March/April 2017 Lite Challenge: Finding the Fleet

[Mouse]

Aw thank you again, Tilt. Though it did take me 3 days and 3 attempts - so I have the same problem as you. Some have it in the hand and eye and it just comes out right first time (J.Edward, Sapiento and Ilanthar come immediately to mind, along with a whole string of others), and some, like you and me, have to work really hard for it

It also depends on the medium. I'm far better at oils on canvas, or pencil on paper. Its just getting the same thing going on a screen that's the problem for me.

Now I've uploaded the original scale, though, I can see all kinds of blemishes and flaws - untidy bits around the edge and so on, so I probably will do another tidy up job before the end

[Mouse]

Ok. This really has to be the final WIP, since I'm starting to overwork the details and make a mess.

This one is more saturated and has greater contrast. I've cleaned up the edge of the feather (which may or may not be an improvement). Some would doubtless say that I've gone too bright with the whole thing now, but I'm going for as big an eye-catching impact as I can muster on a page full of thousands of other fantasy novels by similarly unheard of authors...

[ThomasR]

This is really gorgeous, Sue !

[Mouse]

Thanks Thomrey

Now I just have to do the other 4 covers all over again to bring them back in line with this one! LOL!

[Straf]

All drawn by hand and mouse in GIMP... apart from the bits of the original that still show through the new layers, like the bottom of the feather shaft

The shaft is called the rachis

[Mouse]

Oh indeed it is, Straf. Though it seems the terminology for the different parts of a feather varies for some reason, so I've stuck to names that are more obvious to me in my writing

Some of my characters are werehawks, so the terminology really matters. Here's one of the reference images I have collected, taken from my writing folder

[Ilanthar]

Gorgeous feathers! And the rest of the cover is also well done. Good play with colors on this one (again).

[Mouse]

Aw thank you Ilanthar!

[Bogie]

Yeah, this is great, you should bring the other books up to this one.

[Mouse]

Thanks Bogie, and OMGoodness! That's a lot of work.

Just for a bit of interest, here is a line up of the others as they currently stand (book 2 is a variation of the one I showed at the start of this thread):



EDIT: that's actually a bit misleading, since the timeline is circular. Time travel is involved, so the last book, Lana, is actually the prequel to the whole series. It just works better at the other end, since its more sci-fi than fantasy, and would give far too much of everything away if it was published first.