Yeah, yeah, this is about judging people for what’s inside, not what’s outside, but listen. If you are going to include books in your figure of speech I am going to talk about it. There are far too many amazing cover artists and designers for us to keep using this phrase!

Here are some of my favourite cover artists, who are some of yours?

Gary Ruddell

This cover of The Kindly Ones by Melissa Scott is one of my all-time favourite book covers. I mean look at it. It is absolutely gorgeous. I adore the details in the folds of the fabric.

Think about the fact that this cover was painted traditionally. As a digital artist I’m definitely not one of those “digital art isn’t real art” people, but there is definitely a whole other skill set required to produce an actual painting. (Believe me, I’m terrible at it)

Gary Ruddell’s work is seen all over vintage sci-fi covers from Lois McMaster Bujold to Dan Simmons. Unfortunately, most of his book cover art days seem to be in the past.

Tomer Hanuka

I first saw Tomer Hanuka’s work on the cover of Persephone Station by Stina Leicht (which you can seem my review of here) and fell in love. It’s bright, bold, and incredibly eye-catching. And you can really describe all of his work this way.

Tomer’s work has appeared on the cover of The New Yorker and National Geographic.

His work is bright, vivid, and uses colour beautifully and creatively. Honestly, his way of using colour and his composition are artistic goals for me. I highly recommend checking out his website or his instagram page to see more.

Aykut Aydogdo

I fell in love with the cover of Wilder Girls (which I’ve talked about on instagram here) the moment I saw it. I really love how soft, and yet still creepy, the girl on the cover is.

The rest of Aykat’s work is very similar thematically. His work is stunning, has slick colour palettes, and often veers from the beautiful directly into the uncanny.

You should definitely check out his website or his instagram to check out more of his work if any of these piece’s pique your interest,

Alyssa Winans

Alyssa Winans is the artist behind some of my favourite tor dot com novellas (which you can see me raving about here, here, and here!) These covers are so striking. I love the depth of the colours.

Alyssa works has appeared across many book covers, graced the front of google in a number of google doodles. And she is also a game artist! I really like the texture’s in her style. You can check out her website or instagram.

Tommy Arnold

You have probably seen Tommy Arnold’s work gracing the cover of Gideon the Ninth (which you can read my review of here), Harrow the Ninth, and, more recently, C.L. Clark’s The Unbroken.

Tommy is clearly a skilled artist. His pieces have beautiful depth, texture, lighting, and motion. I definitely feel like both of the women in these pictures are about to beat me up.

He has worked for all of your favourite SFF publishers from Tor to Saga to Orbit to Del Rey. You can see more of his work on his website and on instagram.