Friday, December 20, 2019

Legend of Draconite Book Covers: Ascension

This is the fifth and final installment in The Legend of Draconite book cover series.




Book 5 of The Legend of Draconite: Ascension marked the first time I had finished writing a series since the Kajt Chronicles, a series I had finished in Junior High. I look forward to going back to Book 5 for revision, and though it's going to be a monster to clean up, it'll be an awesome personal milestone to see how far I've come as a writer and editor.

But that's not until 2021 at least.

Like I mentioned in the previous cover art post, I switched the characters Draque and Aero when it came to the first and second edition covers. In the first edition, Draque is supposed to be sitting on the cliffs of northern Ramirra, and the background is a pretty photo I took. At the time I didn't consider where the sun should actually be if Draque was facing this direction; it should be behind him, as Ramirra is in Libera's northern hemisphere and the planet is tilted much like our own.

In the COL edition, we have Aero...bursting through something. Unlike the other 2nd edition covers, this one ended up being a bit more abstract. The black was supposed to represent the volcano she visits, and maybe the blue her, uhh, divine victory in the end? Haha. What I mostly had in mind for this cover was her pose, and I wanted to keep something similar to that for the third edition cover.

This latest cover I put a lot of thought into Aero's wings, and I actually worked out the Erskan writing system (a later language the Ramirrans use) to create the runes in her wing membranes. Like the other revised editions, I inked this picture and scanned it in. I took my time inking, as I wanted it to look gorgeous, and I love how it turned out. In the BG there are the four havi'thal, or prisons of the four demons of Libera, around her and pointing to her. I'll go a little more into detail on the art when I post a larger version of the cover.

The last picture is the back cover to the first edition, featuring the demon Jarkul. At the time she didn't have a name, or even a real identity except that she represented everything opposite of Sabra. That went for all the demons, but they turned from being shadowy "mirrors" persay into actual, sentient entities. I think I originally got the idea for these shadowy beings from Shadow Link of the Legend of Zelda series. They have more history explained in Founders. Jarkul also bears the mark of the Moonstone in this picture, although this is an outdated representation of it, and I have since established what it really looks like.

I hope you've enjoyed looking at all this Legend of Draconite cover art with me!

(EDIT: I recently discovered that the back cover art featured in this post was not included on the final print of the first edition. I must have created it for consideration, but I used different art entirely. I recently discovered printed versions of the first editions, and I may upload photos of them later!)



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