If you’ve spent time on BookTok or Bookstagram lately, you know bookish character art is a big deal. In an age where social media marketing is focused on visuals, art is used almost universally to sell books.
The only problem?
Character art is expensive, putting indie authors, who often pay for marketing out of pocket, at a disadvantage. But if indies are anything, they’re resourceful. Many authors are now learning to draw and creating their own covers and artwork.
I had the pleasure of interviewing four sci-fi authors whose self-made art I truly admire to get the scoop on how they do it. Read on to see samples of their work and discover their creative secrets!
Sarah Yusuf, author of military sci-fantasy The Shards of the Conduit
Your art is professional quality, Sarah, so I have to ask. What came first, art or writing? Have you worked professionally as an illustrator?
Before I knew how to write, I was drawing and telling stories. So by default, I suppose art! I’ve never worked as an illustrator, except for a short stint in university where I sketched microfungi for my professor’s lab textbook.
Unfortunately, I lost touch with my art side for a number of years before tackling The Shards of the Conduit as an art project (in addition to a writing project).
Your debut military sci-fi novel The Shards of the Conduit just released on January 16th, and you’ve created so many amazing art pieces to go along with it. Can you share one of your favourite pieces of character art and what you love about it?
My fave piece would have to be this group shot. This is the first instance since my forced break to successfully assemble my team, and to draw my characters as close to my vision as possible. I spent a lot of time on this, but every time I see it I feel proud of how far I came.
For context, for 10 years I had to abandon art, after marriage and children. The pregnancies destroyed my grip, and my ability to do any kind of art slowly degraded. Essentially, I had to re-learn how to digital paint all while my hand was giving me issues and numbing up every time I held a tablet pen. So, to go from barely holding it together, to putting something half-decent on a canvas is a success I can rarely describe to others. That’s why this particular painting holds a special place in my heart. It shows what happens when you persevere.
I know firsthand how hard it is to come back to yourself after having kids. And I have hand issues, too. It can be extremely frustrating. I’m so impressed that you persevered and made this incredible piece of art!
Walk me through your illustration process. What inspires you and how do you turn that inspiration into a finished artwork?
I imagine each chapter like an episode of a tv series, or similar, and pick a scene that sticks out (AND does not generally contain spoilers). Usually, it’s a scene I enjoyed writing about, or has a vibe that sticks with me. I scour through pinterest for pose references, or ClipStudio’s 3D pose model, and look for ideal backgrounds through Unsplash (for which I’m subscribed).
Then away we go… sketch, linework, cleanup, color blocking, and rendering. Et voila!
Thanks so much for chatting about your art, Sarah. I’m sure that gorgeous character art has readers interested in hearing more about your book as well. What are these characters up to in the story?
Through the contrasting perspectives of Commander Malek Reza and Dr. Nikita Valerio, the story explores the moral complexities of prejudice and war as they face off against their planet’s only other humanoid species.
Malek’s secret abilities and his team’s fragile dynamics drive the tension as much as the high-stakes action. I don’t offer a story of your standard heroes and villains, but the exploration of obedience vs responsibility when forced to decide between duty and survival.
Start reading The Shards of the Conduit here!
See more of Sarah’s art in instagram.
N.S. Chaudhury, author of Desi cyberpunk adventure FrostByte
Nimmi, you designed your own cover and it ended up being nominated for an Indie Ink award. But I understand you didn’t originally plan on doing your own cover art. How did you end up making the decision to create your own cover?
I’d originally hired someone to do it for me because I didn’t feel confident in my skills for something so critical. The cover artist did their best to create what I had in mind but they couldn’t quite capture it. A couple of friends encouraged me to try it myself after that. It took me nearly half a year (and unfortunately you can’t even see half the details I put in) but I’m really proud of how it turned out in the end.
Besides the cover, you’ve created so many amazing art pieces to go along with it. Can you share one of your favourite pieces of character art and what you love about it?
This one is a little like asking me to pick a favourite child and I’ll tell you I love them all equally. But *ahem* here’s the one I love equally because of how their outfits and the rendering turned out.
I love how you did the sheer looking fabric in this one. And speaking of clothing, as a reader unfamiliar with a South Asian setting, I really enjoyed looking at the character art on your Instagram page so I could visualize the characters’ outfits.
Do you have a favourite artwork featuring a character’s costume/clothing? I’d love to know more about the character’s style.
So here, Khyaal is in his virtual avatar, wearing a light purple, embroidered kurta, an embroidered sleeveless jacket, and a straight pyjama along with a traditional type of footwear known as Peshawari Chappal.
I wanted Khyaal’s appearance to be distinctly cyberpunk but with more South Asian visual elements and it took me so many tries until I landed on something I was happy with. Which ended up being a more traditional getup than I’d originally planned on, but with the neon, glowing embroidery and of course his chained double swords, which in the book are actually a shapeshifting weapon that he can turn into a bunch of different forms.
It’s been an interesting experience trying to blend the aesthetics of the South Asian culture with the cyberpunk vibes I love so much.
These images give such a great feel for the vibe of your book. I’m sure readers are intrigued. Can you tell us a little more about FrostByte?
FrostByte is about an illegally resurrected murder victim that’s stuck in a riches to rags situation and this shopowner who takes her in for seemingly altruistic reasons and how they work on trying to figure out the mystery surrounding her death. It’s a bit like if Altered Carbon were set in South Asia, there were no aliens and the rich murder victim is the one in the wrong body.
Visit N.S. Chaudhry’s Instagram profile to see more character art!
S.T. Arsheep, author of queer space opera romance series Phantom Vengeance
Starsheep, I love the style of the covers for your Phantom Vengeance series. How did you come up with the design?
The art that I ended up using as covers for ‘Ravaging Phantom’ and ‘Recruiting Phantom’ was never meant to be cover art.
I got stuck early on in the story because I didn’t know exactly what my characters looked like, and so I sat down to draw them, just for my own clarity. As an old comic artist, I do this because while drawing I constantly make tons of micro-decisions about what things look like, so it’s a familiar way for me to define things about the characters and world they live in. Once I had the artwork, I figured I might as well use it for the covers and so the look for the Phantom series was defined by those early pieces.
Besides cover design, you also post some great handmade character art on instagram. Can you share a favourite piece?
It’s hard to choose a favourite one because each one of them teaches me something about the characters – their story or their personality. Currently, I think I have two favourites – one is a series I did just for shits and giggles to accompany this silly group chat I wrote for the Lucy’s crew. Once I drew the pic that started this mini-story, it of course prompted an outright posting war. My favourites from that whole sequence are the first three “posts” that capture the dynamic of the romance in the series.
These are so incredible, Starsheep! Your art is professional quality. Did you go to art school? How did you learn to draw?
No art school, I actually failed to get into graphic design school.
I started drawing as a kid and just never stopped. I grew up undiagnosed 2e autistic in the 90s and so I found a lot of solace in the things I could create myself when the world felt chaotic. I was accused of being a total dreamer and “living in my head” a lot – and repeatedly told that this wasn’t a “real” career – but I kept drawing because it kept me sane. Eventually I ended up getting a degree in Performing Arts because I love different mediums of storytelling and that allowed me to really go deep.
Do you have any tips for authors who are interested in learning to make their own art?
Rather than study art in school, I just learned as I went. These days learning art is so easy when everyone and their dog has an art course (I used to teach myself from art books), and you can just pull up YouTube videos to start leaning. Consuming a lot of art, being curious about art, composition, technique, being observant and TONS of practise is how I got this far!
I’m sure readers are intrigued by your beautiful covers and the group chat as well. Can you tell readers more about the series?
Three years ago, Captain Sasha Barrett was declared dead. Now she’s back — with mysterious implants, a score to settle, and a ship falling apart at the seams.
Zaven Adhzivian spent those years drowning his grief in bad decisions and worse company. The last thing he needs is his not-so-dead former captain crashing back into his life with the same reckless smile and a cargo hold full of trouble.
And Castin Baltraz? He’s been lost without his two closest friends — his former squad mate and his best friend — who he’s been in love with for years. Yes, both of them.
Together they’re a smartass human with authority issues, a by-the-book alien hiding a rebellious streak, and a charming disaster who’ll flirt with anything that moves. Throw in a ragtag crew, a mysterious research facility, a galaxy-spanning conspiracy, and a growing attraction that’s complicated as hell, and you’ve got a recipe for chaos.
Start reading the Phantom Vengeance series here!
Visit Starsheep’s instagram profile for more character art!
Ursa Dax, author of over 20 alien romance novels including the Cowboy Colony Mail Order Brides series
Ursa, I love your book covers. Have you always done your own art?
I have always done my own covers. When I started with my older Sea Sand series, I was making covers with stock photos, but I’ve moved on to illustrating my Cowboy Colony covers.
In all honesty, I started out making my own covers because I was a broke mom fresh off of mat leave with no budget for pro covers. But I enjoy it so much that I continue making my covers even though I do have the budget to buy covers now. It’s nice to control every step of the process and be 100% satisfied with the end result.
Have you ever worked professionally as an artist? If not, how did you learn?
No, I’ve never worked as an artist. I’m self-taught, mostly from youtube tutorials (and lots of failures, haha).
Walk me through your illustration process. What inspires you and how do you turn that inspiration into a finished artwork?
For an illustrated cover, I start with the reference photos. I have bought thousands of commercially licensed artist reference photos of human models, so I have a scroll through my collection and see if any poses are jumping out at me.
Once I’ve chosen the poses for the characters, I move into Clip Studio Paint with my Huion Pro art tablet and do the sketch, then clean line art, base colour, then shading and highlights. After that, I add the typography. An illustrated cover takes a few days.
I especially love how your covers illustrate your characters’ personalities and the dynamics between couples. Can you share a cover that you’re especially proud of, and what the artwork reveals about the characters?
I’m especially happy with how my latest Cowboy Colony cover turned out. It’s the cover for Smitten by the Alien Saloon Owner. I just really like how the composition, colours, and characters all work together.
That book is an especially sweet, quiet sort of love story about a grieving, chronically ill artist heroine and an alien cowboy hero with PTSD and a limb difference; I think their very deep affection for each other comes through in the image. I also really enjoyed doing a winter cover (I live in the snowbelt of Ontario, so that felt quite close to home).
It sounds amaing, and I love your Cowboy Colony so much already! I’m currently in the middle of the first book. Can you tell readers more about the series?
The Cowboy Colony Mail-Order Bride series is about a bunch of cinnamon roll alien cowboy himbos who end up completely smitten (and utterly discombobulated) by their human mail-order brides.
See Ursa’s instagram profile for a video on how she makes her art.
I hope these authors’ amazing creativity inspires indie authors and readers alike. When you support indie, you’re supporting so much incredible creativity.
If you’d like to connect with these authors and see more of their art, don’t forget to check out their social media profiles:
Have your read any of these authors’ books or checked out their artwork? Don’t forget to let me know in the comments! I’d love to hear your thoughts!
