Having written a few novels, I am now self-publishing them. But in order to lend my books impact, I need a good drawing for the dust jacket. Please note, I am not going to make any money from publishing these books so I can not afford to pay much. What seems a good idea is this:

If anyone can give me a drawing that I can use, I will send you a free copy of the novel when it is published. And I would expect you to sign your artwork so that you can admire it on the dust jacket of the book.

Anyone intersted?

That's a wonderful idea. There are a lot of talented artists here, of which I am not, or I would be doing the covers for my brothers books as he is also a published author.

What is the book about so everyone would know what to draw. Western, mystery, etc.
Good luck on the books..
Cyn

There are lots of talented people here who may be able to help you out Bwriter.

Perhaps if there are people interested, I would suggest that they contact you directly via PM or email to find out more detals about your expectations for the book cover design.

Or if you have seen some work here that interests you, you could, in turn, contact the artist directly with some options.

The novel is called Butcher Man.

Harry Andrews, a newspaper reporter, begins to dream of a strange character wearing an ankle-length trench coat and fedora hat (think of Sam Spade as played by Humphrey Bogart only taller and leaner). In Harry's dreams, this character (Butcher Man) begins chopping off bits of his body. It starts with fingers, moves on to feet etc.

Problem is, when Harry wakes up, the body parts really are missing!

I want to depict the character Butcher Man on the book cover. I visualise him facing front, hat tipped over eyes, and a meat cleaver (dripping blood) in one hand.

Now, here are a few extracts from the book which I hope will give a flavour of the character from Harry's dreams (Butcher Man).

'An image appeared from the recesses of his memory. Harry couldn’t be sure if it was something he’d seen in the dream or something his mind had concocted from the numerous detective novels he’d read. But he did sense that the mysterious figure had worn a long trench coat, belted at the waist, and a wide-brimmed fedora hat. The face, when he tried to recall it, always came out the same; dark, featureless, hidden in the shadow of a hat that was ever tilted forward and down.'

'Harry made several attempts to sketch in suitable facial details, something lean and evil, but he could never quite capture anything that chilled his blood in the same way that the patch of darkness beneath the hat brim did'

'…he couldn’t see the creature’s eyes; the face under the hat brim was little more than a pastiche of shadows.'

Go for it, people. The more gruesome the better.

Erm....its not me honest!!!

Maybe someone will take up the challenge, you ever know. Meanwhile why dont you try yourself?
With Brenda's tuition who knows what you can accomplish

Aye, right, RJS, we all believe you. Where did you ditch the trench coat and meat cleaver, ehh?

The only kind of drawing I do is comedy - people look at it and laugh. So I won't be attempting it.

No, I'm a firm believer in doing what you do do well. Don't spread yourself too thin. I once had a girl called margarine, she used to... Well, that's another story.

Thanks for your interest anyway.

I don't mind giving it a shot, but it depends how urgently you need it - I'm tied up with collegework right now

i know i good place where u could ask for help they have over 10 professioanl artists tutors there and they have an Job listings for the students there im an student but i aint that good whatsoever lol



heres the link www.londonartcollege.co.uk

Hey guys, sorry for my absence, good ol' army exercise...

Anyway, I'm keen to hav a crack at it, i'll get some concepts to you in the next coupla days.

Anything to get my art somewhere....

Wow!! Think I've started something interesting here. Now I bet none of you artists ever thought you could start a career in book illustrations. This is something for which the demand will increase as more scribblers like me decide to self-publish their work rather than submit themselves to the ritual humiliation of flogging their little treasures (manuscripts) round all those literary agents and publishing houses who would, quite frankly, turn down the Holy Bible if a guy in a flowing gown with a lamb under one arm were to offer it for publication.

I am more than happy to receive any suggestions or sketches that you lovely people can come up with.

I just downloaded the books of Andrew Loomis from the link elsewhere in the forums and I am so-o-o impressed. It looks so simple that even I might have a go.

Some years ago, I did try an oil painting. It was a seashore with waves crashing on the beach. Off to one side was a craggy cliff with a castle. I showed it to an artist friend who studied it for a whole minute, turned it upside down, and declared that it looked better that way.

Sadly, I had to admit he was right.

Anyone who wants to send me something for consideration, or just wants to blether, my email address is:

bobkir@blueyonder.co.uk

Thank you everyone for your warm response.

I tried to send you an email, but I got an error message back -not a huge deal, I forgot to attach my sketch! I'll send you a PM on these forums

Whoops! Made a mess of it, didn't I? Missed out a 'k'.

It should have been

bobkirk@blueyonder.co.uk

Sorry, Lizzeh

Did you get my email?

I've emailed you, Lizzeh.

Hi, everyone. Hope you all had a good festive season. I have had a couple of responses to my request for an illustration for the novel I intend to self-publish soon, but not as many as I would have liked or expected. So, can I kick this into life again and ask if anyone else would be interested in such a project?

You can email me at:

bobk1@lycos.co.uk
or
bobkirk@blueyonder.co.uk

BWriter...I guess I can try to give it a try. Not sure if I can start til next week though. We are leaving to take th kids on mini-vacation on Friday that I have to prepare for tomorrow, so I say Sunday night or first thing Monday I will try to come up with a character drawing for you. I hope you aren't in to big of a hurry.

Thanks, Venus.

But I have just received a wonderful piece of art from someone on this forum which I have decided to use. I'll give them the honour of showing it to you if they wish to do so. Otherwise, look out for it on www.lulu.com. The book is called 'Butcher Man' and should appear within a few weeks. The contributor of the artwork, as I promised, will be sent a free copy.

However, that's only one down, another five to go. I hope I can come back to your forum in future and ask for help from all you nice people when I publish my other novels. Thanks, especially, to the people who took the trouble to respond. I am very grateful to you all.

Finally, I hope it has become apparent that there is a market out there as more people self-publish, like me. The self-publishing websites offer stock covers to choose from. But they can never compete with a nice piece of brand new art that has bben created with one particular book in mind. It could be the road to fame, perhaps someone could ask you to do a cover for the next top selling music album. I do know that the established people in that field are turning away work, they are so busy.

Happy 2007, everybody and thank you all again.

I'm glad you liked what I came up with, bwriter if anyone is interested, you can see it here: http://img231.imageshack.us/img231/3879/bu...mansmallzg2.jpg

And as I've said before, if you need anything else doing I'd be more than happy to see what I can do - it was a pleasure working with you

That is really great! I absolutely love it. It looks exactly like what he wanted too.

Lizzeh...OMG that is fantastic!!! You really did a great job!!! WOW is all I can say...period. You have alot of tallent. Almost seems like you should get more than a book...

Wow Lizzeh,
it looks like he got what he wanted! Excellent job.
Paulette

Wow Lizzeh,
it looks like he got what he wanted! Excellent job.
Paulette

Thank you