Comments on: Cover Attraction: Hespira by Matthew Hughes

By: Grace

Grace — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 22:05:07 +0000

Matt: Now that you mention that, I can totally see it. Very cool! Thanks for pointing out the free chapters; I’ll edit the post to let readers know. :)

By: Matt Hughes

Matt Hughes — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 19:48:46 +0000

I thought you might like to know: the cover of Hespira is actually the right hand third of one long oil painting, the other two thirds comprising the covers of the first two books in the series, Majestrum and The Spiral Labyrinth. The painting won Tom Kidd an award at the World Fantasy Convention in 2007, where I saw it. It was subsequently purchased by a fan of mine.

The first chapters of all three books are on my web site at http://www.archonate.com

By: Grace

Grace — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 06:12:23 +0000

extrarice: I agree. At first it looks almost like your average fantasy cover, but as you look at it, the details emerge and you see that it’s something more complex and unusual.

Wanda: The contrast between the pale background and the more saturated foreground really does work well to make the figures stand out. Also, I find my eye sort of bounces around pleasantly between the triangle points formed by the human figure, the building in the lower right, and the little gold ship sort of floating off to the left. The more I look at it, the more interesting it gets. :)

By: Wanda

Wanda — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 00:40:10 +0000

I lover the colour rich details in the foreground.

By: extrarice

extrarice — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 22:09:55 +0000

That cover artwork is pretty cool. To me, the muted tones perform a bit of slight-of-hand to the viewer: at first glance, the artwork seems very … immediate or lacking in detail. However, the longer you study the cover you will notice more and more detail that I don’t think would have been possible through any other illustration method.