Until then, every day I'll post a teaser or preview, such as a detail or progress shot. Today, I'm starting with how I (or perhaps I should say my "other" self) came up with the concept for the cover.
First off, a bit of background: Art of Death is a novel about a starving artist named Riley Burke who works as a nude model at the local art school in order to make ends meet. Needless to say, he's ecstatic when he gets an offer to pose for a highly lucrative modeling session with Coliaro, a famous oil painter from Chicago.
Of course, there's more to the story than that, but that's where the inspiration started for my cover art. I always imagined Coliaro's painting style to be similar to Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio's.
Boy with a Basket of Fruit, Caravaggio, courtesy of Wikipedia
I chose to do the cover art with Riley in a manner similar to Caravaggio's early work, which often involved attractive youths with fruit and the like. The cover depicts Riley as if posing for a Coliaro oil painting, and the technique is meant to recreate the look and feel of oil on canvas. But of course, this is modern day Sarasota, Florida, not 16th century Italy. Oh, and did I mention the rumor that the famous artist Coliaro is actually undead?
So yes, the Art of Death cover is like a Caravaggio painting, but with a bit of a creepy twist.
More to come tomorrow!
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