The cover is almost done.  Just a day or two now, I think.  But since the artist is out doing holiday shopping, I figured I might as well get this post out of the way with the most recent process.

Previously, Cob’s figure was more or less finished, but we were contemplating a third set of antlers — which I liked as an idea, but I didn’t want them too symmetrical.  So the artist made these:

Now it’s time to bring in the Accursed Thornland, which provides the backdrop for this part of the story.

The idea from the beginning was to have the vines climbing on Cob a bit.  So that’s what happened!

I thought that green (unfinished) leaf got into the way a bit too much, so we nixed it.

And then the vines got a bit personal:

And…nearly done.  I roughed up my idea of a card layout for a full cover:

D. came back with the proper card version (though the card isn’t complete):

I think the image needs to be pulled back just a bit within the card.

And then her version of the cover so far:

So now we need to adjust the positioning within the card, do the card border, add the book text, then the spine and back for the physical version…

Hm.  It looks kind of dark though.  Hmm hmmmm.

I can hear her in California going ‘aaaargh!’ at me for that.

Edit: Oh — background is from FantasyStock.