The Gaki and Other Hungry Spirits

This project had me a little on edge for a couple of reasons. One is that the author is a personal friend who requested Dark Regions Press to have me do the cover of his new collection of short horror fiction. The second was that it wasn't easy to quantify the two stories chosen for the front and back covers into a powerful image that did not give too much away. My initial thoughts were to go with the most visual sections of the stories, which, unfortunately, was the climax of both. My breakthrough came by throwing down a few off the wall color concepts, which crystalized into the idea of showing bits of several sections of each story. Along with a healthy dose of artistic license to serve as the visual glue, this painting became a truly disturbing image, and one with which I am quite pleased.