dream

Two Book Covers with Female Protagonists

A strong female space marine rallies her troops during a bloody firefight on a distant planet their spaceship crashed in the background
Image | | sandpaperdaisy

First in chronological order was this cover for Battle Cry by Eric Glocker! It’s an exciting read and you can find it here.

A strong female space marine rallies her troops during a bloody firefight on a distant planet their spaceship crashed in the background

Secondly, at the beginning of 2022 I also did the first edition of what would later go on to become The Girl Who Dreams in Green by Adrienne Mayse.

A teenage girl uncertainly approaches a burning forest led on by a fox and a singed bluebird

She describes her gentle and thought provoking book better than I ever could, so I’ll give her the floor:

The full front and back cover for the first edition of Blue Feathers Bright Flames by Adrienne Mayse before it became The Girl Who Dreams in Green

Working on both was a real pleasure and both taught me a lot. Adrienne especially got me interested in different methods of making book covers, something I plan to experiment with in the future.

request a book cover commission

Commissions of this type start from scratch and involve communication between me and you throughout the process. I charge a flat rate of $500 USD for a front book cover commission. This is based upon my $35/hour freelance rate and the fact that book covers take me 20+ hours to make. The flat rate is a $200 discount.

A sketch, followed by revisions, and then a final piece, followed by one more round of (reasonable) revisions is included in this price, as well as formatting your files to the publisher(s) of your choice and customizing the text on the cover. If you need final revisions in excess of one (1) hour of work, I will begin charging an additional $35/hour in addition to the flat rate.

ADD-ONS: Back cover/wraparound +$70, signed 8×10 prints $10 + shipping.

100 Keys

| sandpaperdaisy

100 Keys is taken directly from the description a friend gave me of her recurring nightmare, some years ago. When she first saw it, she said I had “taken her breath away.”

100 Keys will later be completed as a short comic.
100Keys_sandpaperdaisy

Melissa Erwin’s The Mother Load

Digital mixed media brilliant colors and unexpected textures and ideas
| sandpaperdaisy

Today I want to show you some of the crazy-awesome pieces from TACODoom artist Melissa Erwin‘s newest show, The Mother Load down at PG Gallery. As you can see below, these incredibly rich and detailed pieces are lavish with color, texture, and unexpected associations. They’re made even better by being gorgeously printed on canvas and mounted onto interesting and varied surfaces including leather and reeds. (Of some sort, I’m not a reed/tatami/bamboo sort of expert even though I adore it.) As usual, I took pictures of a few but not all of the wonderful pieces in the show. Feast your eyes on this!!

Mother Load 05 Melissa Erwin
Mother Load 03 Melissa Erwin
Mother Load 04 Melissa Erwin
Mother Load 01 Melissa Erwin
Mother Load 02 Melissa Erwin

So where did all these crazy ideas and textures come from? I’ll let the artist herself explain in her own words. From Erwin’s facebook event page:

Sometimes after suffering some severe frustrations my brain will vomit out a large quantity of questionable imagery. Then I need to do something about it more constructive than a stabbing spree.

This would be that.
A series of digital illustrations based on scribblings in my trusty sketch pad.
Fair warning, I’m not responsible for any weird feelings or nightmares resulting from them.
After all, I don’t sleep at night, why should you?

I have to warn you, I saw a lot of “sold” stickers already, which did not surprise me in the least considering the amazing artwork and the unreal prices (I’m talking $35, $65…it’s nuts!!). The show’s up until the 17th~18th so be sure to check it out before then before everything sells.

digital mixed media pieces exploring a variety of bizarre themes and subject matter

Incidentally, keep your eyes peeled for more posts about Erwin’s art. I’m planning “A Look Back At…” series of posts featuring other amazing art shows I wasn’t able to document at the time, including Erwin’s Grenade Pin Girls series, her It Can’t Happen Here show and her Benign Acquiescence show. I’ll also be featuring Amy Wilke‘s awesome show Still Lives: Wunderkabinett, Space Madness II, some past shows of mine, and other shows and events that were too good to miss.