Evolution of the Cover: Geek of Legend: The Elvish Screwdriver

Well I finally decided that the cover I made for my first Geek of Legend book was too terrible to continue. To those few hundred of you who grabbed a free copy... at least it was free and the story is pretty good. I hired Doug Beckstead (who made the Jehovah and Hades cover and also did the cover for Minor Demons) to make me a budget cover. No graphics. No coloring. Just an inked drawing with the title. I really like how it turned out. You can check out Doug's other drawings / creations at his website: here.

I started by telling him I want a hooded elf ranger and I showed him a drawing I liked on deviantart. This was his first sketch.

From there he sent me a few different sketches. I wasn't a huge fan of the face on any of them so far so we decided to put that on hold and just work on the rest of the drawing. I also decided to hold off on the hood for a little while (but I eventually changed my mind and had him add one back on.)

The last drawing in this series is when I told him to add the hood back on. I just think elf rangers look cooler with hoods.

Doug switched to a cleaner, simpler look for the face and I had him add the hood.

I had him tweak the eyes a little.

I won't go into all the smaller details we modified towards the end, but I had him add a screwdriver attached to the strap that holds the elf's arrow quiver. Then I had him add the title and my pen name for the cover. I think the end result reminds me a little of a wanted poster. I didn't have any covers in only black and white before this one and I think this one fits the short story pretty well. Here's a link to the book if you want to check it out on Amazon: Geek of Legend: The Elvish Screwdriver.