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Thursday, January 14, 2016

COVER EVOLUTION

I love sharing my cover evolutions on my website and blog and thought it would be fun to share with CRRC readers. So here we go...


My cover designer has done it again--putting faces to my stories, this time the second book in The Feud series, BARON OF EMBERLY, releasing December, 2015.

PART I: A Fun Tale Of Finding Baron Magnus Verdun ~ After digging through stock photo sites in search of the perfect model to represent my hero, I  happened upon Jason Aaron Baca. And now you may be wondering how I know his name. Fun tale. After the cover of BARON OF EMBERLY was finalized, and well before its cover reveal, I received an email from Jason. He had seen another of my Cover Evolution posts and wanted to know the name of my cover designer. Happily, I revealed the amazing talent behind my covers--more happily, I surprised him with a sneak peek of him in the role of Magnus Verdun. So here is pre-Magnus, kilt and all.


PART II: Putting A Face On Lady Thomasin de Arell ~ Thomasin presented something of a challenge. She's no great beauty like Lady Elianor or Lady Quintin, but finally the young lady in my head found her match in this model. And, yes, the original Magnus and Thomasin have a Scottish thing going on, but if anyone can fix that, it's my cover designer.

SCO0665 Hot damn 2

PART III: Positioning Magnus and Thomasin ~ All righty, then. Here's the first mock up, using the same format as the first book in the series, BARON OF GODSMERE, and a similar background (this time, the swirling banner is blue to represent the House of Verdun). Yep, these two models make a nice couple. Er, but as my oldest son noted, let's not have Magnus checking out Thomasin's backside.

BOEMockup3

PART IV: Getting Down To Details ~ It definitely works better having Magnus face this direction. So, now the sword. Let's turn it down. Next, put some space between Magnus and Thomasin to see more of the sword and banner dividing them. A pity we have to toss out the kilt, but Magnus is far more comfortable in 14th-century armor, and how about making the drape over his shoulder silver-gray? I like Thomasin's gown, but the color clashes with the banner's royal blue. What do you think about...red. Definitely red (you'll see why, readers). And how about banner blue for her plaid cloak. Hair wise, Thomasin's is dark blond.

BOEMock4

PART V: Perfecting The Details ~ Downward-facing sword is good, as is the distance between hero and heroine. Love the armor--yummy alternative to the kilt--and the silver-gray drape is perfect. Red looks lovely on Thomasin, and I like the blue cloak, but is that too much blue? Let's try it in the color of Magnus's drape. Great shade of blond for Thomasin, and look at that windswept style! Oh, mustn't forget her eyes are intense blue. Note: Emberley corrected to Emberly with two e's.

BOEBlue

PART VI: Blue/Silver-Gray/Gold Cloak ~ The silver-gray cloak works, but I'm thinking a color that will lighten up the cover overall. A gold similar to the background so we're not introducing another color? Nice blue eyes.

proof3 copy

PART VII: Ta Da! ~ The finalized BARON OF EMBERLY!

emberly_ebook

PART VIII: And Then There Were Two ~ BARON OF GODSMERE, meet BARON OF EMBERLY. Can't wait for both of you to meet BARON OF BLACKWOOD.

godsmere_ebook           emberly_ebook

If you'd like to view cover evolutions for BARON OF GODSMERE and other Tamara Leigh novels, visit: www.tamaraleigh.com

10 comments:

  1. The covers look great, Tamara! How exciting to put faces to your characters. Thanks for sharing.

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  2. I always enjoy seeing your cover reveals and the process that goes into them. You have a definite knack for grabbing my attention with your book covers and I find myself flipping back to see them while reading your books. Speaking of....I'm 'tunic' deep in your "Age of Faith" series right now and am dreading when I finally finish them and say farewell to the Wulfriths. Can't wait til your other books come out in paperback, so I can scoop them up, too.

    BTW...I'm your fellow Tennessean that sent you an e-mail a few days ago. Hope you don't think I'm stalking you, but wanted to stop by and say "Howdy" :-)

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    1. Howdy, Amy! Stalking? Snort. Love that you joined us here, and hope to run into you more :) Thank you for the kind words about AOF. I don't have a definite date, but it looks very good for that hero-in-waiting, Sir Durand, to have his own love story. Now to make time to proof those other paperbacks. I will! Have a wonderful day!

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  3. Beautiful cover. And I love the way it evolved.

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    1. Thank you Patricia. I'm always amazed by the "before" and "after." Happy Thursday to you!

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  4. Oh Tam!! Your covers are always so romantic and full of feeling! And I'm with Amy that I flip back to the cover occasionally just to see the characters and their expressions and the power of the images - you and your cover designer have a real knack for finding the right models - the personalities projected in the book, match the expressions and images on the cover - and that is important. I'm reading Baron of Emberly now and the cover models of Magnus and Thomasin really do match the characters portrayed in the story - - really good job!! And the Age of Faith Series - - those are my all time favorite covers of any book - - bar none!! Soooooo romantic and special - each one is unique but each builds to the next - really great!!! And Sir Durand is going to be redeemed - - "oh be still my heart" - - I can't hardly wait - - I've been waiting for this forever!!!! You know I'm praying for you my Tennessee friend!

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    1. Hello dearest barefoot believer! Thank you for stopping by. It's always a blessing to hear from you. I'm so glad you like the covers. One of the best things about striking out on my own with my books is that I finally have control over what appears on the covers and can match my characters to models who do them justice. It's so fun! I'm already starting to think about how Durand will look on a cover :) Have a beautiful evening!

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  5. I really enjoyed reading through your cover reveal and learning how you reach your final decision for your book cover. What an awesome book cover! Thank you for sharing it with us.

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