Greetings Artisan!
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​I hope you had a great holiday break...

I don't know about you... but creating covers was always one of my 'art goals' when I started out.
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The cover art on fantasy books I read as a kid was probably one of my main inspirations to become an artist.

And when I was trying to break into comics, the idea of being good enough to get paid to create a cover seemed like the ultimate goal.

This is what the 'best' artists did.

A great cover (or poster) combines the story of the book, movie, or game with a striking piece of art.

It grabs your attention from across the room... visual storytelling that makes the eyes bleed.

While I was working on the Star Atlas Core project, each comic book episode required three covers. Some were alternative covers, some were for the free version.

This meant I had to create many covers,

...and I had to make them fast.

In many ways, this was a dream come true. I got to study how to make covers, and I got a lot of practise.

Recently on the Drawing Codex YouTube channel, I recorded the process of creating one of these covers from start to finish. There are 3 parts:

​The Drawing (1 hour 20 minutes)

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​The Inking (1 hour 44 minutes)

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​The Colouring (1 hour 58 minutes)

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Around 5 hours total.

Here are a few ideas I picked up over the years when it comes to creating cover-style illustrations:

It's not all about detail.

When I started wanting to draw comics... the covers were what the great artists got tasked to do.

Only the best artists got to do them, and I felt there was a completely different level of detail needed to become a cover artist.

But the reality is, the best covers are often simple. A single character, a cool shot of Spider-Man, Batman blending into the darkness, creating nice shapes. Less can be more.

When I got into French comics, I would also notice that some of the best covers were very graphic or very simple.

Sometimes simple is better, and sometimes it even sells better.

There are different types of covers.

Some feel snatched out of a part of the story. They're literally showing you a scene from the book. Others are more abstract.

Film posters often have a kaleidoscope of characters and scenes and little bits and pieces. From the classic Drew Struzan Indiana Jones and Star Wars posters, to the complicated compositions of Noriyoshi Ohrai.
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It took me a long while to get my head around how to create a scene that wasn't really a scene.

You can see from the Star Atlas Core cover how this works. We're illustrating stuff that doesn't make any sense. We're suspending disbelief. Characters floating in front of a celestial chaos of asteroids and broken planets.

To create the most impact, we need to step away from logic and sensibility.

This can be a huge challenge if you're trying to create art that makes sense.

But I've found abstract ideas are where the most fun can be had...

...and where you can create the most impact.

I created a simple formula for the Star Atlas Core covers. One or two characters framed by abstract sci-fi symbology. Key story ideas from the book: living asteroids, the Iris cataclysm planet, ships, or just good old fashioned vertical retro energy beams.

The number one thing I learned from doing these is that practise makes perfect.

One thing I always talk about on the Drawing Codex is how you have to practise doing what you actually want to do. One of the best opportunities with Core was that I got to create so many covers.

Some turned out better than others... but this gave me a solid sense of how to quickly create something that maybe wasn't the most polished, but had real impact and presence.

If you get a chance to watch these videos, drop me a line or leave a comment and let me know what you thought. (The YouTube algorithm doesn't seem to like these longer tutorials these days, but I still enjoy making them.)

That's all for now.

Happy drawing!​
-Tim

PS: If you've been interested in grabbing the Line and Colour Academy, now is a great time. After 4 years, and over 600 people taking the course... I am finally putting the price up next month.

I'll send some more details on this very soon before I do. I'll share what I have planned for the course in 2026 and what's recently been updated.