Words have eluded me lately, as I haven’t really felt like knuckling down and advancing any of my works-in-progress—except for proofreading the Carlyle public domain book.

So in a few spare moments here and there I continue to work on creating book covers. As I’ve said before (at least I think I’ve said before), I seem to have little talent in the graphic arts, and for sure I have almost no skills and experience with graphic arts software. But I can’t keep begging covers forever, so, in the absence of a bestseller or other windfall, if I want to continue to self-publish I need to learn how to do covers.

My last post showed an early attempt at a cover for the professional essay I about have ready to publish. It wasn’t really the look I was going for. This version is closer, and may be the one I go with. Based on comments received I got rid of the gimmicky 10. I also found the background I wanted, and changed the proportion of the figure. As I say, I think this is close now, or possibly final. Fortunately, for a professional essay flashy isn’t necessary.

The next one I decided to work on is the one for the Carlyle encyclopedia articles. In other posts I’ve indicated this book is scheduled for sometime in the first quarter of 2014. I don’t know that I expect much out of it, but it’s just something I want to do. An affectation, perhaps. But a cover concept came to mind; I sketched it; and then I decided to try to create it using PowerPoint as my low-end graphic arts program. Here are two versions of it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’m in no hurry for this one. My concept is for the image of the young Carlyle to sit on a twisted pedestal. Getting it right will take some time. I may not be able to do it with a program as limited as PowerPoint; I may not be able to do it at all. But I’m having some fun trying, so maybe that’s enough for now.