Toward the Gleam

So, what to do with a book which features a protagonist based on a rather famous author but who is never named?

Well, in the case of Toward the Gleam I thought of evoking the author's art without copying it. Trouble is, I am not talented enough to do it myself.

But I did know someone who is.



Here's the sketch I sent off to illustrator and artisan Daniel Mitsui. He sent back a much more detailed sketch which needed only minor revision, and the final artwork arrived very soon after.

You can see the original black and white illustrations he did here. (I loved the cover so much that I got permission to have him do a title page as well)



Here's the final cover. It's in solid spot colors: black, cream, and metallic silver and gold. I had to create separate "plates" for each color in Photoshop and layer them to get the effect you see. It looks even better in person due to the spot-gloss.