Adhemlenei: Sword’s Innocence
For Zela! This is the cover for her Adhemlenei novel, Sword’s Innocence:
(Larger version here.)
Our heroine (with a helpful dragon) is fleeing from the city (and two not-so-helpful dragons).
This was both super-fun and super-challenging. And I’m still squeeing about getting to draw my first real book cover. 
Things I learned while working on this:
• Shading silver creatures is tricky, but totally worth it.
• Atmospheric perspective is (still) hard.
• Painting a sufficiently distant forest is very similar to painting fur.
• Shading rocks and mountains is way more fun than it looks. (Seriously, it was kind of hard to stop.)
Looking forward to seeing the story when it’s done. ♥ I hope the rewriting/editing goes well!
tags: adhemlenei, book covers, color, complete, dragon, silver, zela
May 4th, 2011 at 1:09 AM
Aja, ILU!!!!!!!!! You did so awesome!!!!!!! It’s pretty much perfect now!!!!!!!! (How many exclamation points is it possible for me to use!!!!!!!!)
I finally figured out *when* to start the story. It was hard. But I’m really excited to get on with it now.
May 4th, 2011 at 1:52 AM
Oh yay! I was just about to e-mail you to say that I made that one change you mentioned. (Two pixels was just right.) XD
So glad you’re happy with it! And hooray for figuring out when to start the story.
That can be one of the trickiest parts.
May 4th, 2011 at 10:27 AM
=D!!!! You got to illustrate a real book cover? That is SO AWESOME! That’s just about as awesome as WRITING a book! Major congrats on getting that commission, Aja! ^^ It looks lovely. I love the intrigue and the atmosphere and the beautiful landscaping! Wonderful job!
@Zela: this looks like a very exciting book! =D Let us know when it comes out so we can check it out!
May 5th, 2011 at 6:37 PM
Hee, thanks! That’s very very flattering. The story isn’t very good yet; you can attribute all the excitement to the art, at least right now. Eventually they will form a symbiotic (and exciting) whole with which readers will be entertained for a few hours. Or something.
I’ll tell everyone all about it when I finally finish, don’t worry. XD
And I’m going to get Aja to do all the other books, too! There will be at least three more!
May 9th, 2011 at 12:39 PM
Very nice! =D It’s cool that you have a whole series planned out. Best of luck!
June 24th, 2011 at 7:13 AM
Awe.Some.
I think I’ll be commisioning a cover off you later in the year, a friend and I are going to print and bind our NaNoNovels and swap them for Christmas.
June 29th, 2011 at 10:28 AM
Ooh, sounds fun.
Does that mean I’d get to read it, too?
June 30th, 2011 at 9:42 AM
But of course! I could hardly ask you to make the prettiness without offering my wordage in return, that would be unseemly.