I REALLY don't know what I did without a graphics tablet.

So I'm working towards the next Felicia book, The Hazard Chase and I knew what I wanted on the cover; the Notre Dame, Raoul, Comte de Beauville sur Rhone aka The Wolf: une jolie page; and our hero and heroine of course.
Well I expect I could actually have drawn it quicker than the time it took me to put together the elements, in fact I know I could have done, but using some original woodcuts doesn't half give an air of authenticity.  And it was fun, and I learned a few more things I could do with my machine. And with the graphics tablet, essentially I could also do my own drawing into it.

Two shots of Paris, and though the second is a perfectly good picture of Paris it doesn't show me the Notre Dame lowering over the place [I have a picture somewhere from outside the walls. It's in a book.  Can I find the wretched thing?  no.  So I had to make do with sticking two pictures together...]

Next, Gozzoli's Journey of the Magi.  The fancy bloke on the white horse was a starting point for Wolf, and the pretty page for... the pretty page.  So A bit of jiggery pokery and a lot of line drawing on my part to bring the costumes forward to 1511, and to tinker the faces to my satisfaction and in they went, facing each other.

  And then... well I could have redrawn Robin and Felicia but by this time I was feeling lazy...

I particularly liked Felicia's face in this one... so I just cut them out and stuck them on.

How did I manage before I had a graphics tablet?

The gentle reader who has followed my blog will have seen the posts I've made about how I put together some of my covers here and here.  Well, I've moved more and more into cutting out and applying figures from Ackermann's prints into Ackermann's prints, and how I managed to do 'Friends and Fortunes' with a touch pad to hold down my cursor to put all those little sepia figures in, never mind Victor and Gilly is a matter that turned the air blue at times. 

So, now I have upgraded to Paintshop Pro 9, and a Wacom Bamboo graphics tablet which I thoroughly recommend. 
I had started work on the cover of 'None So Blind' which will be my next regency out, but with the tablet, I had the confidence to do a major repaint of both faces, as his was very low res, and hers was... well very red and very white.  Cleaning up the edges becomes a doddle too...

So here are the starting points!  The man and woman are both 1812, she's from Ackermann's and he's a French fashion plate which may account for him fiddling with the volume button a la Napoleon.

This is what I've made of it so far:

 

No blurb as yet, still wrestling with that... 

Anyway, encouraged by my tablet I started playing about.... 

Here I have a print with foreground and sky added to make it the right proportions to wrap around as a book cover...

 

I pulled up the colour on this by increasing the saturation  but her face was obscured, and it may not be strictly accurate but I cut the bonnet away for the final pic, gave her another eye, and some curls to make her face stand out.  I added a hero for her too.

 And now all I need to do is to write a story to suit it... 

The hero and heroine in this one came as a pair, and I'm not about to turn down an absolute gift like that - they are from Le Beau Monde 1807

And this one is a book on the go, 'The Unwilling Viscount' is 8 chapters in so far...

And just in case I manage a sequel to Vanities and Vexations, I have found some different pilasters to make the foreground from, to put people against.  I used the eyedropper to get the exact same colour as the original...

Not much to look at now, but with pretty ladies and dashing gents leaning on it, who knows!

Guest Blog: Why not Regency? by Giselle Marks.

Last post was about Giselle's up and coming book 'The Fencing Master's Daughter' for which yours truly did the cover illustration and got the chance to read an early draft.  Giselle has been asked why she writes Regencies, and this is her comment.

Why not Regency?

By Giselle Marks

So why did I write Regencies?  I could argue that I’ve always enjoyed Georgette Heyer and find reading Regency Romances a relaxing occupation. Yet while those statements are true that is a far too simplistic explanation.  My love of history and the period are other obvious factors but still not the whole story.  Yes, the period was an “Interesting Time” with England engaged in two major wars at the same time.  Wellington was busy contending in the Iberian peninsula against Napoleon’s armies while the American battle for independence from Britain was under way across the ocean.  

Scientific advances were finally beginning to change the lives of the people across the classes. But the real sudden explosion of invention and progress was in its infancy.  As the Regency and the end of the Georgian period closed with Queen Victoria’s accession, change was far more rapid. The combination of the industrial revolution and the hypocritically puritanical attitude of the Victorians distanced modern women from that particular era.  Even the installation of something approaching modern plumbing in Victorian days does not cancel out the increased rigidity of expected female behaviour in modern eyes. Even as women began to have some small rights, they found themselves further oppressed. 

The sexuality of most Victorian women was vigorously suppressed and when allowed free expression resulted in those women being considered pariahs to the rest of society.  From the point of view of modern women the Victorian era is just somehow not sexy.  It might be romantic but it makes modern women feel restricted and dis-empowered.  The sermonising, casuistry and prurience of the Victorians complicates drawing readers into our character’s lives for a writer.  

Setting romance in contemporary times does not appeal to me at present.  I don’t rule out writing some but it would be raunchier and perhaps not so romantic.  Modern fashions mostly eschew the silks and muslins of the Regency but the expectations in relationships are also different.  The supposed sexual liberation of the sixties and the rise of feminism confused the issue, neither gender really understand their place in our modern world.  Supposed equality increases the pressure on women to be sexually available, but long held prejudices against female promiscuity persist.  So they are damned if they do and damned if they decline.  

Nor will they be truly liberated until the older generation’s views on women’s sexuality change and the English language begins to reflect that change. Currently there is a dichotomy and inequality in language where many negative words exist for sexually promiscuous women but those describing men with similar proclivities glory in their conquests.  The disappointment many modern women feel about how men treat them draws them to an older age, when men were gentlemen who would court a woman.

Earlier periods can also set romantic stories beautifully.  The heroines and heroes can wear wonderful clothing, ride gorgeous horses and the speed of life is slower.  I intend at some point to write in some other periods, when I have a story that needs to be told.  Yet the Regency period has a strange romantic attraction, perhaps the tight fitting male costume was just a bit sexier but somehow it seems the ultimate setting for passionate romance.

Sounds good to me, Giselle!  some deep thoughts there, which I'm inclined to find myself agreeing with.  And if you make a foray into earlier periods, maybe we'll see something of one of Edward's ancestors... 

 

Review: 'The Fencing Master's Daughter' by Giselle Marks

I admit I have a vested interest in this book as I did do the artwork for the cover.  I originally did it in midnight blue, but Giselle prefers green, and that's what computer paint programs are for!

Here's the blurb:

Edward, Earl of Chalcombe, walking home, is attacked by footpads. He attempts to defend himself but is bludgeoned to the ground. Death seems inevitable when a fat ugly man carrying a stick and a beautiful slender young lady appeared. The young lady stumbles and picks up his dropped foil, dispatching one footpad and injuring another. The fat man belabours a third with his stick. The footpads flee, leaving their deceased comrade behind. The rescuers bundle Edward home.
The young lady, Madelaine summons the Bow Street runners. Refusing reward she provides no address. But Edward fascinated by both Madelaine’s beauty and swordsmanship intends to pursue the acquaintance. Edward seeks his rescuers and the culprits who wish to terminate his life. Offering the elusive Madelaine marriage but she repeatedly declines. Her father accepts an invitation to visit his estate with her over Christmas as he takes a liking to Edward. As Edward pursues Madelaine, the attempts on his life continue. The sinister French spy, Major Furet, discovered as the arch nemesis in both Edward and Madelaine’s stories. The mystery intertwines as their romance progresses and Madelaine eventually reveals the secret making her refuse to marry him.

The Fencing Master's Daughter is a fast-paced and exciting story with plenty of romance in it but too with a well-crafted and plausible plotline, and - you all know my preferences - some delightfully drawn secondary characters.  The reader wants Edward and Madelaine to be together where they belong, and long to find out why she refuses the offer of marriage from a man she's plainly in love with.  
Madelaine is a heroine after my own heart, no shrinking violet!  She has no hesitation in setting out on a rescue when it becomes necessary, and is a perfect foil - pun intended - to the intrepid Edward.  

find it HERE  at Front Porch Romance
 
Below the two original pastel pictures I did....