Hiring an Illustrator

[Rhett Gervais]

I'm in a weird spot, I have hired a fantastic cover designer and  I love his work, but we've run into a snag that seems very difficult to overcome. My protagonist is mixed race(Black) and it is almost impossible to find stock images to produce the look I want on the cover (none of the major stock image producers have more than one or two black subjects in their portfolio)

Should I just hire an Illustrator to draw the character? will it look odd, to have part of the cover drawn and the other part from a picture.

Please excuse if this question sounds ignorant, I am new at this.

Thanks in advance

[Tom Wood]

When entering the term 'mixed race' into the Getty images search filter, it returns over 660,000 results:


https://www.gettyimages.com/photos/mixed-race?alloweduse=availableforalluses&family=creative&license=rf&phrase=mixed%20race&sort=best#license

[Denise]

I think it's hard to get good stock photos (that can be used for a cover) of mixed race people.


That said, illustrated covers tend to be used for specific genres (fantasy, some sci-fi, lit rpg, etc.). I don't think you should get it illustrated just to display your character. Sometimes it takes forever to find a good stock photo, but it's doable. Another option is to have a cover without the character.


What genre is the book?

[WasAnn]

Perhaps it would help to know the cover layout so far, which would allow folks to give some specific recommendations.

Mixed race can be hard for dynamic poses if you want the full face, but lots of covers don't have the full face, which makes it easier. Depending on genre, that's often preferred.

Depositphotos and Getty Stock have loads and loads of mixed race. NeoStock has some new and wonderful stuff too. You might have a peek at those.

[Rhett Gervais]

Perhaps it would help to know the cover layout so far, which would allow folks to give some specific recommendations.

Mixed race can be hard for dynamic poses if you want the full face, but lots of covers don't have the full face, which makes it easier. Depending on genre, that's often preferred.

Depositphotos and Getty Stock have loads and loads of mixed race. NeoStock has some new and wonderful stuff too. You might have a peek at those.

The basic pose is a military parade rest (Guy with his hands behind his back, chest out, chin up) On either profile. Neo stock has exactly two black subjects, one male and one female. We found a white subject almost immidiatly, everything else has been a slog. Anyway thanks for the imput.

[WasAnn]

Personally, I love this guy's group of photos for military poses. He's incredibly competent looking, plus sexy, which is always good.

https://www.neo-stock.com/-/galleries/action-suspense/regis-post-apoc

Mixed race is super hard, a specific pose like that is even harder. On my latest (Portals in sig), I had such a hard time that the cover designer finally made her in a 3D model, so we could get exactly what we wanted. She's mixed as well (Indian as in India and White).

Since all my books have pretty much mixed race characters, I totally feel your pain here. Honestly, it takes a really dedicated cover designer to find the right photo.

[Denise]

You could find a suitable image and then do a head swap, and change the skin tone for hands, arms, etc. 


I think a good cover designer who does photomanipulation could do that. Melody Simmons is in this forum and she's great with head swaps.


As an aside, one of the reasons I chose illustration for my current series is that I wanted ethnically ambiguous characters.

[Rhett Gervais]

You could find a suitable image and then do a head swap, and change the skin tone for hands, arms, etc. 


I think a good cover designer who does photomanipulation could do that. Melody Simmons is in this forum and she's great with head swaps.


As an aside, one of the reasons I chose illustration for my current series is that I wanted ethnically ambiguous characters.

I want to do the headswap, my cover guys doesn't. Maybe I pay Melody to do this for me...hmm

[WasAnn]

You could find a suitable image and then do a head swap, and change the skin tone for hands, arms, etc. 


I think a good cover designer who does photomanipulation could do that. Melody Simmons is in this forum and she's great with head swaps.


As an aside, one of the reasons I chose illustration for my current series is that I wanted ethnically ambiguous characters.

I want to do the headswap, my cover guys doesn't. Maybe I pay Melody to do this for me...hmm

No head swap? That's odd. It's sort of a given nowadays with so many choices out there and the need to make stock photos less recognizable.

[Rhett Gervais]

You could find a suitable image and then do a head swap, and change the skin tone for hands, arms, etc. 


I think a good cover designer who does photomanipulation could do that. Melody Simmons is in this forum and she's great with head swaps.


As an aside, one of the reasons I chose illustration for my current series is that I wanted ethnically ambiguous characters.

I want to do the headswap, my cover guys doesn't. Maybe I pay Melody to do this for me...hmm

No head swap? That's odd. It's sort of a given nowadays with so many choices out there and the need to make stock photos less recognizable.

I want to thank you, I didn't see that the model had different sets, I have found a few that I like! super excited now!

Cheers

[WasAnn]

I want to thank you, I didn't see that the model had different sets, I have found a few that I like! super excited now!

Cheers

Yay! So glad I could help!