Inspired by the Art of Book Covers
In response to Dancing Elephants prompt 3 of 52
I went to lots of museums as a kid, as part of my parents’ endless endeavor to raise well-rounded children. I looked at lots of art. Most of it had little or no impact on me. I was never a visually oriented person.
Do you know what art did make an impact on me? Book covers.
I quickly learned the secrets of color used by cover designers, and how they could target an audience by including (or excluding) certain colors.
Blue, black, and purple were likely to be a book involving an exciting adventure, magic, and/or science fiction. Pastels were “girly” books, and probably included boring descriptions of clothes and boys. Although, if there was a horse on the cover, it was probably still okay.
At first, I looked for children on the covers, indicating that they were books for or about children. Then, as I grew older, I looked for dragons, unicorns, and men in armor indicating that they were fantasy books.
Horses were always a good sign, although cats were iffy. An awful lot of mysteries featured cats on the cover, even though the story wasn’t actually about the cat. If the cat was accompanied by either a quilt or a tea kettle, the book was a hard pass.
You know what I didn’t expect from book cover art? Anything resembling actual art.
Especially in science fiction and fantasy, the people tended to look like caricatures more than actual people. They were recognizably supposed to be human beings, although they might bear little or no resemblance to the characters in the story. Same with the animals or starships.
Then a new cover artist came onto the scene. Michael Whelan.
Not only did the people on his covers actually look like the characters, but they had expressions! You could see their emotions, their conflict, and their inner selves.
You could tell at a glance, not only what the book was supposed to be about, but whether or not you’d enjoy spending the time reading it in the company of these people.
I wasn’t the only one who thought so. According to his website:
As the most honored artist in Science Fiction, Michael has won an unprecedented 15 Hugo Awards (SF’s Oscar), 3 World Fantasy Awards, and 13 Chesleys from the Association of Science Fiction and Fantasy Artists. The readers of Locus Magazine (for SF insiders) have named him Best Professional Artist 31 times in their annual poll and the Spectrum Annual of the Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art named him a Grand Master in 2004. Other noteworthy awards include a Gold Medal from the Society of Illustrators, a Vargas Award, a Grumbacher Gold Medal, and the Solstice Award from the Science Fiction Writers of America.
At the 50th annual WorldCon (the World Science Fiction Convention, an annual event held in a different city every year, many located outside of the US), he was voted “the best professional artist of the last 50 years”. He’s credited with inspiring a return to “realism” in fantasy and science fiction covers. And he has inspired countless artists since then.
I personally have signed prints of two of his pieces: the cover art of Black Sun Rising and Crown of Shadows, books 1 and 3 of C S Friedman’s Coldfire trilogy.
I bought them at a science fiction convention I attended where he had a booth in the dealer’s room. I would have bought the cover art of book 2 as well, but the only one he had left was pre-matted, and I wanted all the art to match.
They inspire me every time I see them. Not because they’re great and meaningful art (although they are), but because they’re perfect representations of the central character of the series.
And I’m inspired to think that maybe, someday, a character that I create will have an independent existence outside of my words, too.
This is a response to the prompt by Sharing Randomly:
Read all of my responses (so far) to the Dancing Elephants Press 52 weekly writing prompts:
