On Cover Art

Looking for cover art for Lugan Vision Quest, I found the vibrantly dark work of Thomas S Brown. Enchanted by its colours, and by its magical, dreamlike quality, it suited the book perfectly. Here, Thomas talks about his art, about working with authors, and about his feelings for LLMs (clue: they stink).

Please introduce yourself!

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Hello! I'm Thomas S Brown and I get paper dirty, professionally. I've been lucky enough to work with some of my favourite authors, publishers and game developers over the last several years. I'm full time plus a bit, but I also enjoy music (listening and performing) boxing and roaming the Cotswold Hills (particularly at dusk).

Drawing something from someone else's head must be quite the task. If you're working with an author, what do you need to know?

It is. It’s a big responsibility and I am very much alive to that, but it's also a wonderful challenge and the sense of... triumph when I get it right is very heady. I ask for pretty much any and all of the information the author can give about the setting, characters and sometimes more importantly the vibe, feeling and atmosphere of the story. After all, the cover art has to get all of that across in a split second often at thumbnail size.

Who are some of the authors you've worked with?

Well... you! Also Mark Lawrence, Thomas Snigoski, Jeannine Atcherson, Sarah Read, Alan Bahr, I illustrate a lot of Micheal Shea's work for Hippocampus Press, Nils Visser...

Do you have common themes, palettes or symbols that you like to use in your work?

I like to do work that enchants or transports the viewer, even when the themes are dark. Earth tones with jewel colour accents, often. I'm still exploring colour and my work continues to evolve. Magic fascinates me and folklore (dark folklore very much inclusive).

Is there a story to your illustrations?

Besides the story I'm illustrating, it's all quite personal, really. It's a constant quest to get across a sort of otherness or something beyond the every day, or to ask people to look at things they have seen before in a new way.

How do you plan/structure your work? How much of it is physical, and how much digital? Which do you prefer?

I always start with physical media, usually pencil. I never like to show my sketches because I draw just enough so that the composition is understandable to me, so that the finished work still has an element of surprise and I can add things as they occur to me. I get bored drawing it all twice at different sizes. Sometimes a more detailed sketch is required, and then of course, I do. I then scan, drop the drawing on a texture, usually a scan of actual vintage paper, and work the colours on my tablet.

Do you listen to music (or anything else) while you work?

Gods, yes!! Can't do without music! My tastes are very eclectic. Right now, VOB and the Arcane soundtrack, Aurora, some Japanese Metal and Wardrunna, also often Talis Kimberley. When I need focus in the afternoons, audiobooks are good.

What are your thoughts on LLM use in the creative industries?

It's theft, it delivers shiny soulless pap. I loathe it and will not work with any publisher who uses it.

What are you working on next?

So many things!!! Several book covers, finishing up the art for NIRA for Bad Hand Books, illustrating a personal Hookland project, two comics, one with Alan Bahr and one top secret, Big game contract with a US game dev later this year, work for Hierophany and Hedge (an occult store in Kentucky) commissions for some witches here in the UK, and an oracle deck. I'm trying to find a publisher that will hire me to illustrate Bradbury, because that is a lifelong dream.

What else do you like to do?

I think I mostly covered that in my introduction!

Please, lovely people, If you’re self-pubbing a book (or anything else) DO ask an artist, because you’ll get something with heart, and soul, and wonder, and empathy. Something that was crafted just for you and for the work it illustrates.

Reading: just finished Le Fanu’s Carmilla, a very gentle, very eerie, horror read. Genuinely fascinating to see the origins of the vampire legend, and to realise how it’s changed with time and re-telling.

Watching: the end of Blue Eye Samurai and how utterly, compellingly beautiful. Not for little ones, but completely transfixing. Wonderful cast of characters, and particularly taken with Akemi, not just because of her name, but because she’s a perfect illustration of how you don’t have to be combatant to be strong, and that’s something we don’t see nearly enough. If you haven’t see it, I can’t recommend it enough.

Playing: Zombie Army 4: Dead War, because sometimes, you just need a shoot ‘em up. You need a bloody great big armoury of guns, enough explosives to bring down a castle, and you need to blow them Nazis away.

Therapeutic, y’know?

Danie’s Substack is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.