Shannon Knight is back with Candra Hope, the cover artist for Catamorphosis (there was a cover reveal for it last week) for a Q&A about the cover, how it was designed, and some other stuff. Before we dive in, let me remind you about the unsettling cover.
I typically call these posts “A Few Quick Questions”—but we leave “Few” and “Quick” in the rearview mirror. So I’m going with “Some” (because that’s as creative as I am today). Why don’t we get to them now?
Candra: Since my readers have met Shannon a couple of times already, why don’t you give my readers a quick introduction to you and your work–including whatever titles, websites, links, etc. you’re in the mood to share.
Hi, my name is Candra Hope, and I do art 🙂 That’s usually how all my bios begin. But that’s me in a nutshell. More specifically, I do art inspired by fantasy, horror, and science fiction. Art that’s also inspired by books and movies and cool tv shows and music and history and mythology and all sorts of other things. I suppose I’m a bit of a magpie, gathering inspiration from anything I think is cool. I work mostly digitally now for commissions, but I come from a traditional painting background, so a lot of my art keeps that vibe. I don’t really have links to titles or specifics, but if people want to see examples, my web portfolio is https://www.candrahopeart.com/ .
I really like that phrase, “I do art.” You’ve talked about this a little on your site, I know, but how does someone get into the freelance cover design business?
Oh, don’t ask me, I’m not an expert on this by any means. I don’t really work professionally, I just do occasional commissions if something interesting comes along. But if anyone is serious and starting out, a good place to begin is to follow professional artists on social media and also look at sites like Muddy Colors which has mountains of information about all aspects of the professional illustration business.
Shannon, how did you come across Candra? Can you remember what it was about her work that made you interested in them working on this cover?
I originally noticed Candra’s work some years ago on the old Twitter. She has a really great movie-poster style that incorporates multiple characters and the setting along with multi-color tones and a sort of gritty quality that vibed with this story. Catamorphosis has an ensemble and a lake setting that I thought she could capture well.
Now I’m just imagining you with a list of names/links to portfolios, collected over the years, with potential cover artists. Is that something you set aside time for, or just whenever you come across something that clicks with you, you jot a note to yourself?
I like art. When I first saw Candra’s work, I had a literary agent and my mind on trad pub. There would’ve been no need or opportunity to select a cover artist myself. Then and now, I note artists that I like because I like art, and one of the wonders of the internet is that we can look through portfolios without needing access to published art books. And by note, I mean a mental note. There’s no formal list.
As I searched more frantically last December, I started by looking through my own social media list of people I follow. These days, though, I might follow an artist thinking of them as a future professional resource rather than simply a recreational follow. I only set time aside for it, per se, if I’m actively selecting an artist for a project.
Candra, any advice for those looking for an artist that SK didn’t mention? Obviously, the short answer is hiring you. But let’s pretend you can’t take on a client, what should they do?
I follow a lot of artists and have some of them following me on social media. It’s the same for a lot of us. So if someone is looking, a good place to start is other artists’ following lists. I can’t speak to professional lists, but I think there are also some out there.
What do you want to know about a book before you accept a gig and/or start sketching? Do you want character descriptions, an idea of the plot/tone? Or do you not care about anything beyond what the client is thinking about for the cover?
Candra: I prefer to hear a rough description of the story and if the client has an idea in mind for the cover. I don’t have a lot of time to spare for reading books in advance and often too much information can be a distraction so it’s nice to have a concise concept to start from.
Shannon: I’ve found that different artists have different preferences. I’ll keep Candra’s words about a distraction in mind in the future. I usually start with something concise. If they’re interested in the job, I tell them more. I’ve had other artists say the more the better, including images, but if I send a long email, I’ll generally end it with a numbered list repeating my top priorities so that the focus is clear. For instance, 1) horror genre, 2) cats.
Shannon, Do you recall what ideas you came to Candra with for this project?
I suggested a character-focused cover with a woman and a cat, a bit like Ripley and Jonesy from Alien. I knew that would work in Candra’s style. But I also provided a summary of themes and the plot plus more detailed descriptions of the character cast. I emphasized the horror mood and that I was open to abstract and weird. I knew Candra could do a bigger ensemble painting beautifully, but a small book cover wouldn’t show a bunch of characters as well as a large movie poster.
Could you both walk us through your typical process of designing a cover? I wanted to break this down part by part, but I don’t think I know enough to try that. So I’m going to go with a broad question.
Shannon: I don’t have a typical process, and this round was rather high-stress for me because I had figured from the start that I would work with Savanna Mayer again on this piece because it was another horror cover, but I should have reached out sooner because they didn’t reply to any of my emails, so I had to move past the time of waiting for them to get around to replying and realize that they were simply not responding at all. I have no idea why. Then I needed to find a new artist. As much as my other artists had been lovely, their styles felt too smooth and fantasy-coded for this project. (I still almost contacted Eli Peiró because she was so great to work with, and she might have had ideas or another style she was interested in trying. I highly recommend her to anyone looking for an artist!) So, this meant digging through portfolios, imagining what the cover art would be in their style, and contacting them with a commission query. I had initially been looking for something abstract, very weird, and cat and fish-centered. But it was December, and no one was replying, and I was growing more and more frantic as I created cover design after cover design, each tailored for certain art styles in my mind, and then I queried, and then just…silence. Nothing. Not even when I contacted agents, whose entire job is to reply to commission requests. I felt cursed. Like maybe everyone is getting so inundated with AI slop spam that genuine commission requests were getting lost in the slop. Finally, I had one artist reply with availability to start in six months and double the max price I had hoped to pay. Their work is terrific, but I passed. I had another reply in a way that made me instantly uncomfortable. Instead of answering my questions, they replied by asking me the exact same questions. When I followed up, explaining that their response had made me uncomfortable, they didn’t reply. Back to the silence. And finally, finally, I happened across Candra’s portfolio again, and I immediately saw how a portrait-style cover could work well for the story and that her unique style matched the tone of the story. I contacted her, and she replied right away in a totally professional style, clearing up all my concerns, and letting me know when she’d be available after the holiday for us to hammer out all the details. Then it was a very smooth process.
Candra: I also don’t have a set process. I like to take each project on its own merits and work with the author/client as a new individual. I immediately liked Shannon’s pitch because she told me what she was looking for, and was really clear from the outset, so I had no problem imagining the cover. It also sounded like a cool story, so that probably helped. But once we got started it felt like we were both on the same page and could bounce ideas around easily and understand when things weren’t working or needed changing. The part of my process that usually stays the same is to sketch the idea, show the client, develop the idea, show the client, get references and paint the idea, then do any remedial work at the end. It sounds really basic, but that is the bare bones of what I do. One thing that really helped this time was Shannon gathering all the reference photos. She has a lot of cat photos, and everything else she found was perfect so that saved me a big step. Thanks, Shannon!
What do you know? The internet’s obsession with cat photos comes in handy after all!
Shannon: Rather than internet photos, I started with photos of my own cats. This story began because of the death of my cat Gandalfr. He’s a 17.5-pound, gray cat, and my fictional cat is the same size. I shared photos of G for the cat the protagonist is holding. However, I made my fictional cat a ginger tabby, so we also needed references of that. The cat that appears behind the woman is modeled after my current cat, Little Bat. In fact, the woman’s head is modeled after my head. Candra made changes, but she referenced my previous cat, my current cat, and myself in the painting.
(click the images for a larger version)
For both of you: When pitching ideas, do you literally show existing covers by others and say “like this one, but without X” or “something that feels like/has the same vibe as this”? Or do you leave other peoples’ work out of the conversation?
Shannon: I tend to refer to an artist’s own work to point out the styles I like best. When it comes to describing my own story, I refer to artists’ work if it’s relevant. In this case, I referred to Jen Bartel’s girl gang art, but the only references that Candra was interested in were personal photo references that she could use for the painting. This included a photo of me with my head bald from Covid inflammation and lots of cat photos, including images of the cat who inspired this story.
Candra: I try to describe what I’m trying to say with words but if there’s a specific painting that shows that, I’ll refer to it. But like Shannon, it’s organic and not something I do all the time. Sometimes other paintings can muddy the waters and be a distraction.
Candra, are there genres that you won’t do/don’t think you can do at this stage of your career? Or are you at an “I’ll do anything” stage? Are there genres that you haven’t done a cover for that you’d like to try?
I’m open to most things but would probably not attempt something in the romance or romantasy genres. If people look at my portfolio, they’ll see for themselves that my work is mostly horror, fantasy and science fiction based, so that’s where my skill set lies.
Fair, I think it would take a very particular romantasy story for someone to look at your site and say, “Yeah, her.”
Candra: lol yeah. That said, the Interview With The Vampire series is essentially a romance and I love it so something like that would be amazing to tackle.
Shannon: The newest one with Jacob Anderson and Sam Reid is such a great interpretation of the books!
Another blogger and I have used the word “unsettling” about this cover. I’m assuming you’d take that as a compliment. Do you think in terms of “unsettling” or “horror” or whatever adjectives the client is shooting for as you’re working, or after agreeing on the concept with the client, are you just doing your thing and it comes out Candra-esque? While we’re on the topic, how would you describe the finished project in a word or three?
I very much take “unsettling” as a compliment, thank you! Though I don’t think in terms of effects like unsettling while I work necessarily. I’m aware it’s a horror story but my focus is on getting across what the author is trying to say with their story. And I think that’s why I prefer their description rather than reading it myself so I don’t get bogged down by my own interpretation. As the cover artist it’s not my job to give my own ideas about the story, I’m there to help the author sell their book. And this story felt like it was personal to Shannon, and unsettling in the things that happen to the character in the book. I wanted to respect both aspects so I made deliberate decisions about how things looked and felt in the painting, along with character expressions and body language, which is possibly why you’re picking up on that from the art. It means I did my job of translating the story description into picture form. As the artist I’m too close to the work so I don’t have a three word description, just happy to have done a good job for Shannon.
Candra, another blogger and I have used the word “unsettling” about this cover. I’m assuming you’d take that as a compliment. Do you think in terms of “unsettling” or “horror” or whatever adjectives the client is shooting for as you’re working, or after agreeing on the concept with the client, are you just doing your thing and it comes out Candra-esque? While we’re on the topic, how would you describe the finished project in a word or three?
I very much take “unsettling” as a compliment, thank you! Though I don’t think in terms of effects like unsettling while I work necessarily. I’m aware it’s a horror story but my focus is on getting across what the author is trying to say with their story. And I think that’s why I prefer their description rather than reading it myself so I don’t get bogged down by my own interpretation. As the cover artist it’s not my job to give my own ideas about the story, I’m there to help the author sell their book. And this story felt like it was personal to Shannon, and unsettling in the things that happen to the character in the book. I wanted to respect both aspects so I made deliberate decisions about how things looked and felt in the painting, along with character expressions and body language, which is possibly why you’re picking up on that from the art. It means I did my job of translating the story description into picture form. As the artist I’m too close to the work so I don’t have a three word description, just happy to have done a good job for Shannon.
Are there examples of cover art/design recently that have made either of you stop and say–“I’d love to try something like that one day”? (or I guess…”if I tried for something like that, it’d come across as just aping so-and-so’s work, so I’m going to stay far away”)
Shannon: My focus is really on writing books rather than what the project’s cover would look like. I would still like to write something that would pair well with pastel cover art. But if we’re simply admiring work, in the horror genre, I like what Corey Brickley has done with bright colors, perspective, and characterization. I’ve also had my eye on Elsa Velasco for their symbolism and sweeping lines.
Candra: There are a lot of amazing artists out there and while I love and am inspired by their work, I don’t always want to emulate them. I love horror stories but not always horror cover art. So I try to bring my own fantasy roots to everything I do. I like the fantastical realism you can get from that and it’s fun trying to bring that vibe into the horror genre. But artists working now that inspire me are Donato Giancola, Jeremy Wilson, Vanessa Lemen and Greg Ruth. I loved what Vanessa Lemen did with The Left Hand of Darkness a few years ago. And Jeremy Wilson’s graphic abstractions mixed with realism always set my inspiration radar off.
I didn’t know a single name either of you mentioned above, but I liked what I went and found by all of them (I have seen Wilson’s covers before, it turns out). Shannon, you need to work with Brickley some time. Something about that portfolio screamed your name.
That’d be cool for sure. However, I think Candra created a terrific cover for this project. Thanks, Candra! I hope everyone will read Catamorphosis and judge for yourselves!
Good idea, Shannon! I really appreciate both of you taking your time for this.
Libro.fm has a neat deal–donate $15 to a library, and get a free audiobook—this campaign ends today, but there’s still time! Also, apparently today is the end of National Library Week, which is totally a thing I knew about before now.
(full credit to @jasonroygaston)
