Romance novel cover illustration
September 30, 2012 4:55 PM   Subscribe

Romance novel covers are a frequent subject of ridicule. But they have also featured highly talented illustrators like Alan Ayers, Pino Daeni, Elaine Gignilliat, Phil Heffernan, and Albert Slark.

Gignilliat shows how it's done.
posted by Egg Shen (13 comments total) 9 users marked this as a favorite
 
I would like to hear Tim Gunn's opinion on the sartorial choices of this gentleman.

Btw, I'm loving how creative people are with Pinterest and that it's becoming a visual catalog of neat things.
posted by Foci for Analysis at 5:06 PM on September 30, 2012


Who can forget the classic cover of Paul Sheldon's Misery's Return?
posted by SPrintF at 5:20 PM on September 30, 2012 [2 favorites]


I'd like to think that Mr King has the original Misery's Return painting above his bed.
posted by Mezentian at 5:31 PM on September 30, 2012


Curious: are these illustrators widely known for work outside of the bodice-ripper cover genre, as well?
posted by jarsizedsibyl at 6:19 PM on September 30, 2012


When I worked at a book store, my manager had this hilarious rant about how romance novel covers should work like jury duty.
posted by weewooweewoo at 6:28 PM on September 30, 2012


SPrintF, that is AWESOME. The only way it could be any better is if Hunk King were sporting his winter beard and a Red Sox cap.

My favorite romance historical fiction novel cover is this one. It's sooooo 70s. Antonio López de Santa Anna sure did have some tight jeans and frizzy hair.

Can't wait to see these guys get the same kind of critical attention as Vargas and de Berardinis.
posted by infinitewindow at 6:57 PM on September 30, 2012


Just in case you want to have a sense of how it's done wrong, here is a glorious compendium of objectified Scotsmen, terrible photoshop, and perspective problems on romance covers.
posted by gingerest at 7:56 PM on September 30, 2012 [1 favorite]


Just in case you want to have a sense of how it's done wrong, here is a glorious compendium of objectified Scotsmen, terrible photoshop, and perspective problems on romance covers.

I completely lost it at this one, which if judged by its cover, needs to be re-titled The Hunks of Rhode Island.
posted by Slap*Happy at 8:39 PM on September 30, 2012


Paging romance novel cover expert suburbanbeatnik to aisle 120420.
posted by carsonb at 8:56 PM on September 30, 2012


I miss these old hand-painted covers. These days, the covers are all done in Photoshop, though that certainly requires a masterful skill set of its own...
posted by artemisia at 10:46 PM on September 30, 2012


From a previous post of mine, the sadly not-update recently Women Running From Houses.
posted by marxchivist at 6:18 AM on October 1, 2012


I'm always drawn to the various architectural backdrops on such covers. My favorite one so far is this.
posted by of strange foe at 12:46 PM on October 1, 2012


When I worked at a book store, my manager had this hilarious rant about how romance novel covers should work like jury duty.

Does that mean that cover artists have to draw a romance cover once a year or a bench warrant is issued for their arrest?
posted by Zed at 1:49 PM on October 1, 2012


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