Digital Painting the Corel Painter way

It's no secret I love Pulp Art (Doc Savage, The Spider, The Bat, and more) and Boys Adventure Stories (Hardy Boys, Tom Swift, and more). I love the painted covers. I love the black and white pen & ink illustrations inside.

I've always wanted to create books like those. And a few years ago I published my first one. Pick it up if you haven't already. Links to Paperback and eBook versions are at www.WanderingKoala.com. I wrote the boys adventure type story (but for an older, more sophisticated audience), I drew the black and white pen & ink (and brushwork) illustrations for the interiors, and I painted a cover.

Ok, that last part I didn't do--not really.

I tried. I really did. But I just can't paint. So I did the best I could, and it turned out well, but.... I figured I would never have painted covers unless I hired someone to do them, and I really didn't want to do that. It was bad enough hiring an editor for my second novel. He did a great job and gave me numerous insights that have helped my writing tremendously, but I still want my work to be MY work--100% Jeff.

Then the other day I was watching several courses from Lynda.com (great site to learn to use graphics programs--get a subscription if you don't already). I discovered some really cool and amazing things that Corel Painter can do--things I had no idea I had software for. So I put the lessons to use.

Above is my latest work. It took several tries to get it right, but I think it turned out well. It looks like the background from Tarzan. I'm definitely going to try this technique to have a truly painted cover for my next work, The Green Bull (a Wandering Koala tale), and not just a wannabe painted cover.

I can't wait!