EOW 164 :: Science Fiction Book Cover

[Vulgar`]

http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e181/chaosrocks/EOW2.jpg



EOW 164: Science Fiction Book Cover



Brief:

- Design a sci fi book cover with a title included.


Think of something you would want to read... be as adventurous as you wish with this one. A small backstory or summary would be excellent for a better vision into the world your book cover is depicting. Complete stories are encouraged, but optional.

- Please specify which image is final in this thread!


go!

:medusachow:

P.S. I'm going to try and stick to the due date this time. Apologies for being late the past few EOW's.




Deadline: Sunday, May 22nd

[APW]

soo it has to be like all futuristic?! i think ill be going good ol' traditional like im used too, still learning digital :P

[Urötskidoji]

Interesting! I´ve always wanted to do a cover of some sort. Great topic!

[Leysan]

Can we make a cover for an existing book?

[coool_brain]

I haven't understood one thing, how come a book cover be an ENVIRONMENT?

I can only think of it as a prop(object), may be some kind of product design stuff

just an opinion.

yeah! may be we put it on a desk in candle light, then that's an environment.

Sorry for talking to myself :)

[SoufMeng]

CoolBrain, what are you talking about? A book cover is just a visual with text on it, how can it not be anything you want it to?

Tada!!
http://img1.fantasticfiction.co.uk/images/n45/n226505.jpg

Now what you said about the desk in candle light is also a valid direction. For example imagine a little boy asleep on his desk where all the elements of the sci-fi book are popping out of the cover and flying about the place. Kinda been done to death but if the execution is new...

[Corrick]

coool_brain, the book cover illustration is the environment. Not the book itself.

[gdlr]

Hello!
This is my first EOW.
I try I try these first sketchs
The title is : La flotte Nomade (The Nomadic Fleet)
http://img269.imageshack.us/img269/3606/laflottenomade.jpg

[Vulgar`]

coool brain, the environment is the book cover design.

You guys always find loopholes in my briefs. >:D

Leysan - Interesting idea, but I'm going to say no. Make your own book! It can be inspired by pre-existing books.

[coool_brain]

ok ok ok got it.

SouMeng, i like the way you presented it.

tada... hahaha

Vulgar, I didn't mean to be mean mate. I am new to this EOW and stuff and trying to understand things. that's all

[REKLAS]

Sounds like a fun topic.

I'm thinking about going a different route cause I'm not too happy with how this is turning out so far.
http://imageshack.us/m/607/9905/eow164wip00.jpg

[vibhas_virwani]

whoa !! i see endless possibilities :D :D . im definitely in !! :D everyone , outta mah way (it means good luck everyone :) ) :P :P :P

[Urötskidoji]

Did some thumbs!

The topic of the books (from left to right:)

"RUINS" - A post-apocalyptic tale of an old ruin structure, holding ancient secrets and technology.

"THE JOURNEY" - An epic tale of mans first colonization into deep space in search of exo-plantes to settle.

"FALLEN STAR" - The starship "S.T.A.R - 4" craschlands on the cold planet Ishtar, and a team is dispatched to retrieve the classified cargo.

"THE OLD WAR" - An old veteran from the 3rd Zolu War visits his old battlegrounds.

[Vulgar`]

coool brain - It's no problem, I didn't think you were being mean at all. If you ever have any questions about the topic, I probably left it out, so thanks for bringing your queries up in here..

[Urötskidoji]

WIP:
Have to learn to do the perspective before anything else, I always forget that :P

And thanks Vulgar for your comment on my Winged Fortress, appreciate it :)

[grenogs]

I havent done anything here for a long time now, but may concider entering this one over the weekend, but i thought in the mean time i'd add some comments.
Urötskidoji - looking good so far, good to see you experimenting with different camera angles, but something to think about which could later change your designs, most fictional books are portrait in design, with the majority then having a particuler size format. Not sure if you have thought of it yet, but it maybe worth working out roughly where type, authors name, heading etc... would be placed first before actual art design, then work your images in the space you have left. Two main purposes for working this way, 1st- no important details in the image are later covered up by your text, 2nd- since overall design process has already been worked out, both type and illustration should gel better together, and not end up fighting one another.

coool brain-"I haven't understood one thing, how come a book cover be an ENVIRONMENT?"
I know this isn't exactly what vulgar's brief asks for, but heres a thought, 2001 a space odyssey, has an image of a plain black obelisk as part of the environment. So why not have an image of a book instead, or posibly even a huge lanscape and the ground itself is a book cover. The way i see it, this brief is so open to interpretation, and your only constraints are it has to be sci-fi and your own imagination.

Vulgar- great topic, especially the idea of creating an image for a particular end product(book cover), gives it more of a real life design feel. :)

Also ive never done a sci-fi book cover before, so this could be interesting :)

[Sean McClain]

well here is mine, I just did it this morning. still thinking of a name for this,
cheers!
1231695

[lkjhgfdsa]

lkjhgfdsa

[chaosrocks]

the book cover is an Environment, because this is EOW and thats the topic, sillies... Yay vulgar you're doing a great job!

[Sean McClain]

the book cover is an Environment, because this is EOW and thats the topic, sillies... Yay vulgar you're doing a great job!

chaos r u going to make one?? yeah I was planning on making another one actually, it was Saturday morning when I made it, too many cartoons I guess.

[chaosrocks]

no Im still up to my ears in theater costume designs, I just got to do one of my dream shows, I 'll post pics when I get them. I just wandered by to cheer and kibbitz.

which reminds me scrolling through these initial scetches I curious to see that a number of th compositions are very centered. As an old graphic desingner I woudl advise you to incorporate the words in the initial composition, as if you add them at the end you will find their placement subordonate to the drawing or awkward or in the way

the drawing has to make the customer reach for the book, but the title and the Author have to look like Part of the cover (personally I would make sure there was a suitable place on the cover for that Hugo or Nebula award, after all this imaginary book is totally going to kick ass!)

there are a number of artists on this site who actually do book covers for Tor you might want to take a look at their work. Elwell for instance, and Dos Santos.

[Corrick]

Final

Process composite (http://williamwerk.com/art/eow164steps.jpg)

http://williamwerk.com/art/eow164-corrick1.jpg

http://williamwerk.com/art/eow164-corrick2.jpg

[lkjhgfdsa]

now if only I can make it look as rad as Corrik's

[chaosrocks]

interesting corrick seems to have embraced the whole cover, not just the front cover. I assume that you are keeping the proportions of a book cover in mind and that compositionally you will only see half the illustration at a time. This is one of the challenges of a book cover and one of the special compositional considerations.

[JeiWo]

Corrick your entry blew me away, excellent job man! It pretty much exemplifies exactly what I want to be able to do, very inspiring.

Here's my entry. I didn't really come up with a story for it, even though theres room for interpretation. Not sure if I'll work on it more before Sunday so I'll consider it complete:

[vikrant56]

Rocking concepts guys ....I guess this is 1st time i am gonna participate .....
I have question here
Can anybody tell me till What time We can post on sunday ...??

[+oas+]

Here's what I have going so far. To be honest, I was just in the flow of things and not really worried about a book cover, I was however thinking of what might happen if the Chicago Cubs actually won the World Series.

As for critiques, I would like some info on what to do with the foreground. I was thinking of putting some cattle with a funky expression, but that seems cliche. Any suggestions?

http://i56.tinypic.com/29igd3.jpg

[vikrant56]

Can anybody tell me till What time We can post on sunday ...??
[/COLOR][/B]

[brambor]

This is not a final image, hope I'll make it till sunday
http://i418.photobucket.com/albums/pp262/brambor/eow164a.jpg

[Leysan]

Corrick, your picture is great.

gdlr I like the first sketch best. There is this tiny ship compared to the vast space around it. Really gives me the nomad feeling that I don't get from the other thumbs.

JeiWo I like the painting, but i'm not sure if the title really fits the way it is now.


Some thumbs. Can't seem to come up with anything interesting.
1236726

[Urötskidoji]

FINAL:

Great work everyone, Corrick and JeiWo especially!

Corrick:
I love the kind of nostalgic sixties sci-fi style of that cover, especially with the spaced out planet.

JeiWo:
Great idea with blending the Life Tree and sci-fi together, plus for originality! :)


I´m a bit surprised more didn´t enter this, it was awesome and a lot of fun!

[brambor]

Final!

Description: a story of a search-and-rescue team sent off to a newly discovered planet to investigate dissapearance of a science team that landed onboard EOW164.

1237577

[Zapp!]

I had meant to post some WIPs but I got a bit carried away and forgot to, so this is my final.

The story is about the maintenance people working at a remote outpost on some mountain range, and I think some of them might go mad from loneliness and cause havoc.

[+oas+]

http://i56.tinypic.com/28st1fn.jpg

[vikrant56]

Hello guys First time I am taking part ,
Corrick and all other I realy like like your work

Please count me on into this compition

Thank you

[millz]

Would be nice to see some effort go into the typeography, layout, colour, font choice and general design of the text on the cover. I see a lot of bad type, and speaking for myself, my vote is going to go to the best cover over all, not just the best environment illustration.