Mojo’s cover journey, part 1
If you’ll all indulge me, I though it’d be fun to do a little series on the evolution of a cover by a non-cover artist/designer. It took me almost a year and a lot of hours of Photoshopping to come to the cover I did, which I affectionately call “The Bewbies.” Originally, The Proviso was one book and it was enormous. I originally titled it Barefoot Through Fire. Then I figured I’d probably do better to split it out into 3 parts, 1 part per romance. This is where the cover journey begins.
Each couple has its own challenges within the context of the larger story arc and I wanted to capture each within the cover and title. So I started with something fairly simple:
Make no mistake. I really liked the flames, but over time it just wasn’t doing the trick for me, plus, you know, I’m really proud of Kansas City and wanted to feature it, particularly where the pivotal scene between the couple occurs, the Nelson-Atkins Gallery of Art. This was my next attempt, inarguably worse than the first.
Then the title started getting on my nerves. I came up with Righteous & Pure, but I still wanted to keep that KC connection. This was little better than the yellow one. It still wasn’t pushing my buttons.
I needed something dark. Something sinful. I found The Sin by Franz von Stuck and thought I’d hit pay dirt, but no, not really. It was too dark and I wanted something more tempting and less Nosferatu. And notice lack of KC. That would simply not do.
Inexplicably, I zigged to a straight KC cover for a little bit with the Nelson-Atkins gallery, but the photo resolution was AWFUL. No go.
Back to temptation. I remembered Lilith by the Honorable John Collier and knew I had it. Then a beta reader of that couple’s romance suggested a small change to the title, Righteous & imPure. It didn’t flow as well as righteous and pure, but it did capture the essence better. Note I squeezed the Nelson in there, too! I held onto that one for a long time, even using it as the original The Proviso cover once I’d reassembled the 3 romances under the same cover.
Next Friday, the cover process for couple #2.
zoewinters
Moriah Jovan
R.J. Keller
robinaltman
Evangeline Holland
alanbaxter
Wow, MoJo. That was really interesting. I like the way you wanted to get Kansas City in there, but it had to meld with the romantic/sexual theme (or risk looking like a social studies textbook). What made you leave the Lilith cover (not that I don’t love the cover you ended up with)? Oh, yeah. Part 2 next Friday. OK. I can wait.
Lilith is a very small part of the story and only pertains to one character. When I braided the 3 stories together, it no longer pertained thematically.
Interesting. I rather like the sixth (from the top) version, but the color is so faded.
The third cover looks like something I would design (and that’s not good).
The second cover looks nice — when you view the whole cover. Just looking at the front or the back, though, it looks like a migraine aura.
On a more serious note, I’m wondering about how you would be able to use the Collier painting. Is it old enough to be a public domain image? Would you have to pay a rights-holder to use the image? I remember that museums used to get snooty at the idea of their images appearing on, say, Internet websites, as if viewers are going to think, “Why should I travel to Spain to view ‘Guernica’ when I can view it on my 16 inch computer monitor?”
The Collier painting is dated 1892 or thereabouts. The Atkinson Museum in England has it. Since I didn’t ultimately use it, I didn’t feel the need to find out if I even needed their permission to use it.
On the sixth (from the top) version, the color’s faded because the photo’s resolution was so poor (the main reason I didn’t use it). I had to do that to make it halfway decent.
This is so interesting!! Looking forward to part 2.
(The Bewbies is still my favorite, but the Lilith cover is a very close second.)
Kel, I really liked the Lilith one, too, but you can probably deduce why I ended up not using it.
Great post, Mojo. I like seeing this process! And I liked the flames!
(Which couples story was the flames for? Giselle and Bryce? … der, probably yes.)
Anyway, this is totally off topic but one of my favorite songs is called: “Canned Heat”
Actually, it’s not off topic at all. That’s where I got the title.
And yes, Giselle and Bryce is couple #1. I number them in the order their relationships start gelling.
Thanks for the tour, Mojo. It’s really interesting both to see and to hear about the process. Seeing them all together, it’s clear you ended up in the right place. I like the combo of the Pre-Raphaelite painting on the front and the obviously modern photo on the back.
Thank you and you’re welcome, kind sir!