The Crystilleries of Echoland: Behind the Scenes: 3 Covers & 82 Illustrations

The illustrations in The Crystilleries of Echoland began with a letter.

“Your intriguing work captured my eye and imagination. I’d therefore like to see if I can harness your skill to make a dream come to life…”

I didn't write this. It was my best-friend. He sent an email to the very talented Andy Simmons. Andy was magnificent. The see-through, sparkling world of the Echoes intrigued him. He started sending illustration after illustration our way.

Here's Andy's work on the cover. This is the cover for an earlier edition of the novel called, "The Sound and the Echoes". Look carefully and you'll see that my pen name changed during this process from Lucid Pellucid to Dew Pellucid...but that's another story for another day.

After changing the original novel considerably, I decided to publish it under its current title: "The Crystilleries of Echoland". And then I worked on a new cover for the novel, working with the old image files on Affinity Photo for Mac.

Next came the illustrations inside the novel. I included all of Andy's original illustrations, scattered throughout the book. But I also wanted each chapter to begin with a small illustration. This was a daunting prospect, because the novel has over 60 chapters. Using Andy's art, free online photographs and my own photographs, I used Affinity Photo for Mac and Photoscape X to create the images I needed. Here are some of my favorites: