Riptide’s 4th Anniversary Celebration with @lc_chase @RiptideBooks

Thank you for joining Riptide on our 4th Anniversary blog tour! We are excited to bring you new guest posts from our authors and a behind the scenes insights from Riptide. The full tour schedule can be found at http://riptidepublishing.com/events/tours/riptides-4th-anniversary-celebration. Don’t miss the limited time discounts and Free Books for a Year giveaway at the end of this post!

Please welcome L.C. Chase to the tour.

They’re All My Faves

by L.C. Chase

One the hardest and most common questions I get as a cover artist is, “What is your favorite cover?” It’s an impossible question to answer, at least for me. Every cover I’ve done is my favorite for one reason or another. It could be one that came together seamlessly, or one where I’d applied a new photoshop plug-in, action script, or filter recently discovered; one that fought me every step of the way but turned out brilliantly in the end, or one where the author and I bounced concepts back and forth to come up with something unique and eye catching. Sometimes it’s simply the overall tone and emotion a cover invokes, after all the pieces are in place. Ultimately, I think what makes a cover my favorite is the author’s response. Nothing makes me happier than a happy author. 

Since this is a post about cover art, I’d be remiss not to include a cover or two. In absolutely no particular order of preference, and only a small sample of my multitude of favorites, each of these covers includes an element I love . . .

Playing the Fool (series) – The covers for this series were designed at the same time, which I think helps a great deal when going for a cohesive look. The authors were looking for something conceptual and stylistic that would carry across the series, and I thought red would be a nice bold color to catch the eye. To avoid a solid red background, I added a textured filter, and then used a photoshop brush to splash a subtle. I love the boldness and consistency of these covers, along with the hint of humor in the font.

 

A Fortunate Blizzard – I admit to some bias on this one, being it’s for my upcoming holiday romance novel. This is one where the overall tone speaks to me. I wanted a cover that clearly said heartfelt romance, and needed an image that was sweet, loving, touching. The photo of the couple came from one of photographer Jenn LeBlanc’s photo shoots, and was actually part of her historical collection. A little fading, and little composition shifting, and voila, contemporary! I added several overlays with snowflakes, blizzard filters, and abstract bokehs, to achieve a somewhat dreamlike quality. At least that was my intention, and what makes me happy, so here’s hoping.

 

Rock N Soul – This was one of those covers where a single image jumped at me and yelled, “I’m it!” I had to use this image, so I was really happy the author was on board too. The challenge was how to depict a ghost, who is a main character in the story, without simply superimposing him subtly in the background. I made a layer with a large watercolor brush stroke in black, masked it, then copied the original image layer, and pasted it inside the brush stroke. At that point the rock star was only visible within that area. On a new layer behind I placed the full image of the rock star, screened back the transparency, added filters, and also added effects to the edges of the brush mark portion. My goal was for the rock star to appear partially corporeal and partially spectral.

 

Panopolis (series) – These covers were a lot of fun to put together. Partly because the main characters are supervillians and the blurbs sounded intriguing, and partly because I got to venture into graphic novel (ish) territory. I’d also just learned a high contrast / grunge effects technique that adds a bit more grittiness, and felt these were the perfect genre to use it on. The titles also needed to convey the genre, so I spent some time searching Marvel comics, graphic novels, superhero movies, etc., to get a good feel for the general style. Since both books were plays on fire, I added a bit of the burning embers to the text. Again, I was really happy how the covers turned out.

About L.C.

Cover artist by day, author by night, L.C. Chase is a hopeless romantic, free spirit, and adventure seeker who loves hitting the open road just to see where it takes her. After a decade of traveling three continents, she now calls the Canadian west coast home. When not writing sensual tales of beautiful men falling in love, she can be found designing book covers with said beautiful men, drawing, horseback riding, or hiking the trails with her goofy four-legged roommate.

L.C. is a two-time Lambda Literary Award finalist for Pickup Men and Pulling Leather; an EPIC eBook Awards winner for Pickup Men; an EPIC eBook Awards finalist for Let It Ride and Long Tall Drink; Bisexual Book Awards finalist for Let It Ride; and an Ariana eBook Cover Art Awards finalist. She also won an honorable mention in the 2012 Rainbow Awards for Riding with Heaven.

Connect with L.C.:

• Website: com
• Blog: blogspot.com
• Twitter: @lc_chase
• Email: authorlcchase@gmail.com
• Goodreads: com/LC_Chase

 

Anniversary Sale

Many great collections are being sold in a special discounted bundle by Riptide this week only. Check out the sale on this series and other bundles at http://www.riptidepublishing.com/anniversary-sale

 

To celebrate our anniversary, Riptide Publishing is giving away free books for a year! Your first comment at each blog stop on the Anniversary Tour will count as an entry and give you a chance to win this great prize. Giveaway ends at midnight, October 31, 2015, and is not restricted to US entries.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Posted by All I Want and More on October 3, 2015

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