The brief given me by Susan de Niim for this cover was for a couple embracing tenderly, the man–a dragon shifter–with wings and golden scales. Because of my painting background, I dislike coloring models with a flat color to signify “alien”, so I took the opportunity to define form, shadows, and highlights with shifts in the color, and to paint subtle golden highlights onto the woman where light would naturally be reflected off the man’s skin, to add a better sense of realism to the scene. (As real as you get with a golden alien dragon!)
