What I am after is a book cover for my new up and coming book. These words will need to be on the front cover

Book One of the Gateway Series.

THE TEMPLE OF THE SKY

Close the World. Enter the Next.

GLEN JOHNSON

Here is the books synopsis, to get an idea.

Long, long ago entities with God-like powers brought together seven worlds, joined them by means of conduits – Gateways: each supplying the next with what it lacked, from a surplus of what that world produced, making life on all seven worlds possible. Then they disappeared. Each world became an individual. Two brothers stumble on the Gateway passing from our world to the next, and are endowed with powers beyond comprehension, vital for survival in this hostile and intelligent world; where nightmarish creatures feed on the weak. Titanic battles rage; good against evil, magic against machinery, mortal against immortal. A civil war rages between spirit creatures and a powerful self-proclaimed God. Why is the American Government sending an army of mass destruction, with the latest military technology, through? Time is short, the armies are amassing. And what’s the prophecy about, scratched on a wall of a prison cell by dying hands?

I will use the best design to be the books cover, and place the persons name inside the book to let everyone know who designed it.

I look forward to see if anyone desides to try.

Glen Johnson.

I am the best artist in the WORLD!!!!!!!!
JK......sorry.....i AM good at art but i cant draw....that kinda stuff i'm more of a cryptid drawer.....would love to help but i doubt i could.....

Good luck on finding the perfect cover.....

wow, cool idea. there seems to be a lot going on there though.... any particular thing you might want on the front?

I want the book! where can I buy it!!!!!!

I will leave the design up to the artist.

The cover doesn't have to be drawn, could be computer graphics!

The Temple of the Sky is a huge towering mountain, which has lightning constantly flaring off the peak! With a stone city perched on its side: an image of this would be simply and ideal. With either the words overlaid, or absent. The publishers will put the title on, so that’s not too much of a problem.

As for where you can get it, no where yet, it will be out in about 6 months; and is the first of a seven book series!

Is there a deadline? i'd like to try my hand at this...

yeah, give us some time frame. I'd like to try this too.

Here's my shot. Obviously these are created from other images and photos so a final would have to be painted from scratch - which would be no problem.

You'll notice the 2 faces in the mtn. Representing the brothers, maybe?

good job there pumper!

A date line? Well… my publishers have the book. And it will be about 6 months or so before release. So I will say March 05.

Pumper, the image is the very thing I am looking for (possibly without the names/words on, because that can be put on after.) And possibly the city/buildings attached to the side, near the bottom rather than on top! But the problem is you said it’s from other images? I don’t really want a huge problem with being sued, because the cover is a very close representation of someone else’s work!

But as I have said, the closing date is March 05…

i've read the book its really cool

It's just a quick mock up. Pieces from about 10 other photos and images are used. Like I said, it can be redone as an original for a final piece and you'd have no legal worries (it's not a close representation to anything else that I'm aware of). The changes you mentioned are no problem either.

Pumper, the image is great, and I would like to see what it would look like painted! But first could you do a sketch of the city on the side, to see what it would look like? Don't worry about the words, just the image.

In the end it will be 6" by 9".

Glen

This'll be great for my portfolio. Since I'll have a lot of time after Christmas, March 05 sounds good.

Would the stone city be similar to that of Minas Tirith from Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King?

Also where exactly did you want the location of the city? Near the peak, middle, or bottom of the mountain?

Did you want the scenery dark as Sweetpumpers illustration or should it have a more optomistic feel to it?

I'm actually planning to photograph the actual pictures I'll be using for your cover.
That way, no lawsuits involved.

Could you described the actual mountain and the stone city. I wanna stay as close as I can to your description.

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I wanna read your first book so bad. All the reviews I've read for it sounds awesome. Once I get my credit card--BAM--I'm hittin' Amazon.com

I've said it before and I'll say it again, ive read it and its great , hi Kryo hows it going buddy lol

Hi Blue.

A dark ominous cover will be perfect. The Temple of the Sky is a huge mountain that has its peak jutting up through a really thick cloud layer, and has a continuous lightning storm raging from the top. The city is around the base on one side, and has tall stone pillars reaching to the sky so the lightning doesn’t hit the buildings.

When we send our design over, did you want us to have it done on an actual 6"x9" canvas? On photoshop that is...

Because enlarging a jpg will distort and basically ruin a smaller version of the design. Unless you've got an artist on the other side who can redraw the whole piece. You do, don't you?

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For your city I was actually thinkin' of going around town taking pictures of stone buildings and monuments. Then adding it on to a photograph of a mountain and blah blah blah.

o_o contary to the rest of the artists in this thread, i'm not doing a mountain or a temple >_>....

Ok, everybody. I had my contract through the post today for this book, so things are plowing right ahead; faster than I imagined. So anyone still interested, let me know. E-mail or PM me… Thanks.

Ps, it’s a seven book series, so if you wish there’s lots more work if you want it! And of course your name in the books acknowledgements!

Hi Kryso,

Sorry that I never got back to you about Temple of the Sky, my printer in broken so I still haven't been able to print it out yet.

From what I have read off screen, it is going to be fabulous and yet again a very unique and individual book from you.

Looks like it will be quicker for me to buy it in print than wait for my dozy husband to get a new printer, so let us all know when and where we can buy it.

Mog.

Oooo I wanna try my hand at this.

Okay, here's my sketch. I latched onto the idea of a man in a prison cell, carving something cryptic into the cell walls. As I don't really know what the prophecy thing is, I just sketched a spiral. The painting will look a lot better.

Hmm, I hope you don't mind but I'll take a swing at it, I think I've got just the photos I need...I should have it done fairly soon.

Impressive Snuffy, a great drawning, but a little different from the book, no offence. Still a great scetch mate.

And Raven, you are more than welcome to try mate. Look forward to seeing you cover.

Glen

No offense taken, brah. It's your cover, man.

Could you give us a description of the city itself Kryso...
I have a sketch of the design of the Mountain the Pillars reaching for the sky... someone can use my concept design and expound upon it, if it fits the descritpion of Kryso's book.

Remember it isn't the finished artwork... just a rough sketch of "The Temple in the Sky"

I like the design Blue S.
Below is chapter 49 of the book, here it describes the city!



49

Forward March


Darkness started to fall over the sky. Clouds that didn’t have much light in them anyway started to lose their dull brightness.
They were on a straight-line projector, straight towards the third Gateway; nothing could stop them, apart from the failing daylight.
The Colonel motioned for one of his troopers to approach. "Get all the transportation to make a ring, get everything ready for nightfall." The Colonel then proceeded to look around the clearing they had made; he gave a small lopsided smile.
"Once all are in place send five of your best to me." He didn’t even bother to look at the man knowing he was still standing there, because he hadn’t dismissed him.
"Yes sir." No questioning or anything, just pure obedience, just the way he liked his men.
"You may depart, carry out your orders."
The trooper didn’t make a noise. Didn't motion to say he heard, but just disappeared. He knew when he turned that he would be gone. He turned slowly. The orders were already underway.
The large Earth-Destroyer was folding down its weapons, while the eighteen smaller vehicles were making a circle around it. Besides the Destroyer were the two long transportation trucks, which would hold the sleeping men; fifty at a time, while forty stood guard. The men swarmed around these machines while organising the encampment, like ants around the queen mother.
While the camp prepared for darkness the five soldiers came forward, those that were about to be debriefed about their new assignment: to bringing back the corpse of Captain Stokes.
The Colonel tuned slowly looking at the diminishing light, pulled a cigar from his breast pocket and lit it, taking a lung full of smoke and releasing it slowly, whispering, “Revenge is sweet; sweet indeed.” Then his eyes opened in a moment of internal struggle and deep underlying madness. “I’m coming for you Captain.”

Eight hundred Lanks scratched at the floor with their clawed feet, rearing to get going. They could already taste the human fleshy tissue and blood in their mouth; the sweetest of meat; man flesh.
All were in battle formation. All were in groups of fifty, each with a leader up front; each following a gaudy crudely stitched banner on a long pole. All with their different weapons of choice in their hands, spears, shields, nets and long pitch forks. All milling around jostling each other.
Their sour smell of excitement and anticipation was making the unicorns uneasy.
At the back of the group were fourteen Moregone’s. Huge bodies, front arms swinging back and forth eager also to get moving. Each had an armoured human slave attached to their back, on a small saddle between their shoulders, chained into position, to steer and control the docile beasts.
All twelve of the Circle sat upon their mounts up front. Twelve jet-black, fully grown unicorns. Heads swinging back, their manes flying around them. Also keen to get moving after being cramped up in their stables, and also from being so close proximity with all the wound up Lanks. Their armour plated hooves scraped impatiently at the ground.
The forty foot gate was almost open now, the huge wooden doors slowly lumbering across the ground.
They were to make their way out the other side of the mountain, through the great cities that bred the slaves for the mines. Across the Great Plain of Sabion towards the third and original Gateway.
The doorway now swung the last few meters into its locked position, a great reverberating sound announced its yawning maw open.
The great procession started to move out; all churning out the mountainside like a foul sea. First existed the mounted unicorn riders then the jostling Lanks, all pouring out one after another; a long line of death. Followed closely by the fourteen huge Moregone’s, the riders holding them in position, holding the magic in place to keep the Moregone’s under enchantment.
Hooves scraping the flagstones, armour rattling, clawed feet clicking, as well as weapons clanging together made a deafening hubbub of rolling noise that preceded the advancing army.
This side of the mountain wasn’t being constantly bombarded with lightning. The huge cities were built onto the side of the mountain itself, perched on its steep ridges, having colossus columns coming from the ground reaching towards the heavens, up towards the cloud line. These had a constant lightning bolts flaying off the top, rather than the lightning striking the ground, hitting the cities and destroying the Lords slaves.
Outside the cities children milled about. They were all slaves, not old enough to work in the mines, leaving them for a few more years to build up their strength.
Women milled around; all were pregnant, all were breeders for more workers, a constant breeding factory. Ten children were born almost hourly. So vast was the cities areas where the children were sent, sent to get them ready for their short brief painful lives.
At the age of nine they were forced to work. If they were strong, or just lucky they would see their tenth maybe even twelfth birthday, but very rarely.
Running through the main city the main causeway was a long straight flagstone avenue. This is where the army slowly made its way. Being watched constantly by the children and women who leant out of windows, or standing in the dark doorways holding crying babies.
The cry of women giving birth could be heard from different directions.
Monstrous fields lay around the cities, large enough to feed all the inhabitants, worked by pregnant women until they could physically work no more. These muddy fields produced green vegetables to accompany the meat: the steady quantity of meat that was wheeled out of the mountain daily, small bodies thrown into the wagons, deformed by the radiation that came through the open sky. Nothing was wasted here. The meat from their dead children would give them the strength they needed to push out the next generation of bastard slaves.
Very few men could be seen; those that were around were busy producing the next workers. Once they were too old to do that they were also sent into the mountain.
The long procession continued on, giving a small change in the otherwise dull, short lives of those watching.
Small children ran around the streets. Watching, paying attention to all that was passing. Apart from the few that didn’t move in time, mowed down by the unicorns, trampled under hoofed feet. Or those that were curious and came to close to a Lank, that quickly picked them off, supplying the excited beasts with a brief meal as they continued forward towards their goal.
The next stop, the original Gateway, to protect it at all cost.
A battle, unlike anything seen in this world before, was about to unfold.

This would have to be a monstrous mountain to fit some monstrous fields. I'd have to use the Rocky Mountains as some sort of influence on the design and do a 180 degree turn on the mountain I had painted, so the city brings in a more centered and ominous effect.

Maybe a 40 degree bird's eye view of the city and the mountain...
Thanks again for the info, it'll help a lot.
I forgot I wasn't reading the whole book; thought I'd be reading the great battle unfolding in your post.