I've been really looking forward to sharing the cover I made for The Other Half of the Sky, to be published by Candlemark & Gleam in April 2013.
The Other Half of the Sky is an anthology of science fiction stories with women protagonists, a theme that could hardly be closer to my heart. In science fiction female characters are often on the sidelines, passive and flat; I suppose because of a widespread belief that women are uninterested in the whole space idea. This collection of stories turns this stereotype down a notch, so I was understandably very happy to make the cover for it.
Athena Andreadis, the editor of the anthology, was particularly helpful throughout the process of making this image. She had a clear vision of what she wanted the cover to look like, and was precise in communicating it.
The character is not chosen specifically from one story of the lot; I made her generic enough so that she could fit any of the protagonists. It was important to set the tone through her expression and stance rather than any particulars of her appearance.
On a technical level, this was mostly straightforward. I set up a model in Poser to help me with the odd lighting and angle (not pretty, but it did its job). I tried out a couple different colour schemes, and even one lighter version, with a planet instead of nebula in the background. The eventual nebula background has a composite of various nebulae images (thanks, NASA!) as a basis, further rendered with watercolour-like brushes alongside with the plain old round brush.
I got the idea of the twisting spires from the Dynamic Tower concept, though I tried to make them look a little more organic (likely at the expense of structural integrity!).
For the character's outfit, I had initially thought of something more armour-like, but that would put too much military emphasis. In looking for inspiration and reference, I kept stumbling upon the extremely bulky EVA space suits currently in use, but then I came across the Bio-Suit concept, and took it from there. Its decorative elements were inspired by a lovely gif circulating tumblr.
Once I had put everything together in satisfactory detail, I extended the image so that it could make a full wraparound cover. (Already a large file, the full wraparound was over 12000 pixels wide, some 1,5GB in size, and working with it turned much, m u c h s l o w e r.)
The text treatment had its challenge, too. Diehl Deco was chosen as a typeface for all capitals, and Pyke's Peak Zero for lowercase. The two were a good match, but Pyke's Peak is really a display font, so I took it to an editor and changed a few glyphs to increase legibility. The version on the cover has slight changes in the letters s, v, w and q compared to the original. This was a new one for me, but I had much fun with it.
Lastly, the cover without the text:
*purrs loudly*
ReplyDeleteI concur! :D
DeleteΣυγχαρητήρια, εξαιρετικό! :)
ReplyDeleteΕυχαριστώ, Περαστικέ! :D
DeleteLovely work- this cover certainly fits an anthology featuring strong female characters as protagonists. :) Ah- the biosuit, i.e. Space Spandex. :D I remember reading about the MCP- it is a neat idea. A lot more practical than modern EVA suit.
ReplyDeleteChristopher Phoenix
Thanks a lot!
DeleteFor what it's worth, I think the biosuit has enough bulk (and function!) to it so as not to qualify merely as Space Spandex. ;)
Well, the biosuit is rather tight-fitting, but I referred to it as Space Spandex because of the way it counters the vacuum of space by holding you in with elastic material. :D That, and the LACK of bulk as compared to a modern space suit classifies it as the space equivalent of spandex, if we are comparing it to inflated inner tires and armored michelin men...
DeleteChristopher Phoenix
Thanks so much for your detailed explanation of how your drew the cover -- and for the beautiful cover itself!
ReplyDeleteThank you - glad you like! :)
DeleteThe cover is awesome in both the original and the current senses.
ReplyDeleteDoes it make sense that her right eye tells me about determination and action while the left eye looks thoughtful? I was dumbstruck by the picture because I was getting those two moods at once from her expression, so the whole looks real powerful. It kinda reminds me of Moses, because his brow says anger, his eyes say surprise and his mouth says contempt. So you get all these feelings at once.
Sorry for the very late reply - somehow I never got a notification for your comment!
DeleteYou are very right, and this is to some degree intentional: complex, hard-to-read expressions mean that each half of a face has a different expression to the other half. :)