The second book in the series, Fire Falling, will be released on 19 November. While Earth's End will not be released until 11 February 2016, there is a lot of exciting content being released today to celebrate the unveiling of the cover.
Is that not one of the most beautiful cover you've ever seen?
Synopsis:
A woman awoken in air, a solider forged by fire, a weapon risen from blood.
Air Awakens Series
Vhalla Yarl has made it to the warfront in the North. Forged by blood and fire, she has steeled her heart for the final battle of the Solaris Empire's conquest. The choices before Vhalla are no longer servitude or freedom, they are servitude or death. The stakes have never been higher as the Emperor maintains his iron grip on her fate, holding everything Vhalla still has left to lose in the balance.
If you haven't read Air Awakens yet, you've been missing out on an epic story full of wit and magic. You can still catch up by purchasing Air Awakens now and pre-ordering your copy of Fire Falling.
Cover Reveal Exclusive: The Making of the Air Awakens Cover
Another really exciting bit of content on reveal day is a Q & A with the artist that drew the covers!
Meriliza Chan (Meril) is the cover artist that designed such gorgeous covers. I think she really pulled out all the stops with Earth's End. She's even written an entire post concerning the creative process that goes on for each cover. Be sure to check it out!
Her blog can be found at Merilliza.
First we have the interview with Meril herself, followed by one from author Elise Kova.
Meril's Q & A
What attracted you to doing the covers for the AIR AWAKENS series?
The AIR AWAKENS series was my very first book cover series. I’m not going to lie that I first took interest on the project because it was an opportunity for me to finally work on the book industry. Any artist starting out would be uncontrollably excited when offered a project as such. And THEN I read the story, read about the characters, got to know an amazing client and author, a friend, and so there lies my true answer. It was the perfect project for me, I loved the world, I loved the characters and I loved the idea behind it all. And so I wanted to make sure that I make it very special.
What program do you use to create your artwork?
I use various tools to create artwork. When starting out with ideas I prefer making them on my sketchbook first, not minding specific details and just having fun with idea generation and doodling. This is the stage we call ‘thumbnails’. The next step I usually use the digital media to finalize the thumbnails, but sometimes I go straight out and sketch my favorite thumbnail to turn into a finished linesketch. As such, all my finished artworks are painted and done in Adobe Photoshop (CC 2014, currently), along with my old and trusted Wacom Intuos 4.
What is your favorite cover so far?
That’s hard to say. I loved all of it so far! (Or I’m being extremely biased, because well, I worked hard on all of them! haha) But if I’m being asked as an artist I would probably say the first cover. It was simple, straight to the point, saying, ‘Hey, this is Vhalla, the Heroine for this amazing world/story’. I like covers that has that iconic, unique feeling to it and so I would say that the first cover definitely did it for this series.
What’s your background? Did you study art in school?
I finished university in 2014 with a degree of Bachelor of Finearts, Major in Advertising Arts. My Alma Mater is the University of Santo Tomas here in Manila, Philippines. The course I took focused on graphic design, branding and marketing for agencies, which is a very good background to have in any art industry. During our 3rd year to 4th year we had special classes we called ‘Electives’, which are basically specialized classes, this was the time I decided on focusing more on digital painting and illustration, rather than going into graphic designing, so I took electives related to my chosen field. By the time I got to the thesis phase, which is the final requirement before finishing the course, I decided to take on Book Illustration. I’ve learnt many things from my background that if it weren’t for it I’m not sure if I’ll be able to do the same things I’m doing right now.
(Without any spoilers) What did you like about the third book in the AIR AWAKENS series: Earth’s End?
Earth’s End is my favorite of the 3 books so far and my main reason is that it felt like everything was coming down together, finally! Especially for Vhalla. I loved the Vhalla in this book. The character has developed into something much more and although she’s still probably transitioning, she’s finally getting there. In general what I liked about Earth’s End is that there’s more action, more storyline focused on Vhalla and her world, there were more things learned about the other characters too such as Baldair, among many others. Elise has outdone herself with this one.
What’s one thing that you think would surprise people about the process of creating the AIR AWAKENS covers? Or, one thing people may not know?
Elise has always told me that she and her author friends never expect their artist to read the whole manuscript. And I read the whole thing because well, I just couldn’t help it. I have become very attached! She says I make the most ‘official-est’ fanart ever and I agree.
Elise’s Q & A
How did you come to work with zwxArt (Meril Chan)?
Well, when I decided to self-publish I knew the cover art would be one of the most important things about my book, and I also knew I wanted drawn artwork over photography. I, personally, feel like it’s “iconic high-fantasy” to have a painted cover and so that’s what I began searching for. Also, as an indie author, I wanted to work with someone else who wasn’t a big cover art company and perhaps was just getting their start also. So I was thumbing through DeviantArt for illustrators I liked and I found Meril.
It was the image below that made me know I needed to work with her. It was like she’d already created something that I thought captured the essence of Air Awakens, even if the visuals I wanted were completely different.
Can you explain the process from the author’s perspective? How are covers made?
Well, I can only explain in my limited experience. It’s my understanding that traditional authors get little to no control over what their covers look like. For me, I started by sending Meril what had been my query letter and a handful of scenes I pulled out from the story. I also sent her the draft manuscript in case she wanted to find how a particular scene I’d chosen to pull out fit in. I’d been told that cover artists are too busy to read their client’s work in its entirety, so I wasn’t offended by the notion of just handing her some scenes.
To my surprise, Meril read it all. Talk about knowing you made the right choice as an author! I seriously count my blessings every day for this.
So, Meril reads my draft manuscripts (she’s usually among the very first to read them before my editor) and then she begins drafting thumbnails. These are very rough, quick sketches to give me an idea of the layout. She explains a bit of each, what she sees as the inspiration and story for each cover. From there we tweak them.
Tweaking can be everything from, “What if she’s holding…” to “I like the third and fifth sketch, can you try to merge them?”
This process can take anywhere from two days to a week, depending on how long I need to stare at them and how many changes are being made.
Following that, Meril moves onto the final sketch with a bit more detail. Once we’re certain we’re on the same page with the final direction she starts rendering. As an author this stage of the process is basically magic to me. Because she transforms (granted, an already amazing rough) into an even more amazing final illustration.
When she’s close to the final she sends it to me (by this point I’ve already poked her for updates because I’m way too excited not to) and we do any last-minute editing like color changes, softening lines, or adding small details.
Once all that is done she sends me the final illustration and I do the text layout on it. And, that’s how the Air Awakens covers come to life!
What’s your favorite cover so far?
I like them all… They each have something that I think is perfect for the book they’re representing about them… I suppose, it’s a toss-up between Earth’s End and Fire Falling. Earth’s End just wows me with the background Meril created, it’s going to be a gorgeous hardcover book. There’s also a lot of teasers in there. But, Fire Falling has Aldrik on the cover, and that’s never a bad thing!
About the Author
Elise Kova has always had a passion for storytelling. She wrote her first novella, a high-fantasy, in sixth grade. Over the years she's honed her love of literature with everything from fantasy to romance, science fiction to mystery, and whatever else catches her eye.
Elise lives in Saint Petersburg, Florida, where she's currently working on the next installment in her debut YA fantasy series: Air Awakens. She enjoys video games, anime, table-top role playing games, and many other forms of "geekdom". She loves talking with fans on Twitter (@EliseKova) and Facebook. Visit her website, EliseKova.com, for news and extras about her books!
Raffle
The good news doesn't end with the cover reveal! Elise has a raffle going on for a whole host of goodies that one lucky soul will walk away with, including:
- Air Awakens "Shatter the Sky" Canvas Bag
- Silver Wing Earrings
- Signed Paperback of Air Awakens OR Fire Falling
- Signed Air Awakens Postcard
- Signed Air Awakens, Fire Falling, and Earth's End Bookmark Set
Curious! I never knew the process through which cover art is created/chosen. I'm one of those people who tends to choose or pass over a book based on its cover, and Air Awakens caught my eye! I'm so glad it did too!! Very interesting post and beautiful cover, as before!!
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