One of my 2010 anticipated titles is Brandon Sanderson’s “The Way of Kings”, the first novel in a new author’s series “Stormlight Archive”. Yesterday on Tor.com Irene Gallo, the art director for Tor Books and Tor.com, revealed the cover of the novel, made by the great artist Michael Whelan. As always on Tor.com when it comes to cover artwork we can find a lot of information about the process behind the creation of such an art piece and a lot of sketches to give this process more depth. I really like the cover made by Michael Whelan for Brandon Sanderson’s “The Way of Kings”, but I am a bit reserved about it. On the end of that post we can find the final artwork of the cover, with a larger version on the Irene Gallo’s blog. I have to say that for me the entire image works better than the front cover, although I believe that the left part will be seen on the back cover (or at least I hope so). The entire artwork creates a very interesting scene and the use of colors makes it even more interesting. Sadly the author’s name and the title ruin the cover for me. As seen in the entire artwork the front character holds a sword and a pennant matching his cape design, both of them very much on my liking. But on the cover of the novel these elements are obstructed by letters, especially the pennant that loses its entire effect since its design is covered almost completely. But until the publication date there is still time, maybe this aspect will be changed. All in all it is a good cover.
6 comments:
I completely agree that the full artwork has a lot more power behind it than the cover on its own. I can see what you mean about the lettering, it completely obscures the mounting storm (until I saw the full image I just assumed they were ordinary clouds). An awesome piece of art, just a shame most of it can't be seen :(
Jamie, so true. It is a shame that most of this excellent artwork can't be seen. But maybe they will work some more on the cover until the release day.
I totally agree - the graphic is nice - especially in the "wrapped" version - I like the drama of the sky and the color light shining through the cloak blowing - very dramtic. I too find the typography VERY off-putting - I think it spoils the cover - sometimes less is more and a smaller title/author's name (IMO) would be much better here.
It's true, a smaller version of the letters would be better and would affect less the cover image.
If his name was any larger it'd be all that was on the cover.
Cindy, unfortunately I've seen many covers with the same problem. Too many for my liking.
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