For western art for the next Bell Chronicles book…
Itchy Paw has a gathering called Cowboy Live that runs through tomorrow, so Peter, Dot, and I took a run down there yesterday evening. They have artists of various types that support the ‘cowboy’ life in various forms including artwork, saddlery, liquid refreshments, jewelry, and leather work. And music too!!!
Found a couple of possibilities, and now the negotiations begin! Funny that most of the artists never considered selling art to authors didn’t understand the need for ‘right justified’ focus on the painting until I explained that the artwork has to wrap around and cover both the front and back covers, so the main action has to be on the right side of the painting.
This one would work for a cover. You know there is another cowboy doing ‘something’ which picks up on the back cover.
This one doesn’t… You have no sense of ‘why’ the three are standing there. And if your back cover is busy, you ‘might’ be able to guess that there is a horse there.
Ironically, I found two that not only met that criteria, but were both paintings from Colorado!
If these don’t work, it will be back to chasing through artwork that is out of copyright and hoping I can find something that at least comes close to the theme of the book.
Y’all have a good weekend and stay safe!
One other thing to have an artist consider is if the art can be flipped horizontally. The second painting might look a bit odd at first, but that puts the subject on front cover, wraps remainder to back cover.
I’m getting an appreciation for that, working with public domain art and graphics. Some images don’t work, others are good.
I really like the first (upper) one. Given your stories include winter with all of the complications therof, it’s a good choice. I lived in Fort Collins for some years and we had “real winter” for all of them.
Opening (and more importantly closing) gates is something one does often living in a rural area of some acreage.
Looking forward to the next book!
Too bad you can’t find an artist that would allow the use of an open edition print of their work in exchange for a page with ordering information on how to buy the print.
Complications, you have them!
Take a look at albert bierstadt.org for images that might bebable to be cropped for use asva cover, or some of the other artists of the Western Mountains school.
Yeah, cover art. The guy I have now (who has become popular so it takes more time than it used to) understand how it all works, so I am very resistant to change. But there’s a big trend in certain genres to put a bit more ‘T&A’ on covers, and that definitely sells books, but the idea of having to find a new cover artist is not a pleasant one.
PK- That is an option… sometimes…
Boat- Yep, considering it.
Jet- If only… Bring $$$ because they have to make money too!
WSF- Of course… sigh
John- I’m looking at all of them, but if possible, would ‘like’ to use local artists too!
John- Yep, we’ve had that conversation. sigh
Well, a stubborn shit would contact a source that might know some starving upcoming artists that would like some free exposure…
https://www.westernartcollector.com/
You don’t ask, you don’t get.
At least you’re in control of your cover art. More than one author has bemoaned how screwed up the cover art can get on their books 🙂
Jet- Ohhh… Thanks!
Toast- Yep, one more advantage of being Indie… Also the bane, as it takes time from writing to do those searches!
One of the more fascinating bits of commentary I’ve run across was ‘Confessions of a Tolkien Fiend’ by Baird Searles, in which he discusses the various covers for the many editions of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.
While the original English and Italian covers are fairly good, the American covers were less than stellar, and the French edition of the Hobbit is, in Searles’s words, ‘one of the ugliest things I have ever seen’.