Tag: art

Work-in-Progress WIPWednesday Book Cover Art Makeover – FASHION FRENCHIES Cover Makeover: Spine Design before and after

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For as much work as I put into illustrating a cover, the truth is that books spend the majority of their lives as a spine. So I didn’t want to skimp here! I wanted the spine to be as cute as the cover.

I took a lot of inspiration from those old Disney VHS tapes…you know, with the character portrait on the side? I knew I needed that. But I wasn’t sure how to organize all the information a reader would need (the name of the series, the number of the book, author, title etc.)

BEFORE

First, it was a hot mess of fonts. The reader-desired info was on there, but not in a beautiful fashion.

Version one of a book spine: there's a lot of horizontal white text on red and a cute French bulldog decked out like Super Dave Osborne (on a blue background).

AFTER

The next day, I thought a little more about how it should be organized, and came up with this:

Final version of the Fashion Frenchies 2 book spine: The author name, cute French bulldog decked out like Super Dave Osborne (popping out of a ring), series name, and series number are oriented the traditional way, while the title is oriented sideways, with little stars surrounding it. The spine is mostly white text on red, except for the series number, which is blue text on white and on a retro-looking shape

Maybe this is only interesting for book geeks…but I’m SUPER PROUD of how this spine design turned out!

Work-in-Progress Wednesday Book Cover Art Makeover – FASHION FRENCHIES Cover Makeover: FINISHED fancy vest!

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Here’s Marty’s final outfit for Fashion Frenchies 1: Love Potion Commotion!

In the Fashion Frenchies series, Marty the French bulldog loves getting dressed up because it brings smiles to all his fans who follow his mom’s dog fashion blog!Completed dog clothing illustration. The smiling white French bulldog now wears a pink tuxedo vest and short-sleeved white shirt! Nicely inked and digitally colored. He stands against a plain blue background so I can do a full cover reveal later.

I’ve completed one other costume for Marty and one other costume for his mom, Vivian, since finishing this one! My foundational work is paying off and once I draw the costume, the actual finishing work comes together quite quickly!

Kickstarter coming this spring! I hope you’ll join me for it!

Work-in-Progress Wednesday Book Cover Art Makeover – FASHION FRENCHIES Cover Makeover: fancy vest!

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The past few weeks, I did minor adjustments to the prototype cover, and I’m finally happy with it. Now I can move on to specific costumes!

For Love Potion Commotion!, Fashion Frenchies Book 1, I decided to put Marty in a pink tuxedo vest with bow tie! I’ll clean up the inks digitally and color it so I can add it to the book cover proper.

 

 


Scan of a dog clothing drawing. The French bulldog was printed out in a light value. The costume was roughed over the printout in red Col-erase pencil (which can barely be seen) and inked with black Sharpie marker.

 

WIP Wednesday Book Cover Art Sketch – Fashion Frenchies Cover Makeover

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As you may remember, I’m looking to release FASHION FRENCHIES 2: THE POOCH SALUTE! in Spring 2025. I figured while I was at it, I’d redo the cover to FASHION FRENCHIES 1: LOVE POTION COMMOTION!

So here’s a working sketch of the main human character, Vivian Feng. She’s like Iris Apfel (RIP), but Chinese and for dog fashion.

Red cartoony sketch of an old woman smiling and gesturing

Yes, I went full BEWITCHED on this. She’ll have some thicc Edna Mode-style glasses, but I thought I’d add those digitally. This will be inked by hand and then scanned in. Then I have to come up with some outfits!

Celebrate BULLDOGS ARE BEAUTIFUL DAY with fun digital wallpaper!

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April 21st is Bulldogs Are Beautiful Day!

So I made some digital wallpapers to celebrate the breed! Inspired by my FASHION FRENCHIES book series, FETCHING FRENCHIES (hand-drawn by yours truly) combines the cuteness of Frenchie faces with a fashionable and fun pattern! Comes in 12 color variations for device and desktop, including “Puppy Vuitton”, “Funky Freeze Dark” and “Goldscaled”.

FETCHING FRENCHIES sampler thumbnail

Get it today from my Gumroad store!

Know someone who likes Frenchies? Please share this post with them so they can enjoy!

Happy Birthday, Queen!

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Today’s the Queen’s birthday (costar of my science fantasy STEEL CITY, VEILED KINGDOM), so I thought I’d post some of my drawings of her to celebrate.

She’s been around a LOOOONG while so I have a lot of art of her. Here’s two newer sketches of her, a detailed charcoal portrait I did of her back in The Day, and an equally ancient 8-bit? 16-bit? pixel sprite (not animated).

Of course, this is just the way *I* imagine her…your mileage may vary, and that’s A-OK by me!

(Click images to embiggen.)

 

Elegant sketch of the QueenQueen with her nervous grin-that-isn't-a-grinCharcoal portrait of the Queen from STEEL CTIY, VEILED KINGDOMPixel art of the Queen

New Fantasy Adventure release: THE CAPRAMANCER NEXT DOOR

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There goats the neighborhood!

Cover for THE CAPRAMANCER NEXT DOOR: A laughing woman wields a glowing shepherd's crook while a goat leaps through a portal overhead

Down-to-earth mage Will Schafer has her hands full moving into a new house while keeping her mischievous herd of magical goats in line. Meeting handsome gardener Rickert Nash takes the sting out of moving…until his shadowy past comes roaring back to bite him in the butt.

Now Will and the herd must step in to save their neighbor from getting mulched—but can a girl and her goats defeat a formidable hunter…or are they all about to buy the farm?

Called “a wonderful read!” by GoatsLive.com, The Capramancer Next Door is an upbeat fantasy adventure sure to leave you smiling.

Read an excerpt here at Pixelvania Publishing.

I got to thinking about how hard it is to keep goats out of places they wanted to be, and came up with this portal-generating herd.

New Short Story Release: HELLO, WIZARD

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Hello, wizard.

You know what I need to hear.

I’m listening.

Cover for HELLO, WIZARD. Eerie glowing text pops off a wrinkled piece of paper against a stone background.

Deep in a sunless dungeon, a father struggles to hold onto hope.

Then the glowing notes arrive. They offer freedom—for a very simple price.

But some things should never be for sale, even in the darkest places…

HELLO, WIZARD is a tense dark fantasy of integrity and temptation.

Read an excerpt here at Pixelvania Publishing.

This story may be short, but it packs quite a punch!

Cover Teaser: LOVE POTION COMMOTION!

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The nose and eyes of an illustrated French Bulldog peeking over a cauldron bubbling with something pink

What could he be looking at?

Coming next week: Magic Fashion Frenchies #1: LOVE POTION COMMOTION! A new family fantasy romance comedy…which is a really long-winded and non-trademark-infringing way to say “This novella’s like a Hallmark movie, but with better special effects.”

I think you’re really going to love meeting Vivian Feng and her family–two-legged and four-legged members alike! I look forward to sharing this story with you soon! Sign up for the newsletter to be the first to find out when it’s released!