Concept Sketch for "Fool's Illusion" Book Cover

Here's my concept sketch for my upcoming fiction collection, The Fool's Illusion, that I promised you centuries ago. It's only the illustration itself; I have not put the lettering in yet. I plan to have the lettering in by next weekend. You can see the title in its font, "Twisted Roman", by itself by clicking here. Let me know what you think of the illustration (or the font, or both) by leaving your comments in the comments box.

Until next time . . .





The Fool/magician will be coloured black and white (especially his costume) and the background will be solid black. I'm trying to give the surreal effect of a magic show (gone wrong?) performing in an eternal black space. The spotlights are to be the only signs of grounding (if any). The black background will be included behind the title and author's byline once the two are put in there. Never mind the penguin in the upper right hand corner. That's Larry Ewing's that got in there by mistake (see credit note below); he is in no way at fault for it.

Image Credit: Steven Rose, Jr. (Linux Penguin in upper right hand corner credited to Larry Ewing but Rose had no intention of putting it there so it is not part of the sketch. In other words, ignore it as far as looking at the sketch goes. The sketch was done on scratch paper  that happened to have Mr. Ewing's penguin on the back and therefore the penguin showed through the photo scan. So don't expect to see a penguin on the cover when The Fool's Illusion is released. Rose doesn't waste paper and so acknowledges that trees give their lives [or their lives are taken, if you prefer] for it.)