Hello there allies, archenemies and, everyone in between! Do you ever just stroll aimlessly and find yourself unknowingly nearing the bookstore and thinking “Not today Satan!” but whoopsie! Wait a second. What’s that pretty little cover peeking at you? *GASPS* A new edition? A new illustrated cover? A new potential favorite book?
Look at that gilded patterns and eye-catching typography! Those colors just seem to glow brighter and brighter beckoning you to join their multilayered spectrum until you become an irreplaceable part of the hive mind and you can sense every strand of life vibrating and coexisting within…oops. Anyway, you probably know what happens next.
We’ve all fallen prey in the trappings of the glam and glitter of book covers. Our wallets weep for us while we shamelessly block the nagging voice inside our head saying the “Don’t judge a book by its cover” mantra. We all know by now that it’s pure utter bullsht because apparently, we just can’t help ourselves. THEY’RE PRETTY OK?? Nobody blames you for that.
With that said it’s high time that we acknowledge the people that painstakingly breathe life to the many book covers we revere and sacrifice the blood of the virgins to (or you know, our 2 weeks worth of allowance)
Tran Nguyen
Tran Nguyen’s artwork for one of Tor’s short stories “La beauté sans vertu” is the first book cover that drove me to my knees in a hushed prayer. Dang girl, her art style is quite distinct and unique AND THEY’RE JUST SO FCKING PRETTY OK??? She incorporates sharp and bold details with the dominating subtleties perpetually present in her work. It’s contrasting yet compelling!
Tran’s Instagram | Tran’s Website
Feifei Ruan
Here’s another artist to watch out for! Feifei Ruan created the cover for Descendant of the Crane and it’s just so freaking gorgeous. Her art style and compositions always give off the amalgam of traditional Asian paintings and modern intricate details. I adore her artworks and her usual color palettes are just a sight to behold!
Feifei’s Instagram | Feifei’s Website
Charlie Bowater
Charlie Bowater is a staple cover illustrator for the YA SF/F genre. I mean you’ve probably seen her illustrations all over Goodreads and even her fan arts! She’s mostly known for an Enchantment of Ravens as well as her fan arts for ACOTAR and ToG merch.
Charlie’s Instagram | Charlie’s Website
Miraphora Mina and Eduardo Lima (MinaLima)
These two are responsible for the iconic Art Deco designs of the Fantastic Beasts Screenplays! As well as coming up with the overall graphic universe design of the Harry Potter Series. They’re artworks mostly lean on fleshing out the details and it’s a treasure trove of delight picking on the symbolism present in their work!
MinaLima’s Instagram | MinaLima’s Website
Felix Ortiz
Never Die by Rob J. Hayes was one of the books I’ve read this year and while it turned out to be a lackluster one for me, the book cover is undoubtedly FULL OF LUSTER. Felix Ortiz art style is heavily laden with brush strokes and he often do cover arts for Adult Fantasy books.
Richard Anderson
Here’s another staple cover artist for Adult Fantasy book covers! Richard Anderson’s works can also be pretty reminiscent of Ortiz’ style but the difference is defined by their varying brush works. My favorite work of his is probably that of Skullsworn; also that’s just one of my favorite book for the year too so yup!
Jung Shan Chang
Behold the legendary maker of The Poppy War’s iconic stylized ink book cover! Jung Shan Chang is hands down amazing. Yup. I have no proper adjectives to describe his works just that, I really have to thank him for creating the cover of one of the best books that I’ve read in my entire life. Who’s excited for The Dragon Republic??? DEFINITELY ME.
Add it on Goodreads | Read an Early Excerpt
Carlos Quevedo
First of all, I’ve never heard of Carlos Quevado until I tried to search the artist behind The Candle and the Flame. His cover arts are usually portraits of the protagonist of the book and they all have an ethereal glow and elements present.
Carlos’ Instagram | Carlos’ Website
Add it on Goodreads
Add it on Goodreads
Erick Davila
Erick Davila’s art style can be perfectly described by one word: feminine. His artworks are all laden with feminine color palettes! He also designed the cover for With the Fire on High which is, by the way, an amazing book so YEZ PLZ.
Erick’s Instagram | Erick’s Website
Chris Rahn
Last but definitely not the least is Chris Rahn! He designed Brandon Sanderson’s novella Children of the Nameless which is, by the way, Sanderson’s gift to all of his fans. It’s set in one of the planes of the game Magic: The Gathering. However, you don’t have to play or know the game to enjoy the book! It’s a whole different story arc.
Welp. This was super fun to make and absolutely tiring. However, I’m really proud of this list and I hope you guys would also show the love and support these artists deserve! We owe to them our pretty book collections my friends.
- Who’s your favorite artist among these?
- Do you know some other artists that creates amazing book covers? If so, please let me know in the comments!
- Who’s your all-time favorite artist book related or not?
R E A (D) I V I N E 
I love this post! Cover designers don’t get enough love but MAN are they talented!
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Yeeeesss they deserve all the love and support! Thank you for appreciating this post :)))
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I love this post! People always talk about beautiful cover art, but never the actual artist! My favourite artists (not book related) are probably Van Gogh, Tim Burton, and Da Vinci☺
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Thank you!!! No truer words were spoken. Most of the time readers would just praise the book cover and automatically think it’s by the author. Which is probs half true because of the conceptualization process but honestly, these artists also need the recognition they deserve!
Yeeess I also those artists! Have you watched the unsolved murder episode about Van Gogh in Buzzfeed? It has an in depth analysis, I think you would like it :>
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Could not agree more!
I havent. I didn’t even know it existed until now! I will definitely be watching it, thank you!☺
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This is such a great post!! Usually you never think about the whole process of the cover design and it’s so important!! I can’t choose which cover I like most 😍😍
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YESSSS our artists have their secrets hahahah but it’s nice to remember that a book is a sum of the works of a lot of creative people :> Thanks Ella!
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Ahh… yes I love book covers and I definitely think that can attract you to a book. And I definitely think the cover artists deserve lots of credit.
I loved looking at your list and there are so many beautiful covers in this post!! Feifei Ruan has some beautiful covers!! And I adore The Crimes of Grindelwald’ cover– I loved the detail and colours. Jung Shan Chang made beautiful covers for The Poppy War and The Dragon Republic– I love them!!
I have always loved the cover emergency contact designed by ‘gg’!! The pastel pinks and gold with the black illustration– ahhh I love it!!
Great post!! ❤
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Thank you so much Sophie!!!!
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Great post! Cover art and artist need more said about them. Love this. And because you asked, Richard Anderson is my fav current cover artist.
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Thanks Jason! Good choice hahahah I’m hoping that I could find more artists in the SF/F genre soon and make a whole new separate list :>
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This was an awesome post!! I would definitely put Tommy Arnold and Chris McGrath on my list!
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WOAAHHH I looked them up! Their artstyle is amazing plus they’re hyperrealistic as well. Thank you so much for appreciating this! :>
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Welcome!! It’s an important thing to consider!! That first impression is such a big deal & the cover is instrumental in getting people interested! I should’ve added (and echoed) that Richard Anderson is also my favorite…his style is just absolutely incredible, and will forever define the period of time when I *really* got obsessed with fantasy novels, and the amazing cover art that goes along with them!
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I LOVE BOOK COVERS SO MUCH. BLESS YOU, COVER ARTISTS. ❤ All the examples you showed are stunning and beautiful (I followed a bunch of them because they deserve it!) and I'm so incredibly giddy and happy that the covers are getting prettier and prettier constantly! For the last couple of years, the number of covers that I loved went up and up and now there are so many. The cover art landscape in general is exceptional right now and on an all-time-high! THANK YOU SO MUCH for making this post! c:
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Awwwww thank you so much for the love Janina! Cover artists get little credit and appreciation uwuuuu and I also agree! There has been a boom in the production of exceptional covers, the more reason for us to be tempted to buy these books I guess ahhahaha
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You included some AMAZING artists here! I especially love Tran Nguyen’s and Charlie Bowater’s work! Gosh, there are just so many talented artists out there – this post makes me want to shout about them all to the world! Thanks for spotlighting them in this lovely article 💛💛💛
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Thank you Kat!!!! Aaaaaahhhh my heart is full hahahah thank you also for your previous interview with some amazing artists!!
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Fantastic blog idea, the artist’s that design book covers really need more credit. Plus I’ve definitely given in to the allure of pretty covers. I ordered The Deathless Girls into the library then ended up buying it instead because it was so stunning in person. I had to have Spin The Dawn in print because of the cover. And I love Sorcery Of Thorns cover as well as Descendant Of The Cranes. There are just too many gorgeous covers this year 😍😍 also I’m kind of wary about reading Fantastic Beasts because it’s a play rather than a novel but I almost caved and brought the second one when I saw how stunning it was in print. And Candle & Flame is gorgeous too. I also love the cover for Chain Of Gold by Cassandra Clare. My favourite artists are ones like Victoria Frances, Melanie Delon & Cris Ortega. I found them all through jigsaw puzzles 😅 I so love their style of art though!! I’ll have to look into who designs my favourite book covers a bit more though.
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Such a fantastic post!! I’ve been working hard on my blog to acknowledge cover artists whenever I talk about books because, like you, I don’t think they get nearly enough attention. I mean, we often GUSH about their amazing work (their covers) without ever acknowledging the artists themselves! So kudos to you for putting the spotlight on these artists.
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