Magazine Cover Art 101
I’ve picked this title for today’s post for a couple reasons. First, the painting featured here represents one of my first forays into the world of creating cover art for publication. It was used on the cover of the professional journal Psychiatric Annals. This particular issue of the magazine was highlighting psychological responses to natural disasters. Also I thought I’d share a few thoughts on painting for magazine and book covers.
Some salient points in composing art for publication:
• Keep the eye flowing within the artwork. Avoid lines and shapes that would lead the eye of the viewer off the page.
• Use well-defined areas of tone and color in your artwork. Some printers are better than others and the printing process can be unpredictable. Err on the side of strong definition in painting the objects in your piece.
• Choose a bold composition. Art for print should be dramatic and eye-catching. Immediate impact is critical.
• Be creative and original, but keep the artwork relevant and clearly related to the key emphases of the book or article it’s describing.
• Pay attention to any special requests on the publisher’s part. I did a number of illustrations for a publisher who asked me to avoid using pink in my paintings! It was a technical issue they were having at the time.
• Be careful of using too much surface texture in your paintings. Remember, art for reproduction is ultimately going to be seen “flat”. The end product, in this case, is the printed page as opposed to the physical painting.
This is my other favorite painting. I don’t know what the title is, and I forgot to tell you… but I LOVE it. Brilliantly done.
Thanks! I guess it’s one of my few “untitled” paintings, simply because it was for an article which already had a title. It could still have its own title though. Any suggestions?