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Favorite Cover Artists

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If we were looking to redo the cover of Iron and Magic in anticipation of that story arc’s reboot in the future, who would you want to illustrate it?

The artist must be punctual, must be able to draw attractive faces, and beautiful swords. If you are an interested artist, please leave a link to your portfolio in the comments.

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Comments

      • Friday’s post had a mention of the release schedule possibly updating in Feb. AJ is probably referring to that

    • Hello – I was listening to the Audiobook of Iron and Magic and noticed that the narrator Steve West gave Raphael and Acsanio non-US accents while Renee Raudman provides a US accent narration. It threw me for a loop. Am I crazy? I thought Raphael grew up in Atlanta.

      • Yes, this was a minor misunderstanding 🙂 , audio narrators are very busy people who don’t always manage to read a whole 10 volume background series in preparation.
        Steve did an excellent job voicing Iron and Magic and tried his best to give characters distinct voices- he went by the surnames in the Medranos’ case.
        We can chalk it up to artistic licence 🙂

  2. I loved that cover! I vote for the same artist, if available, but I know authors like to refresh things over time. Especially when you are adding to the series I dare say.

    Actually, I’ve pretty much loved all your choices to date, heh.

  3. I love all of Luisa Preissler’s work, though I know you all have worked with her in the past too.

    I wonder if there are some Magic the Gathering Artists that might fit your criteria? Though my brain is pulling all blanks on a particular card art that might be a helpful direction.

  4. Wait, Iron and Magic is going to have a reboot?

    Also, I kind of like the current cover. Except Elara’s hair screams “fake hairpiece!” so I hope the next artist can be . . . more imaginative? less true to life? something, something . . .

    • In the sense of “restarted, revived” ☺️- yes, the Iron Covenant series will continue.

      • Mod R—Just wondering. Will the Magic Tides zoom meeting make it to the blog? I registered to watch it the day it was announced but could not get in with my number. I was five minutes late joining in because I did not get out of church until then. In the future, any day and time but Sunday morning is better for me and maybe for others. We might be an avid BDH but we still worship.

        • Believe it or not, a LOT of people not in your town are interested in this. There is ALWAYS a better time for someone. I’m sure IA did the best they could, and it has to be convenient for THEM. Really, I’ve viewed the taped versions before and they are quite informative.

  5. If you want awkward stick figures, I’m your girl. Although I’m kind of expensive and I book up fast.

  7. I started following Caio Santos (@BlackSalander on Twitter) for their Gideon the Ninth fanart, but they have a plethora of outstanding SFF art (with beautiful swords!) all over their portfolio.

    Luisa Pressler has such a gift and it would amazing to see her work grace another cover of yours as well.

    I hope some wonderful cover artists reach out! Very excited to see Hugh & Elara’s story unfold some more.

  8. Daniel Dos Santos always does a great job. I love the covers he does for Patricia Briggs, but My Life as a White Trash Zombie, is my very favorite.

    • Yesss!!! I love love LOVE Dan’s covers! I love the thought and detail he puts into them. I actually picked up My Life as a White Trash Zombie for the first time because the art style was familiar and I wanted to see if it was the same artist as the one that did the Mercy Thompson covers. His other artwork is amazing as well.

    • Love Dan dos Santos too but my favourite cover of all is Lauren Saint-Onge’s cover for the Physiciians of Vilnoc’s subpress edition.
      I think she capture’s perfectly the main character’s delicate beauty as well as his despondency in that story.

      • Yes, I agree. Saint-Onge’s cover is gorgeous and perfectly captures character’s emotion in the situation.
        I really love the original Iron and Magic US cover, though! Had it as wallpaper on my homescreen for a long time.

  9. Luisa Preissler is just the best, the characters are very unique and how i would imagine them I’m sure she won’t disappoint us

  10. I loved the art for The Priory of the Orange tree, apparently by Ivan Belikov?

    and Gideon of the Ninth, cover apparently by Tommy Arnold!

  12. I sent an email to one of my favorite artists and told him to apply. He’s working on some artwork for me right now that I will be revealing on my blog soon. He has always been very reliable. Maybe he will send a link to his portfolio. I follow a bunch of artists on twitter too. Twitter is a really good place to find artists (for me anyway. I rarely commission covers because they are so expensive, but I do it now and then, especially for an important element or two.

    Always great to get hints of what you are working on. Enjoyed Magic Tides very much. Thank you for the afternoon escape!

  13. The best covers I know of are Patricia Briggs’ and the original Memory, Sorrow and Thorn covers.

    Whatever happens, please don’t use the cover artist from my favourite book, The Spymaster’s Lady.????

    • The original *Memory, Sorrow & Thorn* covers are Michael Whelan. I *love* his work– and have for 30+ years– but I imagine he is too expensive for cover comissiins these days by many orders of magnitude. I think Donato is amazing too, but maybe not the right feel for Iron Covenant.

    • Came to the comments to suggest Dan Dos Santos, also. Love his artwork. He does a great job on book covers.

  15. Im a big fan of Michael Whealan cover art, he has illustrated all of brandon sanderson stormlight archive covers

    • I feel like it shows my age that the first person I thought of was Michael Whelan. I bought one of his “coffee table” books 20 years ago and would sometimes buy books just because I recognized his work. I like Daniel Dos Santos for similar reasons. But the second person I thought of was actually Randall Munroe, which would be so wrong but absolutely hysterical. He has drawn swords before!

  16. I loved the work you had done by Luisa Pressler. I had seen her work before you used her and reached out but she was outside my price range at the time and that was before she did work for you but her work is always stunning.

    I was also pleased with the covers Kirk DouPonce did for my Rider’s Revenge series where I had a woman riding on a horse and then flying on a pegasus. (I believe he found a young woman who worked at the local Starbucks for a photo shoot and then turned her into my cover model so his faces are good because they’re from models.) https://www.artstation.com/kirkdou/profile

    I can’t speak to the sword issue. And I did have a minor timeliness issue on my second cover he did for me, but overall I was pleased with the interactions we had on the covers and the ultimate covers he produced for me.

  21. Hello! Thank you for the consideration! I’m an artist with a lot of book illustration and overall editorial experience and I love working with new stories and characters, particularly fantasy. I’d be so honored to be part of this project.

    I’m quite fast and extremely punctual and communicative and I would love to share my work with you and your readers!

    I’ll be excited to hear back in case I get lucky!

    Dri

  22. I 837th the response of Luisa! (I’m just assuming more have responded with that ????)

    If she doesn’t work out, a couple of the others mentioned on here very nice too.

    In addition to the French cover, the image by Masha of Kate and Curran was really good! But I don’t know if that was computer created or not, so it may not qualify. (Sorry for my lack of art knowledge! If that was bad, I apologize! I know nothing about art.)

  23. Luisa’s work is wonderful but both Doris and Isabeau did fabulous work for SotH so any of them would get my vote!

    On a related note, Graphic Audio has KD #1 up for pre-order!!!
    ::leaping sideways to get out of way of the BDH::

    • And a big thanks to Mod R – you did a great job as always with the Q&A for Magic Tides! Enjoyed it enormously! ????

  28. I already gave a shout out to Dan Dos Santos & Tony Mauro. I need to add John Jude Palencar. Always stunning covers. I know these three artists by name because their covers were so gorgeous I made it a point to look them up.

  29. Hello Ilona, Gordon & Mod R.,

    Thank you for allowing us to suggest some options. I know many have spoken of Luisa Preissler and you have worked with her. Her artwork is simply fab and I’m sure she’s worth every Euro she commands.

    Here are some others for you folks to consider:
    – Fernanda Suarez (https://www.artstation.com/fernandasuarez), her character is simply stunning. I haven’t seen her draw many swords but I’m sure she’s got the talent to make justice to swords and such.

    – Martina Fačková (https://www.artstation.com/martinafackova), you just got to see her artwork. There’s just no words that can do justice to her art

    – Justyna Dura (https://www.artstation.com/justynadura), I love her brilliant colours and characters.

    – Bastien Lecouffe Deharme (https://www.artstation.com/deharme), he does a bit of darker stuff but I like his martial character poses.

    – Mona Finden (https://www.monafinden.com/), I love her art and while it has a bit of a comicbook poster feel to it, it’s just striking.

    – Tommy Arnold, I mean there’s nothing more to say besides his name. He’s a legend.

    – Billy Christian (https://www.artstation.com/billcreative), he’s another underrated artist who does distinctive character work.

    – Patrik Hell (https://www.artstation.com/patrikhell), I’ve recently come across his artwork and he’s seems to be talented.

    – Antonio J. Manzanedo (https://www.artstation.com/ajmanzanedo), he’s not quite what you folks are looking for but his art has some amazing details. I loved how he does martial characters and monsters.

    I guess I’ll stop now 🙂

  30. I like your priorities! Pretty man, great and pretty sword.

    You can’t ask for anything more. Perfection itself.

    I will admit that I always picture The Scourge of Mexico as a blond, great tan, wearing a leather jacket. Yes I know he would swelter in Houston…and I know you describe him as a brunette. Can’t help it.

    Y’all are the best!

  32. I like Wlop or Art of Devin Elle Kurtz. They have beautiful inspiring art on their Instagram pages

  33. I wish Michael Whelan was still working… I loved his covers, even bought books with many of his coverart together. Saw him first on covers for the Pern-series, and always wondered what he would have done for House Andrews.

  36. I agree with the others about Tony Mauro and Luisa Preissler. I did not look to see who did the cover art for Patricia Brigg’s Alpha and Omega and Mercy Thompson series, so for those who know, I agree with you too. 🙂

    The one cover of Tony Mauro’s that stands out with me right now is Archangel’s Resurrection by Nalini Singh. The cover is of Archangel Alexander with his sword pointing down. His other covers in all of Nalini Singh’s books really relate to the story being told in the books.

    If he is available, I think he would do a marvelous job with Elara and Hugh’s cover for the next book.

  37. Off-topic, but any chance that Nevada’s Hidden Legacy covers will be redone sometime? I was put off reading them for a long time because of those … They don’t do the books justice at all!

  38. Sorry, no artist here, but is it not better to have a practical sword instead of beautiful one (and yes practical can be beautiful, if it can be cleaned easily)?

    • For the book art, it’s better to have a sword that will sell books. If it happens to be practical, it’s a bonus.

  44. Years ago, I used to get Realms of Fantasy magazine. There was a Tanith Lee short story in one of the issues that had a fantastic Luis Royo image in front of it. I imagine he’d be rather expensive, but it was a great fantasy sword. I can’t remember the name of the short story, but swords were a major part of the story and the image was perfect.

  46. I needed this laugh today. Two things. Tough love and “attractive faces and beautiful swords.”
    ????????????

    • You would be surprised how often it’s one or the other. The artist draws great portraits and nothing else or the artist draws action poses, arms and armor, but the faces look like they had been smudged on purpose.

  48. Daniel Dos Santos would be a great pick, but I would also like to suggest Charlie Bowater. Her art is amazing.

  49. Michelle Taiki Art on Instagram has some really great drawings. I found her when she drew some of Nalini Singhs characters.

  50. I absolutely, completely love every cover that Luisa Pressler has done, including Blood Heir. Her covers for Rachel Aaron and Lindsay Buroker are stellar, as well. If she’s available, keeping her as the artist for your indie-published books would give everything a nice sense of continuity.

  51. Just putting in another vote for Luisa Preissler; I absolutely love the work she’s done of your characters!! Some of my other favorite artists are Tran Nguyen, Kuri Huang, Micah Epstein, and Daniel Dos Santos.

  54. I know nothing about cover artists. But, as many have mentioned, I adore Don DeSantos work on the Mercy covers. They are beautiful and I’ve considered buying prints. I also really like the work of the artist who did the Baylor sister’s portrait that you have posted in the past. I don’t know if she is available for covers but I loved her work as well.

  55. Truly my favorite question an author’s ever asked.
    All the points to prioritizing artists everywhere, you’re the awesomest.

    Off the top of my head, some that haven’t been named yet ;

    ° Len-yan (Magdalena Pągowska) ; https://www.instagram.com/lenyan.art/
    ° Charlie Bowater ; https://www.instagram.com/charliebowater/
    ° Khadijah Khatib ; https://www.instagram.com/khudeejuh/
    ° Zara ; https://www.instagram.com/za.ra_h/
    ° EK Belsher ; https://www.instagram.com/ekbelsher/

    I may be back for more ! 😉

  56. I like the art work thats on the Kindle edition. That’s what drew me to the book in the first place. It will be interesting to see if there is new art work and what it will look like but I just dont want to lose the art work I already have. When it changes on these digital books it seems to change the covers of the books ive already bought.

  57. Dan Dos Santos, or Michael Whelan. I’d love to see either of their takes on the stories on the cover

  58. Micah Epstein does fantastic work. He did the covers for the Tarot Sequence trilogy by KD Edwards, and his IG has other examples of his body of work, including those of sword-wielding beautiful people.

  59. Tommy Arnold -https://www.tommyarnoldart.com
    C.J. Merwild – https://cjmerwild.com
    John Picacio – https://johnpicacio.com
    Charlie Bowater – http://www.charliebowater.net
    rosiethorns88 – https://rosiethorns.com
    Alex Dos Diaz – https://www.alexdosdiaz.com
    Diana Dworak – https://www.instagram.com/dianadworak/
    Kelsey Michele -https://kelseymichele.crevado.com
    Bailie Rosenlund – http://www.bailierosenlund.com
    Mélanie Delon – https://www.melaniedelon.com

    I could go on, and these are just the ones springing to mind ????

  60. Well, I suck at this type of art! But, if you ever need a fine jewelry piece made to tie into a series, I’m your gal! ????????

  61. Love Luisa Preisslers work and am lucky to own some of her prints, and never cease to enjoy looking at Kate, Julie & House Baylor.
    They really carry so much emotion an depth, which is why I prefer them over e.g. Nevada and Catalina on their book covers. They are lovely as well but are missing something in direct comparison to Luisas version.
    -My 5 Cents.

  64. Hmm….probably a stretch artist to even suggest, but I have always loved the covers done by Jody A. Lee. She’s normally a fantasy cover artist and has done covers for bigger name fantasy authors/traditional publishers.

  70. Love this post and wow the art on it is stellar, where did you get it??? Just very emotive all by itself. Ok now I’ll read the posts. Love this blog!

  71. I remember your post on the photoshoot for I&M, it looked chaotic and crazed but the cover was gorgeous. Although Dan dos Santos does fabulous art for Patricia Briggs and other artists.

    The hardcover covers for Kate were wonderful, Magic Breaks is still my fave, though.

  72. Dan Dos Santos. See the covers of Patricia Briggs “Mercy Thompson” and her “Alpha and Omega” series. Love his work.

  73. Magali Villeneuve does beautiful artwork. She’s responsible for the art in the illustrated editions of the Farseer trilogy by Robin Hobb and does Magic:The Gathering too amongst other things

  76. Pardon me while I lament over my lack of artist ability.

    On another note, will we get to meet the kid(s) from Hugh’s marriage? I’m guessing there are children going by his side conversations while on the phone.

    Just how old is his kid that he’s able to pick up a cow…

  79. I tend to favor more fantastical and whimsical styles of art. James Jean illustrated the covers for the most amazing comic book series ever- Fables.

  80. Hi I bring 3. I think the graphic style that Will Staehle did for the Darker Shade of Magic series would look great. @devinellekurtz on Instagram does wonderful work (lots of magical glow). For something different @rosiethorns88 (also Instagram) does cut paper art and she does a lot of literature based art. That would be really cool to see

  82. No suggestions to offer—just to say that I love your self-published covers and to ask whether some time you would put up a post about how you collaborate with the artists. How do you choose? What makes a good brief? How do the intellectual property rights work? So many questions. Any insights, creative or commercial, would be very much appreciated.

  84. I, despite my anxiety telling me otherwise, would like to share my portfolio for this ^^’

    However, I can only do it during the weekend. Is there a time-limit to share our work for this?

    Thanks a bunch!

  85. I see she has already been voted for a number of times here- so I would just like to add my vote to the amazing Luisa Priessler. I absolutely adore her work. IMHO, you couldn’t do better.

  86. If you need stick figures, complete with wobbly lines, then I’m your man. Sigh. Have you tried Daniel Dos Santos? He’s done pretty amazing work for Patricia Briggs.

    • Wow, your covers look really good and there is such a variety; they definitely don’t all look alike. And I like your Iron and Magic cover (in French?)… very nice.

  88. Good afternoon! My name is Brittany Gonzalez and I’m an artist interested in the opportunity to help you bring this vision to life!

    Alisa Judy-Malcolm recommended this post/you to me because she felt we may be a great fit.

    I do character and game design as a passion and can do some pretty amazing things. I know you mentioned beautiful faces so I added a recent portrait I did.

    I LOVE all the aesthetics of Iron and Magic and can’t wait to chat!

  89. I know others have mentioned him already but Dan Dos Santos; literally the only cover artist whose work I like enough to know the artist‘s name (and also one of a very few whose style I can recognize when I see it outside of books I already read.

  90. That’s it. After seeing some of the comments, I now want a calendar with all the different international covers for each month. Please put it in the shop and take my money! My husband adjusted nicely to the mug, tshirt and mouse pad from my last order, so a calendar or 2 shouldn’t cause too many budget waver. LOL

  91. I noticed Don dos Santos was mentioned a lot, but usually in connection with Patricia Briggs’ novels, most of which I don’t read. So I wasn’t aware he is the artist who created my absolute favorite cover — and the only one that sits face out on any of my overcrowded bookshelves. (He also did the cover for the second collection of Penric novellas, but not the third, which makes me sad.)
    Beautiful work that illustrates the essence of these stories. Absolutely beautiful.
    I really enjoyed looking through the links to the work of all these different artists. One who sticks out as excellent, but very different from the rest, is Mona Findon.
    This has been fun!

  93. I have been wondering why various covers for the Kate Daniels series always shows a gold lion. You consistently describe Curran as grey.
    Looking forward to the art you choose for Hugh.

  94. Wonderful idea. I never really liked that cover. Hugh was not who I imagined. He needed to be bigger, wider shoulders, around 250lbs of muscle.

    I vote for Daniel dos Santos. He’s my favorite. He does really great work.

  95. My favorite artist has always been k y craft. Her work is exquisite. She’s one of the only illustrators working today that still works in oil and her work glows. She mostly does fantasy covers though.

  96. Dan dos Santos! His art is outstanding. He does the cover art for the Mercy Thompson series that Patricia Briggs writes. I love his art!

  98. I love Luisa Preissler’s work. The characters just look like I imagined them. Her Kate and Julie and the Baylor sisters are so awesome!!!

  101. Hello! My name is Sarah Morrison and I’m an emerging fantasy illustrator. (I may be new, but I always meet my deadlines!)

    I love painting faces, especially when combined with elaborate costuming. And I have access to a variety of swords through my historical-fencing husband. You can view my portfolio at http://sarahmorrisonillustration.com/portfolio

    Thank you for your consideration, and best wishes on your project!
    -Sarah

  102. Whoever did the cover art to Magic Mourns has my undying love. The image of Andrea is so amazingly beautiful I get legitimately transfixed when it pops up in Amazon or my Kindle library. I’m captivated and love imagining Andrea this way.

  103. I’d love it if y’all were able to get Dan Dos Santos to create y’all’s cover art. His work is beautiful and seems like it could fit your vibe.

  105. Hello again, I’m back!

    I’m Verónica, an illustrator from Portugal. I love romance and fantasy, and my art reflects that. I’ve been a fan of your work for some time now and have even done some fanart of HL. I would love to do some official cover art in my career at some point, and so I’ve tried my hand at that with some of my latest pieces.

    You can find my work here: https://www.behance.net/Veronikah_Vee
    My email for art related contact is: veronikahvee.art@gmail.com

    Thank you for considering me!

  106. Dan Dos Santos creates amazing art, but a) His work is easily recognizable and is way too much associated with Mercy Thompson books. It would be strange if you would suddenly switch over to Mercy Thompson style, wouldn’t it be? b) His style is very “smooth” with beautiful highlights – his people look like supermodels in distress, even big guys with swords. I would like to see Hugh’s reaction if someone would try to smear a highlighter on his cheek. And, boy, the Iron Dogs reaction to the prettified Hugh.
    So I would vote for Luisa Preissler if you could continue working with her. She seems to be able to create very realistic impressions of rough worlds and tough survivors – one could almost smell the burning buildings behind Julie or the goo on Kate’s decollete. The Kate and the Julie also for me – real looking female warriors matching their descriptions in the books, especially also with their facial expressions.
    Her style is recognizable too, and could be well associated with your work already, especially with KD world, no? Though I have seen no “attractive guys” in her portfolio – hope that wouldn’t be an issue.
    At least please consider the thought that if the stories of Iron Covenant are darker and more adult-oriented, the covers shouldn’t be “prettier” and easier on the eyes than the ones of Aurelia Ryder’s.

  107. Woohoo. Snoopy Happy Dance of Joy!

    I just reread book 1. Love Elara and Hugh and cannot wait for book 2.

    As for the cover, whatever works for you all is good for me. All I care about is book 2. Squeeeees

  108. Of all the artists that have illustrated your works, these are my favorites, in no particular order:
    1. The artist that did the cover for the GA edition of Magic Bites.
    2. The artist who created the cover for Sweep of the Heart.
    3. The artist who created the cover for Magic Triumphs.
    And…because you invited comments about successful illustrations, I am sorry to tell you that Magic Tides was not the Kate I know and love. This one was too young and not the warrior she is.

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