These are three paintings/collages I did to use as the background images for my cover art. The red one will be for my first novel, SEEING THINGS, which will be out on Smashwords and Kindle by September 1st of this year. The green will be its sequel, TREEMAKER and the blue will be for the third in the series, DAYRUNNER.
I started by using texture plates to print with black gesso on the sheet of watercolor. I brushed black gesso around the edges too, so that it would fade into the center. A crow figures into the plot of the second one (and I like crows) so I painted a crow in gesso. After it was dry, I painted over with a wash in the dominant color. Using a rag, I rolled some of the paint off. You can especially see this in the blue one. When this dried, I did a third layer of color, thinning it so I had no white spots. I also used some of the paint to do more textural prints on top of that.
These may not look like much, but they have a very specific function, and I think they turned out exactly as I wanted them to.
One interesting (in an annoying sort of way) is how yellow the cabinet behind the blue painting looks in this image. I think that’s the camera’s auto-correct function. All of these were done in the same lighting and at the same time.
