My last blog post showed some of my early cover designs for the fifth and final Kendra Kandlestar book, The Search for Arazeen. Those initial concepts just didn’t work, so I decided to work on some more simple compositions, ones that focused solely on Kendra.
I produced three different designs. The first one showed Kendra amidst the flames of battle. Here’s my initial sketch:
I also did a colorized version . . .
The one below was a more peaceful concept, showing Kendra before the battle that happens in the book. I had actually produced this drawing for one of the interior illustrations.
Here’s the inked black and white version of the above.
My editor really loved this illustration, so I decided it might serve as an option for the cover. So I flipped and colorized it:
The final concept was also based on an interior illustration that I had already produced for the book interior. These were the original rough sketches . . .
Below, is an inked version. I kept coming back to this illustration a lot, so decided I could produce a version of it for the cover
Below, is a colorized version of the illustration. As you can see, I also removed any discernible background and added some mood with the swirls of clouds.
I also made one alternate version, with some swords pointing at Kendra. I thought this would help add a bit more drama to the picture, plus visually accentuate her.
In my next post, I’ll show what each of these three illustrations looked like in the cover template, along with some of the color variations we played with.
Between the Cracks of Here and There 
I like the 2nd one!