that sometimes putting their ideas onto paper can be challenging. I also find drawing something that has a lot of action the hardest for me.

4.  What would be your dream assignment as an artist?

My dream assignment would be doing what I love with free artistic expression and getting paid for it. With that said, I will be drawing for as long as I can foresee regardless of pay. Art is something with in me. Part of me.

You can view George Silliman’s art at: http://georgesilliman.daportfolio.com

The Inside Scoop from a Cover Artist, Lex Valentine

Today, I have a guest blog from the cover artist of Live and Let Fly--Lex Valentine.  Lex did a terrific cover and was very receptive to my feedback.  She was great to work with and I've gotten a lot of comments on the results.  She's going to give you the inside scoop on cover art from the artist's POV.

I’m Lex Valentine and I’m an author. I’m also a cover artist for MuseItUp, Pink Petal Books, Passion in Print and MLR Press as well as for authors who self-publish. Karina asked me to guest blog here today because I created the cover for her new release, Live and Let Fly. I thought it would be a good opportunity to show readers and authors alike what goes into the creation of a cover.

The creation of a cover starts with the information the author provides to the artist. The artist uses the information to either draw an image or find an image or images that fit. They create the cover based on their interpretation of the information. When the author looks at it, they let the artist know what works and what doesn’t work. The artist then goes back and makes changes to bring the cover more in line with what the author envisions.

Most publishers that allow author input (some houses do not allow input unless the cover really misrepresents the book) up to a point, one or two passes of changes and that’s all. The reason they can’t allow more is because it’s cost prohibitive (time is money!) and it can build ill will between artist and author and publisher. The fastest way for a publisher to see an author as a Diva who may not be worth their time in the future is for the author to keep asking for more and more changes to the cover art. And believe me, if an author is Diva-ish when it comes to their cover and their book doesn’t sell well, the publisher may pass on future manuscripts from that author. Trust me. I’ve seen it happen.

The best thing an author can do when it comes to cover art is to realize there are limitations to everything. First, there are limitations when it comes to communication. If the author doesn’t articulate their vision very well, the artist is more likely to return a mockup that doesn’t match that vision. Artists don’t have crystal balls! They can’t read author minds! You need to be very concise about your descriptions and you also need to articulate what you are willing to bend on.

Second, there are limitations based on the artist. Some artists can actually draw. Others use photo manipulation. Those that can draw rely totally on the descriptions provided by the author. Those that use photo manipulation are limited by the images that are available to use. The more wild and diverse the characters and setting the less likely a photo manipulation artist is to find images that will work for the cover.

Third, there are almost always limitations based on cost. If a photo manipulation artist finds only one image that correctly portrays a character, the author may insist on that image. If the publisher pays the cost of the images and the image is expensive they may say no. If the artist pays the cost of the image and it comes out of their commission, they may say no. There are a lot of images that are cost prohibitive out there. And for artists who receive their fee based on the sales of the book, paying out of their pocket for images means they are fronting the cost of that cover in the hope that they will recoup what they have spent. They are in a sense, paying the author for the right to do their cover…at least until the sales start rolling in. No sales means the artist has given away that cover for free and the money spent on it becomes a loss.

Fourth, there are limitations based on time. If the cover art is needed quickly because a release date is very close, there may be very little time to make changes to the first draft of a cover. Also, when the artist is paid a flat fee for a cover, the longer it takes to create a cover, the less money an artist makes on it. At some point continuing to make changes becomes cost prohibitive. If an artist’s flat fee is $100 based on $25 an hour, that’s 4 hours the artist has to find images, create the cover and make the changes. If the work goes beyond 4 hours, the artist is no longer making any money on that cover.

Luckily for me, Karina’s cover required only two passes of changes. She wanted a very James Bond looking cover which immediately brought the gun barrel image to mind. Finding the inside of a gun barrel at the stock agencies turned out to be a piece of cake. I then decided to use the Mobsters font because it turned some of the letters into guns. Some of you may remember the font as the one used on the Sopranos TV show.

Next, I needed a red dragon. Since I write dragonshifters myself I did have a few dragons in my light box and they led me to the dragon I eventually chose for Vern. Finding a human Vern turned out to be fairly easy too. The man with the glasses seemed very James Bond-ish while still giving the reader the ability to see him as Vern’s human form.

I had a feeling that finding a Grace would be trouble. And she was. I looked at a lot of nun photos before I found one that might work. Lucky for me, Karina liked the one I chose.

We had some tweaking to do in terms of colorizing but all in all, this wasn’t a difficult cover to make and Karina’s requests didn’t outdo or match the Diva authors I’ve worked with. It ended up being a fun cover I think readers will be drawn to. The James Bond ties are obvious as is the fact that the book is humorous.

As an author myself, I always strive to give authors a cover that fits their vision. Sometimes I can’t do that. When that happens, I try to at least give them something representative of the book, something beautiful that catches the reader’s eye and makes them want to know more about what’s inside. I know that when I, as an author, have no input on a cover and the cover isn’t pleasing to me, I find myself trying extra hard to sell the book to people. And I’ve sometimes found myself trying to justify the cover even though I don’t like it either. As an artist, it can be really uncomfortable to sit in the author chair and not be given any say over my cover. And believe me, I have been in that position several times.

So there you have it, thoughts from a cover artist on what it takes to create covers. If you’re interested in my work, my portfolio can be seen at http://winterheart.com. Many thanks to Karina for having me today and I wish her many sales with Vern and Grace!

Lex Valentine

Winterheart Design

My Novel's Journey: Mind Over Mind cover art

I had a blog post written for today, but it was whiny and I debated using it. Then Gwen Gades, publisher of DragonMoon Books, made the decision for me by sending me the awesome cover of awesome!

Behold...MIND over MIND!

(Note: back cover blurb not added yet, but Gwen said I could post.)

Charles Bernard (www.onlineartacademy.com) does cover art for the big traditionals, too, so this is the one cover I had little say in. Rather, he came up with four concept sketches and I was allowed input on which I liked best and to make MINIMAL change suggestions. All of them were so amazing that I got chills, but I kept coming back to this one. I love the impact it has and the expression on Deryl's face and how he's stuck between two worlds, neither of which is very appealing. (That's a mental institution in the background.) Also, it had the fewest conflicts with the worldbuilding aspects (most of which we'll see in the next book, Mind over Psyche.) Fortunately, the folks at DragonMoon agreed with me.

Got a not-so-secret secret to share. A week or so ago, I went back to the website where the concept sketches were, just wanting to geek out again, and I found that he'd replaced them with color renditions of the cover and the lettering. I flipped--it was so good. I showed it to my kids and husband only, and we discussed which lettering we liked best, etc. None, however, were the lettering you see here, and this lettering has so much more impact.

The back cover blurb, etc. are still to come, and I'll be sure to post. However, let me just say that once again, I hit the jackpot with covers. Thanks Charles and Gwen!

Conventions and Cover art

The Catholic Writers Conference Online was a spectacular success! We had 283 attendees, 48 one-hour chat presentations, 12 week-long forum workshops, 37 pitches given to six publishers and more kudos than I counted. Here's what some folks said:

This is a great conference. It's easy to navigate and your detailed instructions are the best. The downloadable handouts and docs are so easy also. The workshops I've been in are packed with such useful information. I give it an A+.
---Karen Coiff

Great job to all who put this together. The exposure to fellow writers and pros in the field has been immensely positive and helpful to me! I've been amazed at the wealth of information and knowledge available. And to think I didn't have to leave my home! I look forward to next time. Thank you so very much and may God bless you all.
---Katherine Shine

Congratulations on this year's conference. I thought it was very well done. A lot of worthwhile information. You are providing a wonderful service for many, many people.
---Jackie Lindsey, Our Sunday Visitor

We're already hard at work on the Catholic Writers Conference--Live! set for August 5-7. The 2010 CWCO will be Feb 22-27.

Roe has sent the cover sketch for Magic, Mensa and Mayhem! Isn't it a hoot?


I'm still not totally happy with Vern's face, but I think it's the angle more than anything. Roe certainly listened to my concerns about Coyote-what a difference! He's inking now. I'm dying to see the finished product! The back will have an endorsement from Jody Lynn Nye and a quip from the Publisher's Weekly review. (More on that later; publisher asked me to hold it until late Feb.)

Fun Working with a Cover Artist

I've said it before and I'll say it again: one great thing about working with a small press is getting to work with the cover artist.

Roe has already considered my suggestions and come back with the next iteration of Vern. I love it. I feel like he's caught the fun side of Vern's personality, which, really, Vern has just been discovering himself.



The only thing I still didn't like are the eyes. In part, I'm not thrilled with the "googly" factor (the circle and lines surrounding the eyeball), but more than that, I've made a big point in Live and Let Fly that Vern has 270 degree vision because of the position of his eyes--but that he can only see directly in front of him because of magic. In Live and Let Fly, as his magic drains, he starts going blind in front of his nose.

I'd already sent Roe some links to illustrations of the eyes I was thinking of, so to make sure he understood what I meant, this time, I decided to draw them myself.


As you can see, I traced over his sketches and made my changes. I'm a good tracer. :) I know he'll make it look terrific.

Someone asked me about the style we'd chosen, and why we didn't go for something more grand. We deliberately chose a cartoony/caricature style because it best suits the tone of the book. I spent an hour in the bookstore looking at the different cover styles and deciding what they said to me. Even the painting-style covers of books I knew were humorous did not say "slapstick," and they tended to blend in with the high fantasy or even get pushed out of the limelight. However, these covers stand out:



Myth, Inc. by Robert Asprin (RIP) and Jody Lynn Nye are similar in tone to Magic, Mensa and Mayhem and Phil Foglio's covers reflect the book perfectly. I wanted the same for MM&M. In fact, if I'd thought I had a chance at getting Foglio, I'd have jumped, but I'm glad I got Roe Mesquita. He's great to work with.

We have a cover artist!

W00t! We have a cover artist for Magic, Mensa and Mayhem!

The other artists I'd mentioned earlier did some sketches of Vern, and although they are very talented, they didn't get the feel Dindy (the publisher) and I wanted, so we started the search anew. We considered about a dozen other artists as recommended by friends and acquaintances. I perused art websites and DeviantArt... I was getting worried.

Last week, three talented finalists sent their sketches. One by Gregory Price made me laugh.



It wasn't quite Vernish. I sent him some suggestions; lots of suggestions. Maybe I scared him? Either way, he had a family emergency happen after Christmas and could not have completed the work.

Another artist, Justin Shauf, Sent me this one at the last minute. Can you believe this is his first time drawing a dragon?



My daughter, who goes by Amblifier, had a great sketch going, but at 13 wasn't ready for the assignment, and didnt' get the sketch done by deadline. However, her concept was very good. You may see some of her stuff on my stories I sell as PDFs later. She wants to finish her sketch before I put it up.

So, we have Roe. Yay! Dindy found him on Deviant Art, and he's doing another cover for her, so we know he has experience. Roe is from Brazil and had a comic-book style that I wanted for MM&M. English is his second language, so I was very impressed that he was able to parse my long-winded description of Vern and come up with the sketches above. (I sketched the changes I thought needed to be done.)

I'm relieved the search is over and excited to see what the cover looks like.

Want to know how Vern felt about being sketched? Go to www.dragoneyepi.net and read it for yourself.