Tuesday, 16 February 2010

Interview with the Artist

Not so very long ago a decision was made at the highest levels of the windowless spiked citadel of steel and adamantite that houses Orion publishing. No, not to invade Gondor and impose a second darkness upon the world, but that an alternative set of covers for the First Law featuring some of the characters from the books might a) appeal more to and attract more interest from our sinister allies in the book trade, b) stimulate new interest in the series simply by a new presentation, and, c) potentially draw a readership who might so far not have picked the books up because they just somehow didn't look like their kind of thing. Parchment-haters, maybe.

The artist given the unenviable mission of contending with my pedantic and ungrateful readers was none other than Chris McGrath, whose gritty, dark and realistic style seemed to me a good fit for the books. Out of the considerable goodness of his heart, he has volunteered to come upon this blog and answer my questions, so, without further ado:


- You've been given a commission for a cover, and you're more or less staring at a blank screen. What next?

Hey Joe, Thanks for having me on your blog.

Well, first I'll go over the notes that I get from the publisher and see what comes to mind. Sometimes I'll get an idea right away and jump into the sketch phase and sometimes I'm left scratching my head with no idea at all. When that happens I basically start looking through my movie and art book collection to get some kind of idea or direction to go in. Then I usually end up doing a ton of sketches driving myself crazy until I feel I've got one that is good or inspiring. At that point I show the art director my sketches, they choose one, then it's on to a final.

I work from a combo of reference and making stuff up. A lot like the guys who do concept work for movies and games.

- How much guidance do you tend to get from art directors, editors, or writers as to what they want on a cover, and how seriously do you take it? Does your heart sink when they shirtily demand changes, or do you see that as an opportunity to reassess and improve the piece?

Every publisher is different and has their own rituals for getting a book out the door. Some give a lot of guidance and some give you a lot of room and freedom. I've noticed that quite often, the bigger the author the more art direction I get. In the case with the First Law Trilogy, the publisher had some compositional guidelines for their layout and text design that I had to follow, but other than that I had a lot of breathing room. Sometimes I'll try to push things my way a little if I feel something isn't working right, and usually the art directors are ok with it. But then sometimes after marketing takes a look more changes and guidelines can be set. Sometimes things get reverted back to what they wanted to begin with or sometimes they want things changed in a very different way. When that happens it can be good or bad.

My heart does sink when I'm asked to make a change that I feel is incorrect or technically wrong. It's ok to push things in a technical sense a little but at a certain point it just looks like the artist doesn't know what he or she is doing. So, sometimes when I see something on the shelf by an artist that I know is good but has a cover that just looks wacky, I know it's probably not their fault and was forced into it by marketing or something.

- Do you always/ever read the books?

I do read some of the books, and....surprise!....it's usually long after I've done the cover. These days things move much faster and quite often the book isn't even finished when I get a commission. The publisher likes to get an image up on Amazon as soon as they can to start the hype. It's like that with a lot of best sellers.

As with your series, I only got a brief breakdown of the characters and a little bit of the setting.

- What's the method? Are you working purely on computer these days or are you still messing with that coloured goo - what do they call it? Paint?

In the beginning of my career I worked in oils. When I was in school ( very early 90s) there was no photoshop or computer classes. But now I work in Photoshop like most people in the industry. My method is still the same though as when I was doing them in oil. The rules of painting and drawing still apply. I can tell when a digital artist hasn't had any traditional art classes.


- One of my readers complained that he doesn't like photographs of real people on the front of a book, but prefers paintings. Clearly he's insane. But within his madness lurks a grain of truth, because there is a photorealistic quality about your work. Is that a deliberate choice, or something that's developed over time?

My work in oil and photoshop looks similar. I'm trained as a traditional realist painter because that was my interest. I love the old masters and their methods and wanted to do work like that. But yes, my work in oil was also very "photo" realistic. You can see a sample here, an old painting from 1996 that I did. I had the guy surrounded by alien captors but they looked pretty silly so I cropped them out on my site.

At a certain point I decided to go digital because it was way more convenient and much much faster. Plus it prints much better and the publisher can work on it right away.

- I think on the most recent cover I notice something in the background not entirely dissimilar to the Castel Sant'Angelo in Rome (don't test me on my fortifications). So I imagine you sometimes use photographic elements and tinker with and build upon them. Does that apply to the characters too? Do you use real-life models?

Yes. Like I mentioned earlier, it's a combo of photo reference and making stuff up. Because I prefer realism and classical painting I use models and other elements. Sometimes I feel like I'm doing a movie casting when picking a model for the cover. Being an illustrator is very much like being a set director, especially when you are doing your own photography too.

But I do tweak features and poses and lighting and so on to they way I see fit. Almost always I have to do a lot of redrawing on the figure and adding a lot of stuff to the costumes. I work the same way on my backgrounds as a matte painter would. If anyone is interested to seeing this method you can just go to youtube and check that kind of thing out. I still watch lot of those videos to learn some new tricks.

- Clearly faces are a key element in any cover with a character. Do you start with a firm idea in mind of how you want a given figure to look, or is it something that emerges as you work? Are you sometimes surprised yourself by what comes out?

I agree. Faces for me tell a big story. Thats why most of my work is very portrait oriented. Faces and characters are what interests me most in a painting because there is so much going on in an expression and that fascination for me is endless.

I do start with an idea that is given to me by the publisher and build on it. Usually what I'm given is basic stuff like, age, sex, hair color and length, clothing etc. And sometimes a brief description of the characters personality.
Also, yes at times things emerge as I work on a piece and the end result can surprise you. But I usually have a clear idea in mind for the characters. The backgrounds on the other hand can really change in surprising ways from start to finish.

- A cover consists of more than just your artwork - a designer will tinker with it to some degree, resize, add text, and so on. Are you ever disgusted by what happens to your work when it leaves the easel? And turning it around - have you ever felt a designer has improved on what you gave them?

I don't want to get in any trouble so I'll only say: yes and yes.


- Many of my sensitive readers seem upset that the characters aren't uglier. I've tried to explain that a cover is a marketing tool, but they're not hearing it, Chris. Do you want to give it a go? Why emphasise the glamorous aspects?

Ok. If there was more than one character on a cover I could have made Logen or Glokta uglier. For example if Jezal was on all three paired with either Logen or Glokta the ugliness thing would have worked because you still have an attractive hero type guy on the cover (your big movie star so to speak) to draw in the girls for the sex appeal and some macho type vibe for the guys.

When doing your covers it had been decided that each book would have only one character, and two of them are really ugly. So I thought to myself, in the grand view of the audience and people walking through a bookstore, who is going to pick up a book that has a figure on the cover showing off his missing half rotten teeth, a deformed eye and a skinny broken body? In the fine art world that could make an interesting painting but commercially for people who are looking for an adventure story to catch their eye on a shelf? The book company is in the business of selling books and attractive characters sell. I still tried to keep the vibe of the characters with the covers. Glokta and Logen are dangerous types so I still tried to get that across. I think everyone would have liked Logen better if I made his hair a bit shorter like it is in the book, but with the composition that I had worked out it would have looked flat. The piece needed something blowing to give a little more life to it. After all, it is this mountain type stetting. But I feel, that he still looks tough and dirty with nothing to lose.

With Glokta, I honed in on what he was in his past a bit more but still made him very bitter looking. He was a really handsome guy at one time so those elements will still be noticeable. Uneless he was horribly burned or something. So I hid his eye in shadow and kept his mouth closed and showed him in a light that for a brief second you could see what he once was. If he steps out of that, his deformities will become apparent.

Also I'd like to say, everyone will picture the characters differently in theirs heads from one another. If you give the same job to ten illustrators you will end up with ten completely different covers.

- Clearly, having worked on the First Law, the peak of your career is now behind you. But if there was one other book you could do a cover for, what would it be?

True. All of the other covers that I do now will be meaningless and boring, but if there was still one more that I can do that would have any meaning for me it would be the Elric series. I still love that character. I did do a concept piece of him on my site, but it would still be cool to do a narrative illustration of him.

- Thanks for your time, Chris, and for your hard work on the covers.

Thanks Joe, this was fun. And thanks to your fans for the feedback and critiques. They were fun to read.

Labels: artwork

Wednesday, 10 February 2010

The Emperor's New Covers 3

I have already presented the new alternative mass-market covers for The Blade Itself and Before They are Hanged, to varying degrees of rabid excitement, approval, disinterest, outrage, and suicidal despair. I now present, at arm's length and with eyes slightly narrowed, like a person holding out a match to a joss-stick that might actually be made of a mixture of dynamite and poo, the third in the trilogy:


Click upon it to see it in all its awe-striking detail, if you dare. Art is once more by Chris McGrath, and design by Laura Brett. I love it, but for those of you who always imagined, for some reason, that Jezal dan Luthar should be bald, or wear black lipstick, or have antlers sprouting out of his head or some shit, you may express your outrage in the comments section. Come on! Let's see if we can break 100 this time around! I can take it!

Furthermore, and why we should be so nice to you ingrates is beyond me, I will be attempting, for the very first time, to bring some high-quality content to the readers of this blog by using it as a forum for interviewing the artist of these covers, Chris McGrath, over the next couple of weeks. So anyone who has a worthwhile question (and I don't mean, "in my dreams Jezal dan Luthar is blue like a fucking N'avi, why haven't you painted him that way?") can post that too, and I will decide, in my infinite wisdom, whether to bother him with it...

Labels: artwork

Wednesday, 6 January 2010

The Emperor's New Covers 2

Following on from the alternative UK mass-market cover for The Blade Itself which aroused some surprising ire and some even more surprising arousal in various comments sections, comes this one from artist Chris McGrath and Designer Laura Brett for Before They are Hanged:

Click on it to embiggen. CLICK ON IT. And in case anyone's confused as to who that's meant to be this time around, it's Superior Glokta, in Dagoska, from the book, "Before They are Hanged", by British fantasy author Joe Abercrombie. I like this one a LOT. Very atmospheric, dangerous, dark, intriguing, and sets the perfect atmosphere for those sections of the book.

But (judging from previous cover discussions), some of you may not like it as much as I do, so before anyone flings themselves from the roof of the newly completed Burj Dubai in protest screaming, "Glokta doesn't look like that in my own mind you bastaaaaaaaaaaaards!" It is important to underline that the parchmenty, B-format (slightly larger) mass market paperbacks whose covers have won such consistent approval:

will continue to be printed and made available to a hungry British public. These new treatments are intended as alternatives, and have come about partly because some key bricks and mortar booksellers have come to us saying, "we've done well with these books but we think we could do even better if they looked like X" where X equals a perhaps more traditional fantasy look featuring a character. A look that may appeal to a slightly different market share, and may hence spread the love a little, and sell some books to folks who might have looked straight past the original covers.

But new cover looks can also stimulate some renewed interest and attention by themselves, and it also gives booksellers the opportunity to pick whichever look they'd like to stock, and so hopefully get the books stocked and shelved more widely. Many have already taken the opportunity to do so with the new The Blade Itself, and with any luck they will follow on with this one. A new Last Argument of Kings will follow in a month or so with Jezal on the cover, and judging by the preliminary sketch, it's going to be pretty damn good as well...

You may now throw things at me, but be aware that I am fully prepared to blame my editor for this if things turn ugly.

Ah! I almost forgot. In other news, voting has begun on the longlist for this year's David Gemmell Legend Award, which I was last year robbed of by Andrzej Sapkowski getting more votes than me. It's a free public vote, so by all means drop by and, I don't know, vote for Best Served Cold or something. Wouldn't want to unduly influence you to vote for Best Served Cold. There are a lot of good books on the longlist, including Best Served Cold. Be nice to make the shortlist again, though it seems unlikely that anyone will be able to resist the march of the all-conquering Jordan/Sanderson alliance this year. Just to prove I'm not biased, you can also vote for either the UK Cover or US Cover of Best Served Cold for the new Ravenheart Award for cover art as well, should you desire...

Labels: artwork

Friday, 20 November 2009

Best of 2009? Already?

In what I trust shall be the first of many such appearances, Best Served Cold has been rated among the ten best sci-fi and fantasy releases of 2009.

In other news, an interesting discussion about fantasy cover art over at A Dribble of Ink kicked off by responses to the latest Mass Market Cover for Mark Charan Newton's Nights of Villjamur. The comments include some insightful stuff from industry insider-types like Lou Anders (of Pyr, who publish the First Law in the US, and also happens to have a Chesley award for art direction), Lauren Panepinto (who designs the covers for Orbit, including those of Best Served Cold), and the ever insightful Simon of Spanton (Hype-Meister General at Gollancz, my primary publisher, and was largely responsible for the idea behind the parchmenty covers for the First Law - some of the only covers I've ever been aware of that get near universal love). Well worth a look, since I know many of you like to tear your hair out/vomit in your mouths/otherwise express outrage about cover treatments.

Discussion runs particularly toward the area of dramatic figures on covers, and the commercial sense of making books look like other books in the genre, or trying to make them look radically different. Particularly interesting since the alternative UK artwork for Before They are Hanged should be along shortly, with its dramatic figure of Superior Glokta. I bet you can't wait to tear your collective hair out...

Labels: artwork, reviews

Wednesday, 11 November 2009

USA BSC MMP

See what I did there? Lauren Panepinto over at Orbit US have unveiled a new look for the Mass Market Paperback outing of Best Served Cold in the States which will be coming along in June next year, and it looks a little something like this:


Oooooooh. Interesting departure. I have to say I much prefer this to the US Hardcover look which drew such ire from you all when it was unveiled back in February. This approach makes sense to me - I think it stands a good chance of bringing in readers who might otherwise not have picked up my stuff, I think it looks bold, tough, and uncompromising (kind of like the content, hopefully), and above all it makes the book look like what it is - a fantasy thriller.

Anyway, I like it. As an approach, and as a piece of artwork, I think it's got guts. But no doubt you will all have your own opinions...

Labels: artwork

Tuesday, 1 September 2009

The Emperor's New Covers

So there is to be a new UK Mass-Market Paperback Edition of THE gritty epic fantasy debut of 2006 (obviously excluding Scott Lynch's, Brian Ruckley's, or Tom Lloyd's, and no, Pat Rothfuss was 2007, you cheeky so-and-sos), The Blade Itself , appearing in time for Christmas, and it looks a-little something like this:


Oooooooooh. Somewhat of a departure, I think you'll agree.

The existing UK Mass-Market paperbacks are B-Format (slightly larger size), these will be A-Format (classic small bookstand size), and hence probably somewhat fatter (so pretty damn fat - 624 pages). The long established parchmenty treatments have, of course, served the books well on both sides of the pond:


As have the slightly updated versions with ego-swelling big name and small title:


Which will continue to be printed, in fact, and so will co-exist with the new treatments for the time being. Indeed the original covers (by design sorceress Laura Brett) have probably been the most consistently admired thing about the series. But there was a feeling that theyweren't necessarily grabbing the core epic fantasy reader as hard as they might be, or at least that an alternate, more classic cover might broaden the market, and possibly encourage better buying-in and shelving from some booksellers.

Art is by Chris McGrath who does a lot of Urban Fantasy covers but less epic-style stuff, and I reckon he's done a bang up job. Gritty, impactful, and says epic fantasy without the slightest whiff of cheesiness (which is not an easy trick to pull off). Not at all a bad representation of Master Ninefingers either. Never an easy thing for an author to see his/her characters made manifest like that. Glokta (Before They are Hanged) and Jezal (Last Argument of Kings) will be following over the next few months, at which point there'll probably be some tweaking to give it more of a unified series feel...

Labels: artwork, news

Thursday, 5 February 2009

Best Served Cold Artwork - US

Well WHAT a to-do. No sooner did Pat post Orbit's US cover for Best Served Cold on his redoubtable Fantasy Hotlist than the inter-tubes BOILED OVER with hyperbole, bloggers, commenters and forum members spouting outrage from every orifice. Which caused both the US and UK covers to be plastered all over the place. What a shame, what a shame...

So what do I think? Let me be completely honest here (DISCLAIMER: The management wish to point out that Joe Abercrombie is never completely honest about anything, especially where commercial realities may be on the line. Actual honesty experienced may fall below accepted EU standards of honesty, and bear no relation to "the truth". Always read the small print on any claims of honesty.) I really love the UK cover, and believe me, it looks a lot better in the gloriously textured wraparound flesh than as a flat JPEG.

But the folks at Orbit US, who are publishing Best Served Cold in America, wanted to go a different way, and since they are extremely highly paid professionals who know their market, being the SOUL OF MAGNANIMITY that I am, I permitted them to do so. A ha ha ha. Of course, no sane publisher would really give right of veto to an author, especially me. But they indulged me by attending to my opinion. Fundamentally, they felt it was a good idea, as far as selling the book went, to show a person on the front, that the book might appeal beyond confirmed parchment-lovers, and I kind of understood where they were coming from, and was interested, if nothing else, to see a different treatment. The first version they sent me was-a-this-one:


And I was like, "Hmmmm. Don't know." I thought with the half-cut-off face it looked much too much like a ladeeez historical novel. Kind of Other Boleyn Girl-ish. Kind of lowly scullery maid runs off to join the crusade and experiences adventures, romance, and big-sword-holding beyond her wildest dreams. Nothing wrong with that, except I did not write that book. Maybe I should? And, to be fair, no one that side of the pond had read the book yet, cause, erm, I hadn't written it. So I said words to the effect of, "is it possible for it to, I don't know, kick more ass?" They didn't have to, but bless their kindly hearts they listened to me, and they came back with this:


And I was like, "Ooooh, that does kick more ass." The figure was much closer to how I'd imagined the central character (I mean, not how did you get inside my mind and see exactly what I was thinking close, but close enough). But now, ingrate that I am, I was concerned that it had taken on a kind of a paranormal romance-y/urban fantasy-ish sort of a look. A gritty example of such, and not from behind like they often are but still, I was concerned. Now it is a bit of a weird book, this is true. I wouldn't call it urban fantasy but I'm not entirely sure I'd call it epic fantasy either - in fact I'll be interested to see what people do call it when it gets reviewed (obviously providing it doesn't get called, you know, shit).

But I was worried that epic fantasy readers (the core of such established audience as I am cringingly grateful for, let us not forget) would look at this and think, "uh oh, he's changed, man. He thinks he's outgrown us. He's trying to get him a slice of that sweet, sweet paranormal pie, and that jazz ain't my bag." When this jazz IS your bag, readers of epic fantasy, it IS! It's EVERYONE'S BAG. Plus I was worried there was no sense of continuity with the trilogy, and also that the cover would not match with some design stuff we're thinking of tinkering with on the inside of the book. I furthermore felt that the parchment-y covers of the First Law have kind of a unique look - there's a bit of recognisable branding going on there that stands out from the crowd without standing out TOO MUCH, if you know what I mean. This cover seemed, well, a little bit like a lot of other stuff I've seen. I was worried, in spite of the texture and the rest, it might fade in amongst the many leather-clad swordswomen on today's genre shelves. So, bless 'em again, they didn't have to, but they listened to me (probably with teeth well-gritted) and they came back with the cover shown at t'top of t'post which, y'know, combines the two.

Some might say it's a bit schizophrenic, a cover in two halves, but I actually quite like that aspect, think it makes it quite striking, odd, potentially attention drawing (which is kind of the point, after all). And textures, foils, embossing and so forth (which you don't get the benefit of on your new-fangled computer screening devices) will hopefully further underline the divide. The inclusion of the map (which I understand will wrap around the spine and back as it does on the UK version) gives it some continuity with the trilogy and also some of that sense of unique-ni-ness.

Of course, some still complain that there's a woman with a sword on the cover, so it still looks a bit like paranormal romance/urban fantasy but, you know, the main character is a woman. With a sword. If you want to put someone on the cover, who are you going to put on there? Some big barbarian in a posing pouch? That'd be weird. We'll probably do that on the next book.

Anyway, Lauren Panepinto, the art director responsible for this internet tempest has put together an interesting post over at the Orbit site explaining some of the reasoning and process along with showing some other prototypes, which in turn brought out some more measured responses from the blogosphere. Someone's even running a poll to see which one folks like best but, aside from the UK version, they seem to like the lowly scullery maid one most, so, you know, some people are completely beyond help.

In summary let me be completely honest again (and I hope the hard-working folks at Orbit US won't take this the wrong way and blow my marketing budget on opium) and say I still prefer the UK version. But - if I can still find my own opinion under all this clutter - I see the commercial sense of the US one, and I do feel it's faithful to the content. And here's the thing - the one person they don't need to sell it to is me. I get free copies. And, what's more, I've already read it. Here's the other thing - and this may hurt some among you just a little bit - the other people they don't really need to sell it to are people who already like my stuff. They'll probably buy it because of all the wonderful little word-gifts they know I've wrapped up inside just for them. The idea of this is to bring in new readers. Poor, pitiable folk still sleepwalking through their lives unaware of my genius. If it can bring some of them in from the cold then I'll be well pleased.

There's room in here for everyone...

Labels: artwork, process

Friday, 21 November 2008

BSC Artwork - Proofs

The final step of the process is for proofs to be made, that is some examples of the final cover printed in the same manner and on the same paper as they'll appear on the finished book, to make sure everything works properly. The main difference here, apart from the colour balance being slightly changed, is that any 'specials' - that is features like foil and embossing - will be present for the first time. On this cover the sword and the coins are embossed (they stand out a little from the paper) the title and author name are debossed (stamped into the paper), which gives the whole thing some added depth. It's quite a subtle effect, in fact, almost more impressive to the touch than to the eye, but it certainly adds a little something, and it continues all the way round the book, which is sweet.


The foil they've used this time around is pretty damn cool, from most angles it looks almost black, but hit it just right and...


Oh, yeah. You want it. You need it. You MUST have it.

But I'm afraid you'll have to wait until June...

Labels: artwork, process

Thursday, 20 November 2008

BSC Artwork - Design

Now that the elements were in, it was time for Laura Brett, designer par excellence, to work her magic and combine the whole thing into a classy yet pulpy, genre yet mainstream, commercial yet literary cover. I mean, how hard can that be?


This first effort already demonstrated the idea was going to work, which was a great relief, and the sword and map sit together and look good, but the scales were wrong, the map too big, the sword too small and square-on which made the whole thing look a bit disjointed, rather than an actual 'scene', if you will. So we played about with the arrangement. Or Gillian and Laura did, anyway, and the next version I saw was:


Now we were really getting somewhere. Already it looked pretty damn good. Laura had resized the map so it fitted on the front and back cover, which made sense, then added some extra atmospheric parchment down both sides where the blurb and obligatory moody author photograph would sit. I'd thought at one stage we'd need some table or backdrop for the map to sit on, but this worked just as well and was less intrusive. The sword now looked like it was sitting on the map, which until that point I'd feared it wouldn't. The wine stains we weren't entirely sure about, though. And by a freak of chance the sword blade was sitting over Talins, which is about the most important location on the map, so it needed to be moved a tad. Plus I felt, in an understandable push to make the title as readable as possible we'd whited out too much of the map behind. And, much though it amuses me to frustrate you map lovers out there, I thought it would be nice to make it usable as a map, and make the six key cities visible. I also wanted to add some coins, partly because it's not just about murder, it's about money as well, and also just to add something to the layer above the map, if you will, to balance up the sword and make it more of a scene. Therefore...

Laura just lightened the map around the lettering rather than whiting it out altogether, which allowed for a lot more of the map to be visible while still maintaining legibility. She also closed up the leading on the title (pressed the lines together somewhat) and removed the little spacer between the name and the title. In this version the blood seemed a bit static, the coins a bit of an afterthought, so some more coins were added and Laura got some much more dramatic, active looking spatter on the blood, giving the impression the sword had just been tossed onto the map following a gruesome murder...


At my ill-conceived urging we also experimented with the lettering, trying various colours and having a stab at a style that was closer to the lettering on the map, but that didn't work at all, it just looked messy. With the background being a lot busier than it had been on the First Law covers, it was a lot better to go for something simple and bold, with maximum readability. Hence back to good old Casablanca Antique, which is the same font we've always used on the chapter headings on the inside of the books. I also felt we'd maybe gone a bit too far on the blood now, it was getting a little bit ... Saw VI. I mean to say, it's a very, very violent book, but even so. We dialled that back a tad, maintained the energetic spatter while removing some of the bigger blobs, shifted some of the coins around to balance the whole thing a bit better and...


Bingo. That is design.

Labels: artwork, process

Wednesday, 19 November 2008

BSC Artwork - Map

Now, if it was key that the sword should hit the right note, it was much more key that the map should. Plus the map obviously had to reflect the facts of the text. So first of all, obviously, I had to provide my own childish scrawl which the artist, Dave Senior, would then art-i-fy and render beautiful and atmospheric. So the squared paper, retractable pencils and ultra-fine drawing pens were broken out with great relish. Styria looked something like this:


Apologies for the faint names, it's a photocopy of the original.

I've talked a bit in the past about the pros and cons of maps in fantasy, and the reasons why there was no map in the First Law. I think the main thing I didn't really discuss was that, if a map's going to be included, I want it to be right. I want it to punch its weight, and look the part. I think maps in fantasy series are too often lazy. Lazy in terms of the authorial thought going into them, and lazy in terms of the artistic execution. A map is artwork, and if you're going to include it, it needs to look authentic, it needs to help set the tone and create the atmosphere for the world as well as simply describe it, or it's a wasted opportunity. Or worse, it's just stuck in there to say - "this book is epic fantasy, like that Lord of the Rings that made everyone so much money. Man, I hope this makes money too."

So I was very keen that a map should a) be accurate within reason, b) have artistic merit, and c) communicate something about the setting just in the way that it's drawn. To feel part of the setting. This was extra-specially true given that it was going on the cover, rather than just sitting forlorn, split in half over the first two pages. So the brief that went to the artist, Dave Senior, who draws a lot of maps for Gollancz books, was to aim at something like the work of Gerardus Mercator, the famous 16th century Flemish cartographer. Work along these lines (those links are pretty hi-res, so they may be demanding of processing power, but they are pretty damn cool for those of us who like maps, which, let's face it, is pretty much all of us).

Our map would obviously be a lot simpler than Mercator's, 'cause there's NO WAY I'm thinking up that many names, and monochrome so as not to distract too much from the other elements that make up the cover. I particularly liked the way the cities were depicted as little groups of buildings vaguely appropriate to the city in question. That was particularly apt for Best Served Cold, since the action is centred around six cities, each with its own feel, so I gave some descriptions of those key locations as well that some sense of them could be conveyed in miniature on the map.

Couple of weeks later a rough version came back, which honestly was already pretty exciting. The general look, the lettering especially, was spot in. It felt classy. It felt authentic. One could believe that it was a map that the characters in the book might consult. There was a bit of tinkering to do, plus a few extra details - towns and towers and what have you - were added to fill in some of the white spaces. Laura Brett, the designer, then applied her ye olde parchmenty effect and we ended up with this:


Click on it. CLICK ON IT. Delighted with the results, I need hardly say. Excellent work, Dave Senior. In fact we like it so much we might attempt to incorporate it as a background on the title pages to the parts, as well. I've always liked the idea of extending some artwork into the book proper, to give the whole thing a bit more visual identity and make the experience of reading it that little bit richer. We will see how that goes.

And here's one more, of my original guide with the final artwork beside...


What's that you say? You think my version has the greater artistic merit?

Yeah, right.

Labels: artwork, process

Tuesday, 18 November 2008

BSC Artwork - Sword

Burned and spattered papers, such as the ones on the First Law covers, are pretty much universal, but a sword has to hit the right note, especially since it's meant to be the one the main character uses in the book. So it has to be the right era, and have the right feel. Since the feel for the book is kind of renaissance Italy-ish, more baroque than medieval, the brief we gave to Didier Graffet, a French artist who specialises in weaponry, was something roughly along these lines (and no doubt those of you interested by historical weaponry, which is, let's face it, pretty much all of you, will now spend some time exploring that site), but possibly with a bit more heft to the blade. So it needed to look beautiful, but functional, without any fantastical flourishes. Steely, not gilded. It needed to look dangerous.

This was the first sketch we got back:


Which was already looking pretty good. We messed about with it a bit, shortened bits, lengthened bits, talked ricasso, knuckle-bow, quillons, and fore-ring, cause, you know, I talk fluent sword, and ended up with something actually pretty close to the original, though somewhat weightier and shorter in the blade, a bit less graceful and a bit more brutal:
Happy with that, it went back to be coloured, and damned if it didn't turn up but a few hours later looking bloody brilliant:


Click on it. You know you want to. CLICK ON IT. Possibly you can't entirely see it on this version, but the detail is amazing. It has that quality of accentuated reality that great graphic novel art has. Real, only more so. So my thanks to Didier Graffet. If you ever need a sword painted, I might just know a guy...

Labels: artwork, process

Monday, 17 November 2008

BSC Artwork - Concept

People occasionally ask me how much input authors have into the cover art, and I guess it varies greatly, but contractually, the publisher usually has no obligation to involve the author at all. For the vast majority of books, the cover will be the main selling tool at the publisher's disposal, and that's far too important an area to be left in the hands of an author who, let's face it, most of the time doesn't know shit about selling books. A lot less than their publisher does, anyway. And let's not forget, this isn't necessarily about making something pretty, or classy, or even relevant to the content of the book, this is about making something that the greatest number of people will want to buy.

This is particularly true with foreign rights deals. I've had no input whatsoever into the covers of any of the foreign editions of my books. Title changes either, for that matter. The feeling is, and I think it's probably a wise one, that tastes and traditions vary from one territory to another, and the publishers in that territory, having bought the rights, are the people best equipped to know what's going to sell.

Things are somewhat different in one's home territory, however, and in general it behooves a publisher to at least run their ideas past an author (in much the same way as it behooves the author to give serious consideration to their editor's recommendations about the content) if only because they will understand the language in which the author is complaining. Enjoying, as I do, a fantastically close relationship with my UK editor and publishers (Gollancz are like FAMILY, man, at least until I get a better offer), I am lucky enough to be consulted at every stage. It's a collaborative effort. They provide the talent, I provide the complaints.

Now I'm not that brilliant on concept - I think that's a very particular and valuable skill, one that you develop partly through long experience, and I don't have it. Once I see something I get a feel for whether it's right or not, and I get ideas for how to improve it (at least from my point of view), but I rarely have any sort of notion in advance of how I think a book should look. So when my editor Gillian picked my brains to see if I had any brilliant notions about what to do for the cover of Best Served Cold, I didn't really. We considered going for a different look, since it's not part of the same series. We floated a few things back and forth, but nothing was very compelling. Vague talk of graphic novels. Some mention of snow, and a female main character, but, you know, not that obvious, but, you know, not that un-obvious. I mean, a bit like that book what's-it-called. Well, not like it, but not UN-like it. You know. You don't know?

Simon Spanton, meanwhile, who is one of the two editorial directors at Gollancz, and who'd been responsible for the cover treatments for the First Law, was pretty intent on continuing that blood-spattered parchmenty theme, which had, after all, proved pretty successful. Possibly upgrading it by having a dagger stuck into it. I forget exactly whose idea it was to put a map on the parchments. Either Simon's or Gillian's, so let's say mine. I have an idea we'd been discussing some recent impassioned chat from readers about maps in fantasy, and the absence of them from my books, so the issue was on our minds. Simon is, shall we say, not the greatest fan of the knee-jerk inclusion of maps in epic fantasy books, so possibly the idea of putting the map on the outside, then setting it on fire and spraying it with blood and vomit amused him. I think it was Gillian's idea to go for a sword rather than a dagger, possibly because she was aware of the work of the artist in question. So there you have it. Map. Sword. Blood. Bingo.

Initially I was a bit worried, I must admit, about whether the map and the sword could be made to hit the right note, and whether they'd bind together into a consistent whole or just look like two entirely separate and mismatched bits of art dropped onto a page. In a sense it's a much more complicated and specific idea than the more abstract covers for the previous three books had been. But I'd been pretty unconvinced by the cover treatment for The Blade Itself, when I first heard it (what, a load of burned paper? You sure that's going to work?) but have ended up really liking it (and in the end barely making any changes at all, aside from incorporating the magic-circle thingy on the back) so I didn't object this time around, having nothing much to offer as an alternative, and having learned the lesson that I don't really know what I'm talking about when it comes to concepts for covers and I'm better off doing what I'm told, at least in the early stages. Later on I would have earth-shaking impacts on the design process, as we shall see over the coming week...

Labels: artwork, process

Saturday, 15 November 2008

Best Served Cold Artwork

Take THAT. Pretty much the final cover for the UK edition of Best Served Cold. I should point out it's a hardcover release, though, and you really need to see the whole wraparound, which looks like this:


Mmmmmmmmmmmmm. Click on it to see it in all its glorious detail. Go on. Click on it. You know you want to. Even that's a long way from doing it full justice, though, I have to say. The final version will have the title and the edges of the author-name foiled, probably in chilly gun-metal grey, then the sword and coins embossed and the text debossed. Plus it will be printed on that textured paper for which my previous books have won most of their acclaim. You really have to see it wrapped round a book to get the full effect. You have to handle it, stroke it, caress it, lick it. Well, not the last one, necessarily, that's just something I like to do.


And that's not even a proof cover, it's just a good printout. The book isn't actually Best Served Cold, in case you're wondering. It's Julia Gregson's East of the Sun. Long story. Anyway, it's designed to be of a piece with the new covers for the mass-market editions of the trilogy, that they may all beckon to prospective readers from the shelf, together.

In case you're wondering, I fricking love it. I feel that it expands on the tone set by the previous covers, and establishes something of a unique identity for the books as a whole - a brand, even - which has got to be a good thing. It communicates a lot about the feel and the content - and a real sense of action and violence - without straying into the difficult ground of literal cover art. It manages to be classy and pulpy at once. I think overall the covers achieve the extremely difficult trick of being entirely un-generic, striking, and standing out from the crowd of fantasy artwork while at the same time not seeming to be deliberately NOT FANTASY. I think that's what fantasy covers need to try and achieve, these days, ideally - to not alienate the hardcore fantasy fan while still appealing to the more occasional reader.

It involves the work of no less than six people. Original concept from Simon Spanton (I believe), expanded upon by my editor Gillian Redfearn, who then put the brief together and assembled the team to carry it out (kind of like the A-Team, but with more artistic accumen and less mercy), and co-ordinated the project. The sword was painted by weapons expert Didier Graffet, the map was drawn by map-master Dave Senior, adapting my own scrawl, then the whole was combined and made to live by designer Laura Brett (also responsible for the First Law covers), who added the spatter, coins, parchmenty effects, and lettering. At various stages a pedantic asswipe interposed himself and made everyone's lives a misery. I won't say who, but there's a clue on the cover itself...

The sharp-eyed among you may have noticed that it features a map quite prominently. But Joe! I hear you cry. Aren't you the anti-map guy? Is there a whiff of hypocrisy about this blog today? Well, maybe. I've always had a foot in both camps on this issue, and with a tighter and more defined setting for this book it seemed to make sense. Plus I don't hate maps, I just hate rubbish maps, and this time around there was the opportunity to make sure it was done right, both factually accurate and with some artistic flair. But more discussion of this later, maybe, because for those who give a toss, next week will be Best Served Cold artwork week, in which I will discuss the evolution of cover from twinkle in publisher's eye to fully-realised proof in exhaustive detail...

Labels: announcements, artwork, news, process

Tuesday, 7 October 2008

New Covers

The UK Mass Market editions of The First Law are being given a new cover treatment, to be phased in over the coming months in preparation for the mass market release of Last Argument of Kings in Februrary. Check out these bad boys:


Of course it lacks the full impact created by the oft-praised grip-friendly paper, debossing of text and sundry features, and precious foils in gold, icy blue or bronze, applied to the edges of text and the symbol in the background to make the covers glitter from afar like the setting sun upon a stirring sea...


But I think you still get the idea. Note in particular how MY NAME now appears above the title, and in bigger letters. Why so? Because I is a BRAND, biatches. I must say I find it slightly weird, but sales have insisted, and when sales insist ... names are ... made bigger, I guess. I'm sure I'll get used to the idea. It continues with the cover of Best Served Cold, which I daresay I'll be discussing in due course, at great length, 'cause it is frakking ACE.


My grovelling appreciation to Laura, the designer, and Gillian, dark mistress of editorial, responsible for these works of art. You could sell any old crap with THOSE on the front. Which is just as well...

And in case you're thinking - man, it doesn't say it's part of a series and which number in the series it is, and that's like well annoying - it does say. On the back. Oh, and while we're talking about The First Law, check this out:

"Abercrombie has written the finest epic fantasy trilogy in recent memory. He's one writer no one should miss."

Junot Diaz, winner of this year's Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. That's right. Let me bullet point it. Junot ... Diaz ... Pulitzer ... finest epic fantasy ... no one should miss. In fact, he expressed well-deserved approval for Pyr's ouput as a whole.

One more time. Pulitzer ... epic ... miss.

Labels: artwork, process

Wednesday, 8 August 2007

A Tale of Four Covers

Covers. We all know about the dangers of judging a book by 'em, but it's amazing how many people do. I imagine that most publishing folks would agree with me that they're the most important marketing tool when it comes to selling a book, especially by an author who may *ahem* not necessarily yet be a houeshold name. This is why the publisher likes to remain in firm control of this key element.

For those of you who are unaware, we authors (even unlike me, proper, big-selling ones) have no contractual say in the covers of our books. Of course, it behooves our editors to seek our opinions and take some notice of them, lest we become tetchy and difficult. Just as it behooves us (strongly behooves, in fact) to take careful note of our editors opinions about the text, lest we be dropped by our publisher.

A great deal of work goes into the covers for my books, therefore, before I ever get close to them. Some, I'm sure, would even say more work than the inside of the book, but that's another story. So the first version of the cover for Last Argument of Kings that I saw looked a little something like this:



Loved the background. Loved, it, and still do. For me it maintained the basic theme of the other two books (which I'd always liked, despite having nothing whatsoever to do with the idea) while adding more colour, more sense of action, more impact. I was a lot less sure about the lettering. Hard to take in at a glance, which is always a worry, and just the slightest bit, for want of a better word, girly. The big vase of flowers on the 'L' I found particularly ill-advised. I wanted to go less Jane Austen and more Frederick Barbarossa on the font, prompting this response:

Once I calmed down from my towering rage on seeing my first name spelled wrong, I realised that it was a definite improvement. The 'L' was now much more butch, but had lost legibility somewhat, and had slightly the appearance of an overgrown climbing frame. I also felt that there was a degree of twee about the whole thing. A touch Yorkshire tea-house menu although, admittedly, a menu blood-spattered and on fire.

Plus there was that issue of foil to consider. The previous covers had both featured some shiny stuff to hook in the jackdaw-like fantasy fan. Could we not give 'em the old razzle-dazzle this time, too?


Now we were really getting there. The whole thing was bursting with testosterone. I feel more manly just looking at that bad boy, don't you? (Ladies need not reply).

Of course, I'm a pedantic git (as Gillian, long-suffering editor, and Laura, long-suffering designer, tell anyone who will listen, mostly each other). The lettering on my name was still perhaps somewhat spindly. The 'L' was perhaps now too scintillating in comparison to the rest of the text, and the gold needed to be spread out around the other letters to give the whole thing a valuable flavour. Also, the sharp-eyed among you may have noticed that there were still some letters near the bottom of the page, just below my name, left over from whatever document Laura had torched to make the background in the first place.



This version came in today, and I'm sure will be very close to the final one. The foil has spread out and become a darker and more sinister bronzy colour, the mysterious letters are gone, and my name is now bold as Boromir. The finished version will be on textured paper, and the lettering and certain parts of the burned surround will be de-bossed to give it yet more depth. Mmmmmmmm.

Thanks Gillian. Thanks Laura. Job done. You could sell any old rubbish with that round it.

Now to start whining about the back cover ...

Labels: artwork, news, process