J.L. Curtis’ new science fiction novella ICE is available NOW as an electronic edition with a cover by yours truly. The author describes his latest science fiction adventure as such:
Vengeance is best served cold…
Twelve years old is NOT the time to learn about murder and survival on a mining planet, but Colin Graham didn’t have a choice after his father was murdered.
Colin and Lisabet Sarnov did survive, thanks to Colin’s training. And the people that took an orphaned Colin under their wing re-enforced that training.
Eighteen years later, Colin and Lisabet were reunited in a curious set of circumstances, allowing that final bit of vengeance to take place. What happened next was not what Colin expected…
This was a lot of fun to do. I’ve been wanting to do armored spacesuits a la Starship Troopers (the book, not the movie) for a while, and ICE offered me the opportunity. I wanted to produce the work with the Affinity suite of design applications, but old habits die hard and I had to pull out the pencils and paper to work out a direction. I did a number of sketches and doodles.
When I was happy with a composition, I moved to digital. I scanned some of the sketches and started to construct my cover.
Space Commando in progress
As I started to build the illustration, I went back and forth with the author, Tina and a couple of buddies crafting a direction and design for my space commando. Decisions were made as to whether to have a rifle or holstered weapon and what the breaching device would look like in the scene.
An earlier rendition of the cover
The final ends up being an assemblage of bits and pieces that I cobble together in vector art programs like Affinity Designer and image editors like Affinity Photo and Photoshop. It’s easier to make changes or to correct color if the work is going to press. Of course at the end of the day, there are no originals. Just a series of ones and zeroes on a hard drive
I produced the type as well. A title like ICE was begging for a frosty type treatment.
Many thanks for your hard work on this! I truly appreciated it!
You keep writing them, and I’ll keep drawing them!