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When one looks in the box, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the cat.

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This is the cover for my debut novel Stormdancer. I love it like Westley loved Buttercup. Like Han loved Leia. Like Jaime loved Cersei. No… wait, ewwww….

As far as I know, the secret behind a good cover seems to be “hire a good illustrator and get the frak out of the way,” but I’m not sure I can pad that out to 800 words, so I’ve asked the stonkingly talented illustrator behind Stormdancer’s cover, Mr. Jason Chan, to help out.

 

Jason: To begin, I was given a rough comp of what the cover should be,

Stormdancer cover process
chosen from a handful of different directions hashed out between Jay and St. Martin’s. I provided a few sketches, but the designer I was working with didn’t feel that the illustration had the qualities that I normally had in my artwork. He wanted me to do my own take on the cover to see what I could come up with. Click to enlarge

I thought focusing on making the cover graphic as opposed to an actual scene would work well, so I decided to use the thunder tiger (white) and the blood lotus (red) as very strong graphical elements. This left me with a white and red background, which not only describes two important subjects of the story, but also alludes to the Japanese flag as well as blood and the corruption of purity. I also zoomed in on Yukiko and made sure to hint at her face.

Stormdancer cover process
Click to enlarge

Stormdancer cover process
Click to enlarge

Stormdancer cover process
Click to enlarge

Jay Kristoff: At this point, I got sent comps of where Jason was at, both the design we were expecting, and the design he’d come up with under his own steam. This was the first I heard Jason was doing my cover (I was huge fan of his MTG stuff), and I think my air guitar solo lasted around 17 minutes.

I loved the new design he’d done. My only concern was… now, you’re going to think I’m a freak when you read this, but my concern was the griffin’s…accoutrements.

Seriously, we’re looking right up at him! Am I the only one who thinks like this? Where is his gear? Not that I’d spent an enormous amount of time pondering the physiology of griffin love, but I’m pretty sure they’re, as Commander Data would say, fully functional.

I suggested we change angles. I could feel my editor’s withering glare through my monitor, but he passed the request on and Jason seemed to agree.

Stormdancer cover process
Click to enlarge

Jason: With the second direction approved, we tried a couple of versions with different griffin poses, but in the end Yukiko and griffin were competing too much and lacked some of the mood from the stormy sky—

Kristoff: Wait… so you’re saying it wasn’t the wiener thing?

Jason: …No.

Kristoff: Oh.

Jason: …In the end, we settled on something between the two original versions, with Yukiko and the flat graphic blood lotus, plus the dramatic sky and distant griffin in the background from the previous comp.

Stormdancer cover process
Click to enlarge

Kristoff: After the illustration was done, we focused on typography. Stormdancer’s setting is Japanese-inspired, but it’s also heavily influenced by steampunk, and I thought steampunk was the one element we hadn’t yet fully portrayed in the illustration. I sent in my ideas for font treatments and we went back and forth until we found something everyone was happy with.

Jason: I think came together very nicely.

Kristoff: …are you sure it wasn’t the—

Jason: YES!

Kristoff: …fine.

The cover for Jay Kristoff's Stormdancer
Click to enlarge


Jay Kristoff has managed to trick the world into thinking he’s an author. His debut novel, Stormdancer, billed as a dystopian Japanese-inspired steampunk fantasy, will be released Spring 2012 through Thomas Dunne/Tor UK.

Jason Chan is a full-time concept artist with Massive Black Inc., working for clients in the video game and entertainment industries. A number of the notable clients Jason has worked with through Massive Black include Sega, Sony Entertainment, Microsoft, BioWare, Electronic Arts, and many more.

About the Author

About Author Mobile

Jason Chan

Author

As a child growing up in California, Jason was a huge fan of movies, video games, books, comics, anime, and anything else he could find to entertain himself. He would spend hours drawing and creating imaginary worlds full of heroes, villains, and creatures… and not much has changed since then. Jason is now a full-time concept artist with Massive Black Inc., working for clients in the video game and entertainment industries. A number of the notable clients Jason has worked with through Massive Black include Sega, Sony Entertainment, Microsoft, BioWare, Electronic Arts, and many more. When not working for MB, Jason also does freelance illustration for book covers, trading cards, and other projects. Notable illustration clients include Tor, Hasbro, Scholastic, DC Comics, Marvel Comics, Feiwel and Friends, Simon & Schuster, Upper Deck, and more.

Jason currently lives in the necropolis of Colma, California just outside of San Francisco.

Learn More About Jason

About the Author

About Author Mobile

Jay Kristoff

Author

SF/F author. Master of drunken karaoke-fu.
Learn More About Jay
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