Happy New Year!

Two words: THANK YOU to everybody who has visited my website, this blog or social media pages, and most of all, huge thanks to any of you who've bought an album or taken an interest in my artwork. Your support really is appreciated.

Looking back, I've had a busy year, having released two albums, illustrated 5 book covers, produced 3 new pieces of SF artwork AND exhibited at Loncon3 and Novacon 45. A year to be proud of, I think!

Thanks again, and best wishes to all for 2015!

Happy New Year!!

In the meantime, here is the first teaser for my new album, Sentient City, which will be released on Bandcamp in early January.

Dark Designs

As my cover artwork for Alice Sabo's forthcoming book Dark Deeds has now been revealed I can go a little deeper into its origins and how we arrived at the final version.

The book's protagonist, actor Asher Blaine is making a comeback after getting over an alcohol problem. But from wildfires to rockslides, everything is against Blaine and it seems that somebody is out to try and kill him.

Alice was particularly keen on one scene in the story where Blaine's life hangs in the balance (again), as he finds himself dangling from a cliff.

Here are two of my initial mono draft sketches. The first shows just Asher's hand as he's about to vanish into oblivion; the second is his striking silhouette hanging on for dear life – which was the one we went with.

I had originally envisaged this as a night scene, but it actually takes place late afternoon, as a dark and heavy storm is closing in.

This led to me exploring several options, from a rain storm to vibrant, fiery sunsets and ominous, threatening weather...

After several variations in colour, light and even the kind of clouds, the final illustration came about, complete with the addition of the sea below.

 Alice Sabo will publish Dark Deeds in early 2015...