Fall Markets: Support Your Local Artists!

September 29, 2025

FALL MARKETS: SUPPORT LOCAL ARTISTS!

Fall came out of nowhere and here we are with pumpkin beverages materialized in hand. You’re tired of the overly-processed versions of Fall flavors. You want the real thing! Enter your local holiday markets, fairs, and conventions.

This year I will be vending with ICON for the first time in October, which in this case is a half-season mini con. The vendor hall is at the Masonic Lodge with ICON events the night of October 10 and all day October 11. The vendor hall will be open from 11am-4:55pm.

There will be other locations for events in the surrounding walkable area of downtown Iowa City. October 11 also coincides with the Iowa City Book Festival at Merge! Both events are free to the public, but there are ICON panels and activities that are available with purchasing a con badge ($25 for adult and $2 for kids).

More information on ICON 49.5 here!

I am putting the cart out before the horse a little bit for this Holiday Market. To be clear, the Parks & Rec Holiday Market in Iowa City is definitely happening, but my spot hasn’t been guaranteed yet. This is a great local market with unique crafts and goodies that tend to get buried in online search engines. You should go regardless if you are in the area!

Even Etsy has become suspect for mass-produced items and generative AI that is cleverly marketed to look like artisanal goods. Support your local artists and craftspeople by going out to your local markets and fairs. You will find something truly unique and get to know real people!

SKETCHES

Here are new animal sketches from the past month to enjoy! I have been spending some time at the Iowa City Museum of Natural History, which has an amazing taxidermy collection open to the public.

Typography Basics for Illustrated Book Covers: Content

November 1, 2024

Last time, we looked at how genre informed book cover typography. For this installment, we are going to look at a novel’s content: story, mood, and theme. How can we use the content itself to hone in on typography decisions?

Great content to use for a book cover includes that which:

Aligns with the genre
Provides an element unique to the book
Is visually appealing/attention-grabbing
Plays a major role in the plot

We have a range of options available to us within the content of a novel and some of it can represent the novel well, but may not work as a cover. You can narrow down content by considering how it aligns with the points above.

The best way to explain how content informs typography is to look at a few of my book covers and explain the process. Keep in mind that I start out with a much more extensive content list when I first read a book. I will go over the boiled-down content that makes it to the final cover. Let's check it out!

Worlds Apart

Content: outer space, aliens, alien cities, space ships, pre-teen suburban characters, middle school
Mood: adventure, suspense, drama, wonder, loyalty, resilience
Themes: friendship, relationships, self-discovery, science and technology

Worlds Apartrequired a clean, minimal look to the text that is ideal for the sci fi genre. The wide, short characters of this particular font, "Excluded", strongly suggests fonts of popular sci fi adventure IPs like Star Wars. The content of the novel that could inform the typography needed to be subtle, so I went with creating a material effect on the letters. In this case, I made the letters look like neon tubing. It's bright, screams "sci fi", and makes direct reference to the content of the novel. The protagonist spends most of her time in a dense futuristic city on an alien planet, which is filled with neon signs. This concept will carry through each book in the series, with the title font staying the same, but changing material to reflect new alien worlds.

Buddy the Knight and the Queen of Sorrow

Content: stuffed animal characters, fairytale-like lands (dark castle), medieval objects and archetypes (swords, amulets, wizards)
Mood: classic, nostalgic, epic, adventure, suspense
Themes: friendship, courage, teamwork

Buddy reads like a classic fairytale about a brave knight and makes many mentions of chivalry and knighthood. This was a primary focus for the font and motif elements. The choice of using a decorative border motif, especially in gold, makes a direct reference to the beautiful gold foil on vintage books, including illustrated storybooks that often have a series of "vignettes" on the cover with scenes or characters. This partnered with the medieval feel of the serif font ("Yana") brings together the themes and mood of the novel. Delicate swashes, like the swoopy on the "W" fill out the negative space in the composition and adds a little extra decoration that you see in font choices for fairytale book covers. Also note the banner elements for the author name and in the title, which suggests heraldic flags. The content of the novel makes a more direct appearance in the border motif with the inclusion of the owl, which is one of the important stuffed animal characters.

Princess Rouran and the Dragon Chariot of 10,0000 Sages

Content: Chinese mythological creatures (dragon Qiu niu), magic door, Chinese zither, Rouran Khaganate
Mood: philosophical, surreal, mystery, adventure, epic
Themes: time-travel, society and culture, teamwork, historic events, mythology

Princess Rouran is a YA novel with some relatively sophisticated topics, so I went with a delicate approach to incorporating the content of the novel into the typography. I used Trajan Pro 3 for the title, which is a great go-to for YA and adult fantasy. It has a scholarly feel that compliments the historical elements of the novel. I was able to add visual interest by using line-based decorative motifs that I found in pictures of ancient Chinese and Mongolian artifacts. The door knob features a more authentic motif to the Rouran Khaganate (a major setting), while the line motifs on the top and bottom are designs that can technically be found in the same region albeit at a later time period. The motifs bring in a cultural element while the clouds shapes suggest fantasy and mythology. An inner swoosh to the "O" in "Rouran" mimics the horn-like shapes in the motifs and is a small way to add whimsy to the minimal font.

New Canvas Prints

I have a new product that is truly the bee's knees. This is the first stretched canvas print that I've ordered and added to my Etsy store. It's signed and ready to hang without the need for a frame or plexiglass! Could a more perfect gift exist for your mushroom-loving friends?

Go to Etsy

Stock image at top designed by Freepik

Typography Basics for Illustrated Book Covers: Genre

October 1, 2024

Typography to book covers is like the right frame for a painting. It can elevate the art or undermine it. I am going to boil down some beginner tips to approaching cover typography. Let's get into it!

The Golden Rule: Make Every Design Choice Intentional

This applies to all cover design scenarios and if you can only focus on one thing when designing book covers, remember this. When selecting a font or modifying it, make sure there is a good reason for it. The intent behind your typography decisions should be communicating:

the genre
the novel's story/mood/theme
the composition's balance/overall concept

Poor design choices fail to address these factors or try to address a surface-level version. Sometimes typographic choices can be based on trends, but if the trendy font or design concept fails to communicate in these 3 areas for your specific cover situation, it will appear out of place.

The Genre

Genre dictates so much about font choice that you can deduce a novel's genre just by looking at the spine. Go to a library or book store and guess the genre by the font choice on the spine. It's a great exercise!

I will give a few examples from the genres I know best, which is YA and Middle Grade fantasy/sci fi, but some observations can be applied to other genres or conversely show what fonts don't work.

Fonts By Age-Based Genre:

Middle Grade Fiction Fonts: Can be all-caps or mix of caps and lower-case. Can use "hand-drawn" and "naïve" style fonts, conservative on swashes, but letterforms are full of character. Leans towards heavier fonts

YA Fiction Fonts: Usually all-caps except in Paranormal. More variation in weight including thin fonts, heavily modulated fonts, and script fonts. Can include a moderate amount of embellishments. Differs from Adult genres by more color and expressive styles

Fonts By Literary Genre:

Fantasy: Makes greater use of serif and script fonts than other genres, especially fonts that reflect "older" styles. Can use ornaments, glyphs, and other decorative elements. There are a range of font color and textural options depending on sub-genre.

Popular Fantasy Sub-Genres:

Epic/High: Often uses serif fonts that can be medieval and gothic-inspired. Tends to be bold, but elegant. Font color and texture can be metallic or stone-like to suggest royalty or antiquity

Urban: Has flexibility with font style, but often uses sans-serif, graffiti-like, or angular letters to communicate the urban element. Textures can be gritty or on the other end, neon and glowy for city settings

Dark: Makes use of serif fonts that can be gothic, pointy, and distressed in YA. Middle grade showcases more gritty sans-serif fonts

Paranormal: Uses a variety of serif, sans-serif, and script that evoke mystery. Is distinct for many instances of simple lower-case lettering in YA paranormal as well as delicate script fonts with flourishes

Historical: Uses period-inspired fonts that can be serif or calligraphic

Mythic: Uses serif, runic, and inscribed fonts that evoke the visual properties of corresponding ancient written languages. Metallic, stone-like, and celestial textures work well with this genre

Fairytale: Here you will find the most ornate serif and script fonts with generous flourishes. Metallic and glowing effects can also be applicable

Sci Fi: Makes more use of sans-serif fonts, especially fonts that reflect "newer" and "modern" styles. Usually stays away from ornaments and decorative elements and creates visual interest by how the font is incorporated into the image. Font color is often white or light-colored on darker backgrounds, but can utilize silver metallic and neon-inspired finishes that communicate sleek and futuristic

Example Sci Fi Sub-Genres:

Space Opera: Uses bold, futuristic sans-serif fonts. Letters can be notably wide or use heavy kerning to suggest the vastness of space

Dystopian: Uses gritty, distressed sans-serif fonts that are minimalist or industrial. Muted tones like gray, black, and red help express bleak and harsh settings

I will get into how you incorporate the content of the novel as well as working with the overall composition in future typography forays! Feel free to send me your cover design questions and I will fit them in my newsletter!

Stock images designed by Freepik

New Book Covers

July 24, 2024

We won't have a deep dive this month, but a major artwork update that I hope you will enjoy! Here are new covers I designed and illustrated, soon to be published as well as their concepts. I am working with a slew of genres, so I have included that info for the sake of comparison.

I love designing motifs and shiny things; lucky for me I had both for Buddy the Night. The motif frame provided a classic fairytale look that was perfect for the teddybear knight.

Genre: Middle Grade Fantasy

Clash of Crystals also uses a framing element like Buddy the Knight. The novel is a little bit of "Avatar the Last Airbender" meets "Hunger Games". That plus the references to graphic novels in the story led me to channel my inner manga-ka and use graphic elements and linework. The anime room in my heart never left me. :)

Genre: YA Urban Fantasy (Trial, Dystopian)

Mists of Mbali has elements of realism along with mysticism and magic. It was important to highlight the protagonist's eyes and hint at other magic elements.

Genre: YA/New Adult Urban Fantasy

How Reality Can Enhance Fantasy Book Covers

June 7, 2023

Fantasy novels set in different universes depend heavily on the art and culture of the real world, especially ancient civilizations. Princess Rouran relies even more so as it blends modern-day, mythology, and for this book, elements of the Rouran Khaganate who ruled over present Mongolia and northeast China. It takes some care to represent objects and mythical characters from a culture spanning thousands of years and putting in the effort makes artwork more effective and far more interesting.

Here are the preliminary concepts. My art direction for the covers was to choose elements that show something clearly modern and "real" alongside something fantastical. we decided to go with the dragon, who signals a shift in reality and is a guide for the protagonist. The doorway is perfect for this as both a literal and symbolic entryway to the "magical".

You can see in the color concepts that most of the composition has come together. Instead of talking about the rendering process, I want to look at the indirect reference material that went into important design decisions.

The dragon's name in this story is Qiuniu, which comes from the Chinese legend of the 9 Sons of Dragon. Much like the book's approach to "myths are real", I went with a literal approach to the dragon's anatomy, basing it off of traditional representation. The Chinese dragon has a consistent and iconic design, so finding good reference material was straightforward. The color scheme is a little less typical, but I did find plenty of colorful dragons for inspiration.

I was excited about the motif elements on this book cover and found a few examples with the cloud-like shapes I was looking for. The artifacts on the right are Han dynasty.

For the door knob element I was able to have a more direct Rouran influence. The author provided reference to an Iron Age exhibit of artifacts from the Great Steppe, which has a relationship to Rouran design. The horse was hugely important to the Rourans and nomadic peoples of the region, so when I found a horse-shaped motif, I sneakily turned it into a design for the door knob.

It's always good practice to be intentional with every aspect of an illustration!

I am bringing up an album cover illustration I did in the past for musician/composer Myles Power Davis. His EP is out and it is absolute fire! Definitely give it a listen if you like to jam to jazzy instrumentals.

Lastly, I have been slowly adding my art show pieces to my Etsy store and there are so many more framed pieces now!

GO GET ARTSY THINGS!