Frontier Incursion. Cover art by Emma Llewelyn.

Today I decided to begin a blog, and I thought that I’d like to begin by featuring the wonderful art of my cover artist, Emma Llewelyn.  Emma’s an artist who works primarily in pastels and graphite.  When I asked her to consider creating a picture for the cover of my first published book, we sat down with a coffee, and she began the difficult task of pulling a picture out of my mind and transferring it onto a piece of paper.  One of the greatest challenges, was that the image needed to look good in large size and also thumbnail, because Frontier Incursion is an eBook.

She listened, nodded, and then several days later began to send me preliminary sketches via the phone.  We texted back and forth, and the picture of Twister and the three moons of Frontier began to take place.  I think she probably nearly fainted when I asked for the tidemarks on the cat to glow (“like a glowstick”) but mentioned nothing, and just kept working.  Apparently she had to research the layering techniques that the old masters used with oil paints, and then experiment with her pastels to see if they transferred.  The result was a beautifully glowing starcat (Twister) who almost leaps off the page to drape himself across your lap.

Emma has a lovely webpage http://www.emmallewelynart.com and facebook page, where she sometimes demonstrates the processes that she goes through to complete such wonderful images.  https://www.facebook.com/ejl989?fref=ts  Please take the time to have a look at Emma’s work.