Cover Reveal + Whatever Else I Ended Up With

Annnnd we're back with yet another fun series of progression shots, prior to the next book release! Each Endless Universe: Close Encounters, coming out June 15th, chimes in with a look at Cole.

Once more, starting with a rough sketch. I see now that I did not commit to this one... The arm and the hand holding the pipe wrench ended up a bit different, but that's what sketch layers are for...

I dove right in and took care of his head. Like I did with Calyra's hair, it was done in multiple layers, but this was so they could be layered over his band of his goggles.

Ah, this is where I changed the arm and hand a bit.

Okay, you got me; I have no idea what the difference is between this one and the last other than its slightly close and I cut out part of the pipe wrench. That was really useful of me.

I'm rather proud of this. I've never freehanded a tattoo and to be honest, I kind of want this tattoo for myself. I made the bone part look like branches with leaves then graduate into feathers. It was based off of a picture I found on Google, where I noticed the smaller feathers looked like leaves. From the angle, I could tell what the artist did for the bone supports but branches came to me.

I wanted to show what the shadows look like pre-blend. Shadows are very difficult for a lot of artists (I'm no exception-- they get tweaked a lot as I work). I typically use two dark shading layers. A highlight layer is added later.

Obviously the shadows are blended, highlights added, and I added the color to the tattoo. Not much of a spoiler to say that Cole had this done to honor his mother and uncle. Although on the last cover, I made their wings various shades of solid blue, in the books, Conor's wings are mostly black with blue and white tips, while Calyra's are mostly white with blue and black tips so the tattoo is a more accurate depiction. Again, the art is not meant to force you to see them a certain way-- it's fun for me and gives your imagination some room to play.

This is just where I finished up the glove and his jacket. Don't worry; if you're thinking he reminds you of Jubilee from the old X-Men cartoon, that was where my head went too. I always loved her goggles and yellow jacket combo, so it's definitely a nod at a favorite childhood memory.

Last, but not least, let's plop in the formatted cover! The wrench wraps into the spine on the printed version, but the pipe wrench gets cut off on the right in the print without that leeway.

I've been neglecting to post links, but if you want to further support what I'm doing, buy my print version or hop on over to Patreon and pick any size donation you like. If you haven't used it before, you can give a one-time donation or set up a monthly donation. Spreading the word also helps immensely! Even if this series is not for you, if you think you might know someone who likes my style, drop a mention.

If you want to order a print of any of my work, I can set it up on DeviantArt for you. I do the covers in great detail at a high PPI so they look gorgeous on a big canvas. A lot of that detail is lost on the small covers, so you'd be amazed. I don't have them set up for sale now, but if even one person wants to purchase a print, I will set them up as requested.

This concludes another progress post. Next progress post will introduce you to a fun trio of characters.

Thanks for following my antics!