“The one that saw him first was monstrous. It stood half again as tall as Tau, was covered in mottled chitin and had two long limbs tipped with pincers. It scuttled towards him on six spiny legs while chittering from a circular maw that opened and shut reflexively displaying rings of teeth that went back into its throat.”
Evan Winter, The Rage Of Dragons
LEFT: Karla Ortiz RIGHT: Stefan Stankovic
Before we start I want to just say how cool it is that it's extremely easy to find the cover illustrators for Winter's book. Not only that but Winter's himself interviewed Karla Ortiz and said this:
"I think book covers are immensely important. They’re a book’s calling card. They’re its most consistent and prevalent marketing tool and most importantly, they’re a promise to readers. I want to thank you for creating a wonderful piece and for giving my story its promise."
Read the full interview here.
He also tags illustrators in tweets! This may not seem like a big deal (and honestly it shouldn't be) but as an illustrator I can tell you simply being credited is a rare thing. Bands and company's love to post your artwork without a tag, link or even name. They treat a cover reveal like a huge event but don't acknowledge how that cover came to be. So I appreciate Evan Winter.
Here's the synopsis for Evan Winter's first book in the The Burning series The Rage Of Dragons:
"The Omehi people have been fighting an unwinnable fight for almost two hundred years. Their society has been built around war and only war. The lucky ones are born gifted. One in every two thousand women has the power to call down dragons. One in every hundred men is able to magically transform himself into a bigger, stronger, faster killing machine.
Everyone else is fodder, destined to fight and die in the endless war. Young, gift-less Tau knows all this, but he has a plan of escape. He's going to get himself injured, get out early, and settle down to marriage, children, and land. Only, he doesn't get the chance. Those closest to him are brutally murdered, and his grief swiftly turns to anger. Fixated on revenge, Tau dedicates himself to an unthinkable path. He'll become the greatest swordsman to ever live, a man willing to die a hundred thousand times for the chance to kill the three who betrayed him."
Tau's "unthinkable path" is to perform a sort of astral projection into a nightmare realm where he can hone his skills by fighting a multitude of "demons". The entire book is written beautifully with compelling characters, relatable protagonists, sympathetic antagonists and, though it sounds complex in synopsis, an easy to follow plot. But the monsters....that's where Winter really lets loose. They're all wild and different. These are the kind of passages where I had to stop reading in order to sketch. And I wound up drawing ten of them....
I HIGHLY recommend these books!
Before we start I want to just say how cool it is that it's extremely easy to find the cover illustrators for Winter's book. Not only that but Winter's himself interviewed Karla Ortiz and said this:
"I think book covers are immensely important. They’re a book’s calling card. They’re its most consistent and prevalent marketing tool and most importantly, they’re a promise to readers. I want to thank you for creating a wonderful piece and for giving my story its promise."
Read the full interview here.
He also tags illustrators in tweets! This may not seem like a big deal (and honestly it shouldn't be) but as an illustrator I can tell you simply being credited is a rare thing. Bands and company's love to post your artwork without a tag, link or even name. They treat a cover reveal like a huge event but don't acknowledge how that cover came to be. So I appreciate Evan Winter.
Here's the synopsis for Evan Winter's first book in the The Burning series The Rage Of Dragons:
"The Omehi people have been fighting an unwinnable fight for almost two hundred years. Their society has been built around war and only war. The lucky ones are born gifted. One in every two thousand women has the power to call down dragons. One in every hundred men is able to magically transform himself into a bigger, stronger, faster killing machine.
Everyone else is fodder, destined to fight and die in the endless war. Young, gift-less Tau knows all this, but he has a plan of escape. He's going to get himself injured, get out early, and settle down to marriage, children, and land. Only, he doesn't get the chance. Those closest to him are brutally murdered, and his grief swiftly turns to anger. Fixated on revenge, Tau dedicates himself to an unthinkable path. He'll become the greatest swordsman to ever live, a man willing to die a hundred thousand times for the chance to kill the three who betrayed him."
Tau's "unthinkable path" is to perform a sort of astral projection into a nightmare realm where he can hone his skills by fighting a multitude of "demons". The entire book is written beautifully with compelling characters, relatable protagonists, sympathetic antagonists and, though it sounds complex in synopsis, an easy to follow plot. But the monsters....that's where Winter really lets loose. They're all wild and different. These are the kind of passages where I had to stop reading in order to sketch. And I wound up drawing ten of them....
I HIGHLY recommend these books!
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