the business side

I wanted a new slide and using one of my photos with a filter, I got this. I like it. Now to see if it fits.

a new cover using photo and app

A new cover for Desert Inferno using an image purchased from Deposit Photos and the oil pastel portrait filter from Dreamscope. I have never been thrilled with photos for my covers, as a painterly cover was what i first attempted to do-- without much acceptance from romance readers. I don't know if this will suit others-- but it suits me.

Now, after getting it out, I need to get back to the WIP.

oil pastel filter

A few examples of using the Dreamscope filters with photos I have either taken or bought. It won't replace real painters but it is fun to play with it. I could see these enlarged and printed on canvas for colorful energy on our desert home's wall.

Combining photo from Stencil with titles and one of my photos from 2009. The idea is to project the energy of the books. The challenge offers the same complexities as creating book covers.

banners and headings

For the last few years, all of my art work relates to the blogs or books. I just created a new banner for one of those blogs and thought I'd share it here. 

From covers to headings for blogs, there is an art to making it all work. In the case of my romances, they are about fighting a person's way past difficulties toward the goals that matter most. There is always a reward at the end of any romance-- hence the sky. 

Besides the banner, I needed a smaller image on the blogs where the photo wouldn't work.

 

this is art too

With a lot of things on my plate, I keep forgetting to work with this blog. If I start painting (paints, easels, canvases on the back patio), I'd have something for this image gallery but ... that's a big IF when all my interest is in creating covers and trailers for my books. Today I tell my stories with words and images.

The cover for my first fantasy, paranormal romance didn't last as I kept trying to find a way to get across to readers what is in the stories.

This book is also available as three novellas but I put them together in this book-- adding in thne spice missing in the novellas.

Currently I am writing a series that will combine mysticism and romance. The covers for the five books in it are already made... just have to write the stories.

Music Out and Trailers In

Well one situation with sharing eBook trailers here has been resolved but not by my doing. Playlist no longer allows embedding. My choices of music are still available at PlayList, (which means you could bring it up and then this page in a second window and still see art with music assuming I create any new art). Change is the nature of the internet!

There is an upside to this change-- that automatic playing of music will not interfere with a trailer's music. I like that since lately trailers have been my main creative effort.

That could change as in a week and a half, I will be back at Klamath Lake with my paints. If the weather is good (I am a wimpy outdoor painter), I will do paintings there and might actually have something for here that is not digital.

The neat thing about this is I can now share some other kinds of trailers that I haven't been able to with the conflict. Here's the latest redo (I am working on two others right now). It's 60 seconds for my book Sky Daughter.

I had a trailer for Sky Daughter that was longer (I obviously love playing with these things), but I am seeing that the shorter ones are all viewers have the patience to watch. So be it. The challenge of reducing a trailer to 60 seconds taught me something important about trailers. They should depict the energy of the book. Not everything that happens but the important all encompassing energy. I think this one comes close.