Just a quick experiment with DAZ Studio and Photoshop, to put together a test image along the way to producing a cover for “In the House of War.” Here’s Aminata Ndoye in a spaceship’s corridor, in front of a large viewport.

The last time we saw Aminata was on the cover of “Pilgrimage,” when she was sixteen years old and still Earth-bound. At this point she’s in her early twenties and is serving as one of the first human officers in the Hegemony’s interstellar service. “In the House of War” is the story of her first deep-space assignment.

Of course, almost nothing in this image (aside the character herself) is as I imagine it in the story, so the final cover for the e-book isn’t going to look anything like this. The problem with building images in DAZ Studio is that you’re stuck with the assets people have gotten around to releasing for you to use. If they don’t look like what you had in mind, too bad.

Still, I wanted to get back into practice with DAZ Studio by generating a simple bit of character art, and this answers the mail. I should have the actual cover image ready to go by the weekend – I have a design in mind already.