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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
PART VII: Ta Da! ~ The finalized BARON OF EMBERLY!
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.
If you'd like to view cover evolutions for BARON OF GODSMERE and other Tamara Leigh novels, visit: www.tamaraleigh.com
