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And reading through that post, I really think that I really might have said really far more than I really should have
The covers look great and I wouldn't worry about sharing too much. Sharing covers, techniques, and insight are some of the best parts of this thread! The other best parts include the encouragement and support from all the great cover artists that frequent here. Of course, I say that as I'm one of those who benefits from all of the support and don't have much of the first part of the above to share of my own yet.
Oops! My last post was a bit odd now that I look at it. I wasn't worried about sharing how I do things - I'm always happy to do that if there's an interest - it's just that I had said "really" a few too many times in the space of a couple of sentences and I was mocking myself for it. Sorry if it sounded the wrong way
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Philebus, it's really okay, and I really appreciate your mentions of ArtRage, which has really made me look into again, as Painter has such a dense interface I'd really prefer something much simpler to this kind of work.
So again, really appreciate it!
A long way back now I picked up Painter IX on a special offer and I loved it at the time but there was a lot of it and I couldn't quite get the effects that I wanted - of course, back then, I tended to use the trace image which seems like a safe way to do things but it's slow and in a sense, too accurate - even restrictive.
When I tried ArtRage, it was a breath of fresh air and with version 4 you have a workbench mode that reduces the interface even more, putting it all to one side and out of your way for painting. It's very intuitive and easy to pick up and use and above all, fun. Even something as simple as painting a colour gradient for the backgrounds is a little pleasure - I never want to use a software generated gradient again.
Treating the render as paint and just going at it with the knife and brush is not only much faster, but I think gives a sense of brush strokes that are free and 'loose' (if that makes sense), which seems to me to be more natural and helps to sell the illusion.
What I'm not sure about is how well some of the paint texture scales. Maybe there are some settings that I've not yet explored but if you look at the Doctor I posted a while back, the paint has more texture - that was a very small render. Having said that, working at 300 DPI is getting good results and for print and most displays, that is plenty good enough.
Ah, well, I probably didn't notice the proliferation of reallys as I tend to use quite a bit of them myself from time to time and it seemed natural for me to see them in someone else's writing.
I think I stopped upgrading Painter at X3, and while I love it, its interface is so complicated that I tend to forget a how to use it, because unlike Photoshop, I don't use it everyday.
Yes on the scaling issue. The old pulp artists like Robert Bonfils, Bob Maguire, or Harold McCauley did a lot of their work with really broad strokes. One, they were able to churn out more work in less time, but two, the art held up at 5x8 inches!
Contrast this with someone like Robert McGinnis (my personal hero; see his gallery at www.mcginnispaintings.com) who also did movie posters, which were reproduced much larger. Finer brush work, and less Bob Ross paint knives! (I also love Ross, so don't get me wrong.)
This is a comp I did some time ago using various techniques, including some pre-filters followed by overpainting using primarily quick smudging. The intention was to harken back to a 60s rough pulp motif. This was done for a mass market book published several years ago in Europe.
Hi, I think that using filters first in preparation for smudge brushing is the way to go and looking at what you've done here, I think that ArtRage will definately lend to your style. I have now had a play with the settings and on creating a new document, you can change both the size and the strength of the canvas grain, which helps with the scale of the effect. Another handy tool for the scale of effect is when using the oil brush you can alter the thinners (I remember doing this in Painter IX) which works well.
It looks like I'm not going to have much time for a while, so there won't be any new pics from me for a bit. However, I did have a go over the weekend, wanting to see if I could turn my hand to a short book series. Same MO as before but I did spend a little more time on the lighting, keeping it stark to bring out the shape of his face. I've also picked up some more fonts - unlike the others which were created from pulp novels, these are 20th century poster fonts but they look like they will fit the bill and give me some more variety.
On the subject of fonts, I would suggest looking up The Scriptorium (FontCraft) who specialise in recreating a lot of historic fonts to great effect - their fonts are used in Warhammer, Percy Jackson, and Spiderwick. I do think it is worth paying a bit for the right font and if nothing else, to stand out a little from those books that use the same free fonts that everyone is using.
Haven't been on this thread since Kathryn passed
Hope it's okay to post this: the ebook whose cover I did is still free till midnight of May 31, 2016 and I promised the author I'd mention it here
https://www.amazon.com/Secret-King-Lethao-Dawn-Chapman-ebook/dp/B0149F9NQI?ie=UTF8&keywords=The%20Secret%20King%3A%20Lethao&qid=1440204848&ref_=sr_1_1&s=digital-text&sr=1-1
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Secret-King-Lethao-Dawn-Chapman-ebook/dp/B0149F9NQI/280-9600537-2586922?ie=UTF8&keywords=The%20Secret%20King%3A%20Lethao&qid=1440204848&ref_=sr_1_1&s=digital-text&sr=1-1
Yeah, it's rough not seeing her here, but I think she would have approved of you showing the final link to the book.
I took a look and downloaded the book. The cover turned out very nice! You did a great job!
Thanks Knittingmommy
Kathryn did talk about Audiobooks and I would have liked to have asked her more about it
My author is giving away free Audiobooks away (think registration may be necessary) I'm not into Audiobooks but I have her permission to spread the word 
http://www.audible.com/membergiving-lp?senderCustomerId=A17DGMWIBKQAZC&action_code=MGPGBWS0903140001&bp_ua=no&externalId=J6FAC99QMFPHR&source_code=MGPGBWS0903140001&emailType=LANDING_VIEW&context=membergiving
Book covers...these are mine. I used Poser and Photoshop. Also lots of Daz3d models and effects. As a writer of YA Fantasy books my 3d art is an integral part of the process. Chapter illustrations, book covers and a whole set of "Types and Shadows" illustrations are part of my book series.
I am not a best seller yet! Look for Sandy Solis on Amazon. Spirit Wings book series for YA.
Sandy -- Somehow, I missed seeing that there was activity here. I really like the black and white with just a touch of color on your covers. The map looks interesting. I haven't tried doing something like that yet in DS, but I may have to at some point because I have a series of stories I'm working on that could definitely use a map as reference.
I'd forgotten to post the cover I had painted. The book is now out at Amazon.
Looks good, Cris!
Yeah, I saw it live in the store the day after it came out and thought it was amazing! Really nice job, Chris!
I just released my new children's book using Plushie Rufus for the main characters. It's full of my renders using Daz products mostly for the pictures. What do you think of the cover? It's of course supposed to appeal to kids.
Wow, great work, Chris!
It has a Bernie Wrightson vibe 
It looks completely adorable, thenotoriousjed; I think it would very much appeal to children and parents
I think they're adorable. I certainly would have bought those for my kids when they were the age for those. They look like they would appeal to boys which is all I had and it's very difficult to find stories that appeal to boys that age!
Dang. I think I'm going to have to get Art Rage and test it out. After I finish my current run of black & white tests using Manga Studio, that is. I'm VERY impressed with what you're doing here. Please, keep posting and keep adding the info on how you do things.
Hmmmm. Double post. Sorry about that. But I'm afraid if I delete this one, the link to the image below will disappear.
Click on image for larger view
Here's the cover for an RPG that will be published next month by Epic Age Media. First and foremost, I DID NOT DO THIS ARTWORK! I don't want anyone thinking that. However, I did do the following:
The enhancement was actually the biggest problem after we agreed on the logo design (which was only finalized last night when I added a layter of grunge to the DNA and Radiation symbols). The key armored figure was too dark to be the central figure on the cover -- I had to pump up the yellows to make him pop. I also had to do the same with the "Groot" figure on the back cover -- in the original you could hardly see him. The most agonizing thing was coming up with a color scheme for the back cover. I am not happy with what we chose, but it really is the best we could do. I kept trying different shades of blue, red, black, and even tried dropping a semi-transparent fill box behind the text (it just obscured the art and looked tacky). The yellow with a black outline was finally the best compromise. This is the problem you get when the background uses all sorts of different colors. Nothing is really the perfect contrast color, so you wind up settling. I think it looks pretty good in the end, though.
It's nice to see the finished cover! I think is looks good. I think you managed a nice balance between the other person's artwork and the work you did so that they both look good. I like that little bit of grunge, too.
Dang! I just noticed that the apostrophe in "Humanity's" is missing on the back cover. Gotta fix it and resend it to the publisher! Would someone else please read it and see if you spot any typos?
Knittingmommy: Thank you very much! Working with someone else's style is always a challenge.
EDIT: The publisher couldn't believe he'd missed it, too. And he said he'll fix it when he adds the price and bar code.
I can't believe I missed that, too! I read it again and that's the only error I saw.
Thanks! It's amazing what slips past at a casual glance.
Should be: "In a dark future, Humanity's only hope..." blah..blah..blah
comma goes ..................... ^ ...here! Is it a dark future, or a future humanity, or a dark, future humanity? Don't leave it up to the reader to screw it up!
(commas are optional, of course, but if one were reading out loud, the comma would indicate [pause/take a breath here]) Try it and see!
Does this mean I'm going to get editorial royalities? Cool... I wave all such royalties for a complimentary copy of the game.
I don't think I noticed a lack of a comma because I took a breath at the end of the line. Seems a natural place to breathe while reading. I would make a lousy copy editor! Spelling mistakes, I seem to automatically gravitate to in my head so I can fix them. Punctuation errors, I tend to automatically skim over for some strange reason which is why I'm constantly referencing S & W or The Blue Book when proofing my own writing.
HA! No, please! Don't mention it to him. I am WAY beyond playing games at this point. (Chess is the exception, of course)
I was just being a wise guy, as usual. I use (possibly overuse?) commas...a LOT when I write, so take it with a grain of salt.