February 13, 2012
by Owen
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January 2, 2012
by Owen
2 Comments
Cover Art for “Legends of Nuvia: The Soul of Kaesh”
I had the recent pleasure of working with Bramasta Aji on the artwork for my first novel which featured one of the main characters, Akiva. I could not be any happier with his work and I cannot wait to have him do more artwork for my website, promotional material, and other future books. I explained to him how I wanted the armor to look, the features Akiva should have, and by the final draft everything was perfect. I promised my wife that Akiva would resemble her and at the end, it most definitely did.
Bramasta was great to work with, extremely responsive, fast, and I highly recommend him if you like his style. Below I show the progression starting with the initial concepts he sent me all the way up to the final piece.
Initial Concept Sketches
When he sent me the sketches he asked if I liked one of the poses and if so, which one. I chose the one on the left. I also made sure he knew that Akiva carried two swords.
Initial concept art for "Legends of Nuvia: The Soul of Kaesh" book cover, featuring Akiva.
First Draft
In the first draft the swords were too small so I asked him to make them bigger. I could already tell that the armor was going to be awesome.
First draft for "Legends of Nuvia: The Soul of Kaesh" book cover, featuring Akiva.
Second Draft
Some proportional changes.
Second draft for "Legends of Nuvia: The Soul of Kaesh" book cover, featuring Akiva.
Third Draft
He added a lot more detail, got the swords the right size, but the hair was way too light and the face was also not resembling my wife.
Third draft for "Legends of Nuvia: The Soul of Kaesh" book cover, featuring Akiva.
Fourth Draft
First draft that was in color and I could really start to see her take shape.
Fourth draft for "Legends of Nuvia: The Soul of Kaesh" book cover, featuring Akiva.
Fifth Draft
Fifth draft for "Legends of Nuvia: The Soul of Kaesh" book cover, featuring Akiva.
Sixth Draft
Sixth draft for "Legends of Nuvia: The Soul of Kaesh" book cover, featuring Akiva.
Seventh Draft
This was the initial final draft proposed but I had a few changes that I wanted made: the hair needed to be much darker (black), I felt the thighs were a bit too large which made her head look too small, and her face didn’t resemble my wife.
Seventh draft for "Legends of Nuvia: The Soul of Kaesh" book cover, featuring Akiva.
Final Draft
Perfect! Akiva looks awesome, looks like my wife, and he even got the two moles that she has on her chin.
Final cover art for "Legends of Nuvia: The Soul of Kaesh", featuring Akiva.
The Cover
Here is the cover with the title and name. Looks pretty awesome if you ask me 
Cover for "Legends of Nuvia: The Soul of Kaesh".
December 29, 2011
by Owen
0 comments
How to contact your senators and congressmen / congresswoman to help stop SOPA
First, SOPA is a horrible piece of damaging legislation. You can read more about that at Name.com’s blog here: Getting On Our SOPA Box and watch a very telling video about it here: Be a HERO and Help STOP SOPA Now!!. Essentially, the same companies that are pushing for SOPA are the same ones that have been distributing piracy software and promoting piracy itself for over a decade,
This post is about contacting your congressman, congresswoman, and senators to let them know how you feel about SOPA.
Find your senators:
senate.gov
Find your congressperson:
house.gov
At both of those sites you enter your zip code and or address to find your representatives. You have one representative in congress and two state senators. Do this now!
Once you get to the contact page you will then need to fill in your information. Use your correct info so that they know you are a legitimately concerned citizen. You can use your own words if you like but here is an example of the message I sent my representatives:
How come the same companies that are pushing for and supporting SOPA are the same ones that have been distributing and promoting piracy software, and piracy itself, for over a decade? They’ve sued and had individuals jailed for doing the exact same thing they have been advocating on their own websites, using software they distribute via their own websites. It’s an outrage.
Watch this entire video, it’s a huge eye opener:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJIuYgIvKscSOPA is of course only one example of corporations complete hypocrisy. I think you should play this video for your colleagues when debating SOPA and pretty much any law corporate lobbyists are pushing so that everyone can see how lawmakers are being used as pawns to help fulfill these horrendous corporate agendas.