The art and science of covers
You may have noticed a progression in the cover art of my books. Who does my cover art? An alchemist? A mystical piano player? Captive trolls? Well, mostly… me. From the Gatekeepers through the Lambda Tribe, I made my own. From Leon’s Fire through the Monhaupt Protocol, I farmed them out to professional cover designers. From Conrad’s Honor to the present (The Third Factor) I did them myself, and elected to adopt a sepia style.
I start with a base photo image that I have taken personally, and overlay a graphic which I have generated, and recolorize, adjusting the brightness, transparency and contrast to give the sepia effect, and then apply the text. For the older ones I haven’t used a sepia, but did a degree of recolorizing and image property reconfiguration. You might possibly see some similarities with the background imagery to some of the blog post photos or other website elements. Where did these come from?
The Third Factor - Your author holding his personal Sig Sauer P226, Bruce Highland’s carry pistol.
Area 91 - A remote mountain water tank site damaged in a wildfire.
Entrenched - Your author flexing in the mirror. The photo opp seemed like a good one at the time. Maybe alcohol was involved. Maybe not. Probably was.
The Tenth - Your author with his team at an undisclosed location in Southeast Asia. Okay obviously I didn’t take that photo, but it was taken from my camera.
Conrad’s Honor - A certain state capitol building during a protest, complete with the token Save the Whales sign bearer.
The Lambda Tribe - A park in Laos overlaid with some gorillas at a zoo in Vietnam.
The Back Door Key - The backside of an apartment complex viewed from a river side restaurant in Saigon. Dinner was fish and rice. F**k, dinner was always fish and rice.
The Vine Fraternity - A booth of a seafood restaurant in Can Tho Vietnam. The giant prawns were bomb.
Gauthier’s List - Nike missile radar site SF88, Marin Headlands, California. One of your author’s favorite hiking areas. In fact, the website header was taken from that location. Well, more precisely, halfway up the hill just outside of Battery Townsley.
The Man with Three Selves - A fermented coconut party in Saigon, and a beach in Danang. Yes, your author got bombed.
The Gatekeepers - Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco, taken from the air returning from Half Moon Bay to back home. SF88 is visible in the photo. Don’t worry, I had the other hand on the yoke.
