Tales of Eathreal – Front Cover

Unnumbered Work; 234mm x 156mm, acrylics on paper

Wise Guy Eagle

Another cover I produced for Melrose Books. The author of this was a bit easier going than the authors of The Quest for the Holy Ale, this author knew of some of the elements he wanted but was happy to leave the composition to me.

The synopsis of the book describes an evil serpent lord, Oudoom, who rules over the land from his pyramid in the centre of the city; a young boy, Noman, who could be the saviour of the land and a wise eagle, Yeshu, who helps the boy.

I tried a couple of different sketches to give the author ideas, including one of Yeshu swooping over the pyramid. However, the author was most taken with the idea you see to the right, essentially a portrait of Yeshu.

The additional twist was to add the image of a Naff warrior, one of the Lord Oudoom's elite, into the eye of Yeshu. This enabled us to tie the good guys and the bad guys together on the front cover.

Wings for Title

To create some interest in the space where the title of the book was to go, I added a pair of outstretched eagle wings. These had to be quite pale to allow for the text to be clearly visible over them

The title can be seen in place on the publisher's catalogue page for this book.