Scratching the Surface - scraperboard art

Painting with blades is my kind of art. When looking for illustrations for  One Sixth of a Gill, I rediscovered the scraperboards (also known as scratchboards) that I created years ago.  I liked them but I didn’t expect that anyone else would. My Editor, an avid art collector, thought differently, so I let her be the judge. I also revisited the important things in life, as I once saw them when I envisaged

The Human Condition

Romantic Love

and my teddy bear, Angela. 

(I still have no idea why I called a male teddy-bear Angela when I was 7. I do remember that I knew he was a boy and that Angela was his name. These truths were self-evident. Of course I still have him.)

Making the book and receiving comments from readers who found the etchings ‘intriguing’ and ‘thought-provoking’ made me want to pick up a blade again. After all these years, I wanted a practice board (and the conventional scratch tool) so I put some pre-designed boards on my wish-list and this was my birthday present – a kit scratch-board ‘suitable for 8+ year olds’. Perfect.

Then I remembered Michaelangelo. One of my favourite stories is how he acquired a block of marble that was cheaper because some other sculptor had started work on it and screwed up. Michaelangelo took someone else’s failure and created David. That’s how I feel about some of the children I taught, about adopted dogs, about so many things – see the potential and try to bring it out.

So, what would you have turned this into? Rainbow-coloured butterflies is your starting point…

I’m no Michaelangelo but I wanted to personalize my practice-board for my own pleasure so I took a photo of the design, turned it upside down, looked at it and saw it differently. I used layers in Photoshop to cover up the bits of design I didn’t want and keep those I did. Incidentally, Picasso used layers to create Guernica – the physical sheets he placed one over the other can still be seen in Madrid’s Museo Reina Sofia.

Then I painted over the unwanted design elements with Indian ink (encre de Chine in French, an interesting switch in country of origin, and which makes perfect sense as it’s used for calligraphy). I scratched away like a nesting mouse, moving from painted design to my variations. Unfortunately, once exposed, the rainbow background looked nothing whatsoever like the beautiful graduated shades on the packet front. My design did not work in stark rainbow stripes.

Back to Photoshop, a monochrome conversion, some tinkering with brightness and here it is. I’m not saying it’s art but I like it and it was fun to make. Now I’m foraging round the house for scratch tools – I’ve already stolen the wire wool from the kitchen.

Selfie in Couple Portrait  

You’ll see the teddy-bear again in the book trailer for One Sixth of a Gill

available from amazon

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Jacket make-overs

Many of my books were published three years ago and the jacket designs are showing their age so it's definitely time for a re-vamp. Also, the books are gaining ever more readers so my own knowledge about how the books fit into the marketplace has grown, and that changes what I want the jackets to look like.

I know the designer won't mind me canvassing for comments and opinions on the new look so I'd appreciate any reactions to 'Faithful through Hard Times'. Fellow-writers might be interested in some of the choices I'm making and why, before you comment, but I know some of you just like the pictures, so here they are.

One practical point about the text on book jackets is that amazon will only let you use words in a title which actually appear on the jacket, and all the title words show up in amazon searches, giving you some freebie extra search words. That's why I added 'a WW2 true story' to the ebook cover. If you want to know more about the book itself and whether the new cover represents it effectively, in genre and appeal to likely readers, check it out here

OLD JACKET

NEW JACKET

Branding?

It is widely agreed that writers will be more successful by sticking to one genre, building a readership and having 'a look' to all of their books. Publishers have always done this; self-published authors are well-advised to follow suit. But I'm not going to.

Call me mad or call me multi-faceted but I write in many genres and I think the 'genre look' of the jacket is more important than the 'Jean Gill' look. Quite honestly, I married the only person who's ever going to read all my books because they are just so diverse

Which fonts?

I plead guilty to underestimating the artistry of fonts - never again. Thanks to sites like the Book Designer and its recommended link Fontsquirrel I know what's trending and why it matters. The fonts suck on my 3 year old book jackets. But then they also suck on my books which were conventionally published over the last twenty years. Things change. But thanks to designer input, I'm looking at fonts, and the way they're mixed, as a way of keeping a 'Jean Gill' look, despite the range of genres. 

Which art-work?

As a photographer, as well as an author, I have strong opinions on this. There is, however, nothing to stop me giving the designer instructions and then looking at options on layout, background, textures,colours.. detail and fancy-work. I wasn't happy when I found exactly the same jacket as one of my books, just a different colour - the publisher (yes, a 'proper' publisher) had used one stock photo, straight. Stock photos of all qualities exist and my own don't always meet my requirements but I want enough of a twist to the design to keep it different from someone else's in more than author name and title.

I know that one of my many failings is that I love complexity and clutter - too clever by half, as my mother always said. Jackets need room for

Text?

Part of my lack of respect for fonts was due to the old-fashioned thinking that blurb is on the back of a book. In today's one-click or forget-it world, the front jacket wins or loses readers. Even though amazon now allows readers to view the back jacket, (for those publishers smart enough to figure out how), that is still one more click. I want commitment after the first kiss. 

I've always agonised over the right title but now I want pointers to go with it; an indication of genre (to double as search words on amazon), a killer quote. One advantage of becoming established as an author is that I have wonderful quotes to choose from. In fact, I'm starting to worry about offending someone by not using his/her great quote - the problems of success!

Love?

Oh, yes. Every time. I want a jacket that I love, passionately. Even if I want a better one after three years... We are talking about books here, right?

Over to you...

Any thoughts on my new jacket? On book covers in general? What decisions do you make? How often will you spend precious time on improving the books already written - instead of writing new ones?