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Author Archives: keithdraws

Cover art for G. Wakeling’s “Cryo-A Changed World”

05 Wednesday Feb 2014

Posted by keithdraws in Illustration.

≈ Leave a comment

As a cover designer, how would you have approached this?

Cryo, A Changed World cover art © Keith Draws

Cryo, A Changed World cover art © Keith Draws

Geoff wanted to show an under ground and an overground world.

Its best to hint at what’s there without giving away too much.

Designing the amphibian underground dwellers was certainly challenging. The description Geoff supplied was :

– Amphibian-like with large eyes and a flattish nose.

– Shorter than humans, with longer arms in body proportion that have three fingers

– They adorn themselves with living plants/moss/fungi/lichen that’s embedded into their actual skin. So you might have a female with a silvery lichen growing up the side of her face, or swirling patterns of tiny flowers receding over her brow.

– No hair…they either have the adornments, or men wear flat cap-like hats. Females are taller than males and wear long headdresses to elongate their bodies.

I decided the title would sit well in the middle and then used golden ratios to help me with the unusual composition, using the landscape to create a sense of mystery and a desire to explore.

Read more about Geoff on his Blog, Facebook page or on Google+ 

Prints and posters of this image available here

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L. Alexander’s “Zola Flash”

26 Sunday Jan 2014

Posted by keithdraws in Book cover, Composition, Fantasy art, Illustration., Photo compositing

≈ 2 Comments

The cover for L. Alexander’s “Zola Flash”

ZOLA flash cover art © Keith Draws

ZOLA flash cover art © Keith Draws

This is a mix of Photo manipulation and digital painting.

It was very challenging and fun to work on.
Cover stock photography used:
Figures: Marcus Ranum photographer, models: miss-mosh and Colin R
New York photography: http://fantasysangel-stock.deviantart.com/

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The cover for John DeJordy’s “Traditions” Book three of the “Transfigurations” Series.

25 Saturday Jan 2014

Posted by keithdraws in Book cover, Fantasy art, Illustration., Panther

≈ 1 Comment

I’m really enjoying working on this series of covers for John.

Traditions cover art © Keith Draws

Traditions cover art © Keith Draws

He gives me wonderful subject matter to work with very strong ideas of what he would like to see.

At the same time giving me plenty of latitude to exercise my own creativity.

If you want to know more about Johns work his blog is here or you can follow him on Twitter.

There are two more books in the series and I’m looking forward to starting on those covers soon.

Buy the poster here

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Breathtaking book cover

14 Tuesday Jan 2014

Posted by keithdraws in Composition, Photo compositing, Photoshop, The Rule of Thirds, Typography

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Just wow!breathtaking cover

Apparently my cover for “The Island” by Teri Hall is breathtaking.

See the actual post here

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How not to design a cover.

07 Saturday Dec 2013

Posted by keithdraws in Composition, General

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8 Hilariously Misleading Covers Slapped on Classic Books
Read more

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It’s $75 digitally illustrated cover time again! And more Thanksgiving specials:

22 Friday Nov 2013

Posted by keithdraws in General

≈ 2 Comments

This offer is now closed

For all your support this year I give thanks with some Great New Thanksgiving deals

Custom Digitally Painted Covers For E-Books:

For the basic custom E-Book cover Normal Price  $250
Special limited time offer

One cover only: $75 US

Three covers only $195 US

The prices all include free typographic design.

Size 1400px wide.
I will supply kindle format and  Any other format you request
Actual size Samples here.
Not suitable for printing. 

Check out the rest here

 

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E-Book cover sizes.

30 Tuesday Apr 2013

Posted by keithdraws in Composition, E book sizes, General, Photoshop

≈ 16 Comments

Tags

Apple iBook, Barnes and Nobel, Book Baby, book cover, composition, Cover Art, Cover design, Keith Draws, kindle, Kobo, Lulu, Smash Words

I’ve noticed that finding the correct format for an e-book cover is not exactly easy. Even if you manage to find a guide on the publishing website you intend to use you soon find the documents are filled with jargon and useless information that serves only to confuse. So what I’ve done is break it down to the essential information. Please remember though that some of these formats are quite different from each other and I’d recommend you tweak your cover layout somewhat for each one. If I have missed any format out please let me know and I’ll add it. So in no particular order here is the only information you actually need:

Barnes and Noble (for Nook)

Aspect ratio:1.2

Image size: 600 pixels wide 730 pixels high.
DPI: 100
File size limit: 2 MB
Format: JPG (Maximum quality should not take the file size over the limit)

Kindle and Book Baby

Aspect ratio:1.6

Image size: 2820 x 4500 pixels (previously 1563 x 2500 pixels)
DPI: 72
File size limit: no limit specified
Format: JPG (Maximum quality should not take the file size over the limit)

Smash Words and Kobo

Aspect ratio:1.5

Image size: 1600 pixels wide x 2400 pixels high
DPI: 72
File size limit: 2MB
Format: JPG (Maximum quality should not take the file size over the limit)

LULU

Aspect ratio:1.3

Image size: 612 pixels wide x 792 pixels high
DPI: 72
File size limit: 2 million pixels
Format: JPG (Maximum quality should not take the file size over the limit)

Apple iBook

You need two covers for Apple.

1. Sales image:

Aspect ratio:1.6

Image size: 1563 pixels wide x 2500 pixels high.
DPI: 72
File size limit: none
Format: JPG (Maximum quality should not take the file size over the limit)

2. Internal cover (you can just reduce the sales image by 70% for this)

Aspect ratio:1.6

Image size: 1094 pixels wide x 1750 pixels high.
DPI: 72
File size limit: 2 million pixels
Format: JPG (Maximum quality should not take the file size over the limit)

If anybody finds anything to be incorrect please let me know in the comments. As far as I am aware these sizes are correct but it won’t hurt to double-check for yourself.

Of course, this may seem a bit daunting so it may be worth remembering that I only charge $15 per format to tweak your cover layout and provide a suitable file.

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Creating Gold text.

03 Wednesday Oct 2012

Posted by keithdraws in Composition, Photoshop, Typograpghy, Typography, Typography

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

book cover, cd cover, composition, Cover Art, Cover design, Gold text, Keith Draws, kindle, layout, Photo compositiing, typography

This is  a simple way to make gold text in PS. The music is a bit distracting but the technique is good.


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How to mask hair in PS5

02 Tuesday Oct 2012

Posted by keithdraws in General, Photo compositing, Photoshop

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Tags

book cover, Cover Art, hair, Keith Draws, masking, Photo compositiing, Photoshop

This is a great video tutorial on creating a cut out mask for hair.

And this is even better:

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How to get sales from Blogging

23 Sunday Sep 2012

Posted by keithdraws in blogging for sales., General

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Keith Draws, kindle, sales, selling books, selling CDs, selling music

I just posted this in kindle forums but I thought it might interest my followers.

Most people  don’t blog content that will interest their potential Audience.

Without that content, no amount of blogging in the world will transmit to new sales!. And after all Sales are why you are blogging aren’t they?

So here is the secret:

Don’t blog about yourself, your writing and books and under no circumstances blog about your private life.  NO….Blog about your genre.

How is this going to help? I can hear you asking. Well it’s like this:

If you are a well known established writer then everybody wants to know all about you. But well known established writers don’t need to blog to get sales, they do it for fun.

If you are an unknown then nobody (outside of family and friends) cares a jot about you, what you do, or what you have written; so it’s extremely unlikely that they will read your blog, even if they find it filling their screen after a random click. Their next click is guaranteed to be “close tab”.

You have to change that and you do that by Targeting Your potential Audience. In your case the people who read in your genre. So you fill your blog with information related to that genre. Book reviews, film reviews, discussion, you tube videos, reading lists, top tens, top 100´s and so on, anything you can think of that relates to your specific genre.

Once you do that your blog will start to appear in searches related to your genre. This will lead to people deliberately visiting your blog and when they get there they will find content that interests them.

The only place you mention what you do is in the “About me”  section of your blog. Here you post links to your books and  have a decent bio.

Don’t forget that it is worth making a facebook page that mirrors your content. Each time you get a “facebook like” your posts appear in the feed of the person who clicked “like” and in the feed of all their friends and followers.. Also Tweet  links to the content and  if you can make You tube video’s about your genre and mirror them on your blog and social media.

How will this help your sales?

At first it wont. Its going to take some time to build an audience. Lets say at least six months  but its more likely to take over a year, perhaps  even two, it all depends on how often you blog  and genre interesting it is.

But once you have a few hundred followers you will start to see results. Your sales will increase, because now people trust your judgement. They come to your blog/facebook for info on your genre. While there they notice your “about me” page, and they think well this person knows what they are talking about…their books must be good, they follow your links and buy.

That’s how to get sales from blogging.

Anything else is a waste of your time.

Smiley

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About this Blog

We post lots of great advice on how to create your own book covers. Just check the Categories bellow.
We also offer custom made covers, illustrated, photomontage or purely typographic, if you don’t want to do the work yourself.
Any questions feel free to contact us, just click the contact tab above.
If you want to support me in my illustration work go here

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