It is amazing to watch a writers’ vision become reality. I have been fortunate to work for a few years now with a writer from Tucson Arizona; R.L. Clayton. We started with an image for his first book, an image  that was only as clear as a photograph in his mind, this is where the artist becomes the mind reader. What’s most important in this step of the process is to truly listen to the client, not just create what you think would be great but listen to what they see and make it reality for them. We  worked together to create the image of a new form of humanity that lived on the sea in large ship-like crafts that looked more like cities. He had the vision of the DNA Helix and how the man’s DNA was evolving into a new species of man. The cover for the first book in the evolution series was born; Sea Species.

What followed was an initial website dedicated to the book Sea Species and exciting updates on the books to be included in the trilogy. The next installment was the Envoy, a book about how man has left the sea and reaches to the  universe as his species evolves. The cover pretty much painted itself, it was a planet scene and the vision was a bit easier to describe than the previous cover. The colors were vivid and where initial book cover was predominantly red, violet and green became the color scheme for the second book. The colors of both books worked together to complement each other and in the future that would be very important to tie the series together.

We weren’t far into updating the site and adding the cover to the list of products he was creating when the third in the series was to be described. While we were working on the covers, the books were being perfected and even now the last in the series was on board to be written and perfectly finessed as only the passion of a writer would insist.

The third book in the series made the first book seem as if it were an easy image to perceive from word to picture. The idea was a network of lights, a glowing tendril of creation that would finish off the series with the same mystery and drama that started it. Over several weeks of going back and forth with images that kind of worked, that definitely didn’t work and finally and ultimately the image of Genesis was created. The writer had a strong image of what he wanted and would not bend from the original idea and concept and in the end we were able to create an image we were both proud of.

Since the beginning of the series we have created a video that encompasses all of the books. It is an introduction to a very exciting series of books on the future evolution of man and it takes the viewer on a journey from sea to the stars and beyond. Check out the website and let me know what you think of the Evolution Series by R.L. Clayton.