Sometimes you want to create....

but writing isn't the answer. 

Today is one of those days, so I amused myself by creating a preliminary book cover and taking the advice of a person who should know and jazzing up the gas giant in the sky.

So, unless some criticism arises that reaches into my heart and it grows many sizes bigger like the Grinch, I think my cover art is done.  Of course if I get a big publisher to accept the contract, this cover art probably all goes out the window anyway.  But it's been fun to make, and seeing that gas giant hovering in the sky... the green sky... has made this feel very real to me.  So it's certainly served a purpose. 

Then cropping the painting and creating a book cover, well, that's just tickling my vanity.  But what a sweet thought it is!  I'm not sure how many authors illustrate their own cover, but if that works out that would be the thrill of a lifetime as well. 

So here is the final painting.  I added in the gulls to let people know that Refuge is a living world, although it's in a strange place.  Interestingly, every gull you see on the painting is the same gull!  I had a hard time finding birds to use from the internet, so I found one gull I liked and I modified him several times.  So I suppose you could call him a clone. 

A perfect day on Refuge!

Here is my self indulgence of a book cover. 

 

Is that vanity?  I don't know.  But what I can say is that it feels good to see what a book I have written from my own imagination, research, and time spent typing away might look like.  

Hopefully tomorrow the temporary block that is keeping me from typing words instead of painting images will pass.