It’s done. Here’s my final cover illustration for the forthcoming Pyr edition of Mark Chadbourn‘s AGE OF MISRULE: BOOK 1 / WORLD’S END, the first of a spectacular epic fantasy series that debuts in the US this May. Blogs and websites all over the net have displayed a preliminary version of my cover illo that was provided for solicitation purposes. The version you see here is a first look at the final, finished illo you’ll see on the books when they release.
One of the big improvements for this final version is that I did a much better underdrawing of the god Cernunnos and you can really see the difference when compared to the prelim. Also the little figures at the bottom of the final are more active than they were in the prelim. The drawing of Cernunnos is just plain old pencil on 17″x22″ Crescent board, and I’ll likely display it at a convention or two later this year, as well as having prints of the final art for sale.
Here’s the final front cover design layout with everything in place. Lou and I bantered back and forth a lot about layout decisions. Together, I think we finally got it right. (Special thanks to Diana and Lee for last-second insights.) Can’t wait for these books to hit the stores…..they’re amazing reads.
Very nice. The covers on these are what prevented me from importing the books earlier this year.
Music to my ears.