I'm Looking for a Cover Artist!
photo credit: The Brief
This is not a contest. I am not asking you to submit work for free. I'm not asking you to draw anything new before we begin working together. This is a paid commission opportunity for a commercial project. I'm just trying to find the right artist for the job.
No AI work of any sort, please.
- Who: A talented digital or traditional illustrator
- What: Illustration to be used for a contemporary fantasy book cover (NOT cover design, just the illustration) in both ebook and print formats. Minimum size of 6"x9" @ 300 DPI (larger preferred).
- When: 4-8 weeks delivery time sound okay? More if you're interested in reading the book first before starting.
- Where: Anywhere, as long as you have an internet connection and can take a standard method of payment (eg paypal)
- Why: Because I'm a writer, not (much of) an artist!
- How: Procreate, Photoshop, Clip Studio, acrylics, colored pencils, that thing our ancient ancestors did by blowing ochre at their hands … whatever you like.
Budget: €1,500 or $1,770 payable in two installments - half up front, half on completion. Payment via Paypal or, if you use another provider, let me know and we'll figure it out.
Deliverables:
Before signing a contract, I will need to see the following:
- A portfolio of your work. A website, Cara, ArtStation, Insta, etc. It should include recent work that demonstrates your style and skill.
- I'd love a reference or two - someone who can vouch that they paid you and you delivered the work. If you don't have one, that's okay, but please be prepared to discuss your experience and approach.
- That's it … that's the list.
After signing:
- One (1) signed contract outlining the terms of our agreement, including payment schedule, deliverables, and rights to the work.
- Three to five (3-5) sketches based on ideas for the cover.
- The occasional process shot to make sure we're on the same page.
- One (1) uncompressed, flattened image in TIFF, BMP, or PNG-32 format (or similar) of the final work. I'd be happy to have a layered file as well but it's not required.
- Indefinite permission to use the image for both eBook and print covers, as well as promotional materials (social media posts, ads, etc). You will retain the copyright to the work and will be credited in all formats where the cover appears.
Contact info follows but I strongly recommend reading on before applying!
References: I have worked in the past with Karla Ortiz, Christine MacTernan, Thomasz Jedruszek, and Adrian Dadich, among other artists. They'll vouch that I pay on time and in full, and am easy to work with!
The Story
Some girls go to college after high school. Amber Pérez joined a cult. After the car crash, after she lost her brother, nothing seemed to matter anymore. So when the only friend she had left said, you wanna hang out in some parks, smoke some weed, maybe spray-paint some anarchy signs? Amber said, sure. Why not? None of it was, like, for real.
That was before Matthias took over. Before he found The Book. Before the ritual.
All it took was one accidental step on the pentagram and, whoops, the demon Matthias meant for himself bonded with her instead. Jayuul’s a jerk who loves projectile vomiting on command and hurting people, but she can’t get rid of him. Worse, Matthias will literally set her on fire if he finds out, and she can’t even tell her friends, because Shannon’s banging him (ugh), and Dylan’s his second in command. She wants out of the whole thing, but where would she go? She lives on Shannon’s couch!
When Amber witnesses another crash, it feels like losing her brother all over again, until she learns she can heal people just as easily as hurt them. The demon’s always had these powers; he’s just never had a host who wanted to use them. No one’s more surprised than him to find out he actually likes doing so.
Helping people not die is a serious motivator, so Amber and Jayuul hatch a plan to keep Matthias from terrorizing Miami with black magic and chemical bombs. She just has to juggle her friends’ suspicion, Matthias’s growing madness, the flirtations of local celebrity and kidnapping victim “Kitty Kim” Alexander, the police, the church, and a betrayal she never would’ve expected.
No problem, right?
The Moodboard
I have never made a mood board before. God help me. Here it is.
The Main Character
Amber Perez is a 21 year-old woman who until very recently held no goals loftier than "get high and eat some nachos." She is the daughter of devout Christian parents who were horrified that she'd joined a group calling itself "Satan's Children" and kicked her out. Now she lives on her friend Shannon's couch. She had an older brother, Denny, who died in a car accident when she was an early teenager. This caused her to develop a drinking problem and she barely made it through high school. Meeting Shannon and discovering the cult and smoking marijuana mellowed out her anger over her brother's death and allowed her to stop being dependent on alcohol to blunt the pain, but she still has unexplored trauma that she's shoved away.
She's of mixed ancestry, Cuban hispanic from her father's side and white anglo-saxon from her mother's side. She stands 5'4" (163 CM) tall and weighs 128 lbs (58 KG). She has honey/sienna skin, light freckles, brown eyes, and light brown, medium-curly hair that she keeps just past shoulder length and often ties back in a low pony tail. She's pretty but not stunning. She prefers loose jeans and stretchy tops with designs alternating between cute illustrations and more death metal inspired iconography (her favorite is a purple stylized deer skull with antlers on a black background). She wears earrings, usually not too big, but has no other piercings. She has one tattoo, a small floral design surrounding her brother's name, directly over her heart. It's rarely visible. She wears some makeup most days but is a low-effort kind of person (that is to say: she's lazy). She keeps it pretty basic. No falsies or fake nails, no crazy shades or tints. She often wears a small gold chain with a teardrop shaped opal pendant.
Amber has spent her entire life in South Florida and currently lives with Shannon in Westchester, about an hour's drive from Miami, in the suburbs. She currently works at a cell phone kiosk in a dying mall. She is the prototypical aimless early 20-something.
The Demon
Jayuul is what the ancient Sumerians called an Udug - an ageless spirit that possesses people and grants them uncanny powers, including the ability to break locks, some level of superhuman strength, night vision, short periods of levitation, and vomiting on command. While they are generally thought of as malevolent, the truth is that's only because they're most often summoned by malevolent people. They can also grant their hosts the power to heal, and some hosts also experience precognitive visions. He is able to briefly take control of his host's body (even against their will) and can also speak through them, although the voice comes out guttural and disgusting, like sewage burbling over stones.
Jayuul is not visible to anyone in the outside world, and most commonly manifests as a voice in Amber's head. However, he can appear to her when she looks in mirrors, as a nebulous dark shape with glowing red eyes superimposed over her own body. He is sarcastic and, at least initially, unimpressed with Amber. He finds her unwillingess to hurt people boring, and prefers the past hosts he's had who were more interested in using his powers. When Amber saves a woman from a car crash and heals her, Jayuul finds he actually enjoys helping people as much as harming them, and the two begin to grow close.
Other Characters
Matthias - Amber's cult leader is tall and thin, ropy with muscle but not buff or bulky. He has extremely short light brown hair and hazel eyes with a touch of craziness to them. His skin is very white, particularly for Florida. He dresses in black slacks and solid-color button-down shirts, usually dark and vibrant (crimson, peacock, etc). He is always intense and serious, and tends to make others nervous.
Shannon - Amber's best friend is more who you'd expect to find in a satanic cult. She's of medium height for an American woman, light-skinned, with a round face. She has short, bleach-blonde (almost white) hair and blue eyes. She often wears goth-inspired clothes and makeup, including heavy eye shadow and liner. She ends up in a relationship with Matthias, which complicates things for Amber.
Dylan - Amber's second-closest friend is into metal and dresses like it. Tall and thin like Matthias, he has long brown hair that is almost always in a pony tail, and brown eyes. He wears baggy black jeans and an assortment of t-shirts, most of which have metal band logos and iconography on them, and nearly all of which are black. He sometimes wears a pendant on a leather cord around his neck. It bears a symbol in ancient Akkadian. Amber has a crush on Dylan, but Dylan is gay.
Kim - Kim is a local celebrity famous because she spent years appearing in commercials for her father's furniture business (her family is very rich). She is currently attending the University of Miami. She has long dark hair, large green eyes, and tan skin. She works out and has an athletic build, and has a conventionally very beautiful face. She is a lesbian and finds Amber quite attractive.
The Cover
In an ideal world, the cover will feature Amber and perhaps a mirror in which we can catch a glimpse of Jayuul. Bonus points if there's also some indication of the story's South Florida setting (eg some palm trees and hacienda-style buildings through a window). Double bonus points if we can fit in other characters. I'm not looking for the standard urban fantasy cover of a sexy woman with her ass to the viewer and holding a sword or some guns. That's not this book's vibe. Possessed is a blend of comedy, action, and fantasy, and the cover should reflect that. We can chat more about how Amber should look or what she should be doing. I'm very open to featuring other characters. I'm also open to other ideas, including those that may be more figurative in their representation.
I would love if the cover was a wraparound, which would mean an illustration that's at least 6"x9" for the front, 6"x9" for the back, and ~2"x9" for the spine, giving a total of 14"x9". Because the back cover will be covered by a description, it can be much lower detail than the front. I'm willing to consider illustrations that are just the front, if they quality is high enough!
Here are some covers I like:
Here are some examples of wrap-around covers:
