“For God And Country” Book Jacket

The novel, For God And Country, by Jerome Prescott, is set in present day war-torn Iraq, where a gallant and dedicated American army chaplain ministers to battle weary soldiers. Much of the chaplain’s time, though, is spent alternately praying and dodging bullets. Above is the finished artwork, and below are the sketches. I like to challenge myself, but still felt lucky they chose the 2nd sketch, which was by far the easiest to produce.



CLIENT: BERKLEY BOOKS
ART DIRECTOR: RITA FRANGIE

“Seen The Glory” final cover

This is the final approved version of the cover discussed in the December 9, 2008 post. Below are the various solutions proposed previously. The author pointed out that I had placed the gun on the wrong shoulder, and also that the hammer mechanism on the musket was historically inaccurate (oh, you experts). With the author's helpful reference, I replaced the hammer, and we flopped the photo to get the gun on the proper shoulder (thus, I also had to place the hammer on the other side of the musket).



CLIENT: SIMON & SCHUSTER
ART DIRECTOR: MICHAEL ACCORDINO

“Second Nature” Book Jacket

In Alice Hoffman’s novel, Second Nature, a woman falls in love with a man who has been raised by wolves. Published several years ago in hardback, this cover is for the paperback edition.

Berkley Books art director, Lesley Worrell, asked for an image that would suggest the romantic, whimsical aspects of the book. Below are the initial pencil roughs.



After choosing sketch D, the image below was my first crack at the finish. Although I felt pretty good about the image, which I created largely from images in my archives, Lesley felt strongly the woman appeared too sad, and also asked for much more color, along with more conventional “forest” foliage. Given the changes requested, I felt the only way to fix the problem was really to start again from scratch., so that is what I did, with a new model and different foliage. At top is the final approved piece.



CLIENT: BERKLEY BOOKS
ART DIRECTOR: LESLEY WORRELL