Tag: pulp magazine

I was approached recently to create a cover for issue #3 of the popular “Steampunk Tales“ collection of stories. Advertised as the first ever electronic pulp fiction magazine published exclusively on iPhone and iPod touch.

Borrowing from the flavor of one of the ongoing stories “The Mask of Tezcatlipoca” by G.D. Falksen, I worked up a tight sketch from some thumbnail explorations and included a font choice for the magazine title. Once approved, I proceeded to create the finish, using Corel’s Painter software. The pencil sketch was scanned and I started with black line work mixed with some scratchboard treatments around the face and grass. All the line work behind the figure was selected with the magic wand tool and I substituted the black with greens and browns to soften the background. Color was than added, below the line work layer and a floral texture was added to the vest. The final step was adding a variety of textures over the entire area with beige and sepia colors to “age” its look and dull down the colors. I used thin line strokes along the left “magazine spine,” the edges and the corners to emulate some dog ears and stress.