Psion Alpha

Jacob Gowans invited me back to do the cover for his fourth book in the Psion series: Psion Alpha. There is a part in the novel about a psychopathic serial killer who paints a government logo on the wall in his victim's blood. The government logo is a flaming skull. I know, it sounds more like a horror story than a juvenile science fiction book, but it is not a horror. It is a fabulous juvenile fiction series that gets better with each book.

Well, Jacob really wanted the flaming skull in drippy blood on the cover of the 4th book. I can't say I've ever designed anything to look like dripping blood, not to mention a flaming skull, but I was interested in trying. After designing a flaming skull logo that we liked, I posted some paper on my wall and watered down my red acrylic paint and had a go with my hands trying for an authentic look. This is one of three attempts:



It was much too neat. I decided I couldn't sketch the skull logo out in pencil first (which I did above), I had to make it much bigger, I had to use poster board (my paper wrinkled too much), I had to have a bowl full of paint, use my whole hand, and I had to do it fast.



On the third attempt, I got it! Pretty gory...

We didn't want the cover to be too gruesome, so we tried changing the color. Here is how it turned out:



I think it turned out adequately creepy, but not too gory. Just right.

I really like the flaming skull logo we came up with. I made it into a governmental patch for the back cover.



I'm sure glad we don't live in a post-apocalyptic government that has such an intimidating logo for their elite squad of soldiers.