The Wednesday Interview

I am always rabbiting on about writing books and showcasing fellow authors but what about someone on the other side of the page, so to speak? Multi-talented Total-E-Bound Cover artist and fellow Aussie Lyn Taylor was kind enough to give me another perceptive on books. Regardless what the old saying is, I do believe we judge a book by its cover. All the covers on this page are Lyn’s own creations – are we Aussies talented or what?

1. How long have you been a Cover Artist and what do you like best about it?

I’ve only been a cover artist for about 8 months but in my heart I’ve been one since I picked up that first Romance novel. I’d always find myself studying the covers. Sometimes I could be half way through a book and would find myself flicking back to the cover just to gaze at the cover LOL! I love the creativity of my job. Yes, some may say that all those sexy bodies aren’t very challenging but it’s the ‘making them fit together’ that is the fun part.

2. Do you ever get a cover request that’s just not realistic? If so, how easy is it to tell the author their vision is just not going to happen? How diplomatic do you have to be?

No, not really. I guess that’s my job. To make the unrealistic, realistic. I think the highest expectation of a cover artist is to get the characters as close to description as possible. That in it self can be quite time consuming. If I can’t do a cover, it is more likely my artistic inexperience or lack of knowledge that gets in the way. But I think there’s only one cover to date that I’ve had to hand back and that was passed over to TEB’s other fantastic cover artist, Ann Cain.

3. After my cover Lust in Time, what is the cover you are most proud of?

That’s a hard one. I learn something new from every cover I do so I love them all, LOL! I’m quite proud of Demon Wind and Prince of the Three Mountains purely for the manipulation and digital painting side of things. I also have a soft spot for Sweet Dreams. I’m quite taken with those eyes LOL!

4. Do the publishers, like Total-E-Bound, have a say in the covers or are you left to your own imagination and discretion?

I’m currently only signed up with TEB so I can’t speak for other Publishers. The crew at TEB have been absolutely fantastic and I’ve relied on them quite a bit due to my inexperience in the industry. Yes, they’ll usually tell me if they don’t like a particular model or title font and will often pick up if the hair is not long enough, or the wrong colour. That sort of thing. Other than that it’s pretty much left up to my own discretion.

5. How many revisions will you make to a cover in order to make an author happy?

Well. I think three revisions would be the most that I would want to do. But the reality is that a cover needs to be created and that’s my job. I know there was one cover that went back & forth between Claire and myself quite a few times. We finally got it to a point where we were happy with it, only then to have the author come back with a definite ‘NO’. So we were back to square one. It was very frustrating and cost me more in stock and time than what the cover was worth. But I guess that’s the nature of the beast.

6. How easy is it to become a Cover Artist? What training is required?

Well for me it was surprisingly easy. I just applied at TEB’s web page. Many thanks to friendly Aussie author Denise Rossetti who pointed me in their direction. As a matter of fact it was Denise’s Gift of the Goddess cover that inspired me to get off my butt and learn more about Digital Art. I’ve had very little artistic training and am basically self taught. I have dabbled in Oil Painting and touched on water-colours so I guess that helped with my perspective and placement. I took up Digital Art in early 2006 and eventually joined the Deviant Art community. This is where I was able to hone my skills in Photo-manipulation and Photoshop, meeting up with other cover artists in the process.

7. The bad guys have you are hanging by one toenail over a vat of boiling oil. You must tell them the location of the diamond mine to save your life. To do this you risk harming your true love. What do you do?

LOL! Well, wouldn’t we all love to say that we’d take that information to our death. Yeah, I don’t know. He’d better be damn well worth it. Honestly, I’d probably tell them the location and then escape in an attempt to rescue my true love.


8. What star sign are you? Name one fabulous characteristic of this sign.

Pisces all the way, baby! :D Most definitely artistic.
Pisces – Keyword: "I believe". Imaginative, sensitive, compassionate, feeling, idealistic, spiritual, accepting, undiscriminating, creative, mystic, self-sacrificing, artistic. Can be impractical, neglectful, escapist, lazy, distracted.

Click on the links below and check out the real Lyn Taylor and her talent.

Lyn Taylor’s Artwork
Lyn Taylor’s blog
Lyn Taylor’s Website

All books are available at http://www.total-e-bound.com/

Next week we start back with the Wednesday Author interviews. The questions are a little different and a tad obscure but I know my guest authors will rise to the challenge. The blog serial makes its triumphant return next Monday. Can you remember what happened to Emmeline before Christmas? Nah, me neither but don’t despair as there is no plot to the blog serial so you are never lost…maybe confused and bewildered but what’s a little bewilderment between friends?

Tomorrow I’ll be back to waffle on about something deep and probably meaningless but that’s what I do. It’s leave meaningful to Anny on www.annycook.blog.com and spontaneous to Kelly on www.kkirch.blogspot.com.

www.freewebs.com/amarindajones/
Go ahead: Live with abandon. Be outrageous at any age. What are you saving your best self for?