Constructing a Cover. (Patreon)

Like all good things, a cover begins with an idea…. And the participation of somebody much more talented than you.

Full disclosure: This cover was sponsored by one of my patreons, Terrorfloof. This image is thanks to his generosity

I had a very strong image for what I wanted for my cover. I could “see” it near perfectly. But lets just say my art skills were spectacularly lacking. It started with a crappy MS paint pic, and some pictures off the internet for poses.

Enter Tsuu.

We started with some sketches. Starting to work out the character's appearance and composition. Big D started out kinda chubby, and a bit mean looking. But with good communication, we were able to refine the idea extremely quickly. If you ever wonder why art can cost so much--don’t. It requires a lot of communication, feedback, revision… and oftentimes complete redraws that can take hours.

With what I wanted communicated, Tsu pushed forward and created the first sketch. I absolutely love this sketch. Tsuu’s lineart is absolutely amazing. Not to say anything of hers is bad, but her lineart just has some quality to it that I absolutely adore. This is where things started coming together.

Next, came the clean lines, and render, but we had a bit of a shift on the face. We agreed that it didn’t look quite right. So we refined again.

A lot better on the next one, eh? This is also Tsu’s first time trying this method of colouring. I wanted a more almost watercolour style for the colouring.

Approaching the end right here. With the addition of the shadows I think it really brings everything together.

We cleaned up the shadows at the bottom, as they looked a bit too busy, and we have what I think will be the final result!

We also have one joke one featuring an earth spirit, inspired by the art of tomislav.

A special thanks to Terrorfloof for his sponsorship, Tsurot, for the art, White Samurai, for his help. Things are moving faster than I ever thought possible.