Interior illustrations and book cover designs for Nick Black's, "midnight simulacra" novel.

Without giving too much away (and it being impossible to summarize the humor and complexity of this novel), the cover needed to convey chaos, order, and "clandestine chemistry". These were a couple of the earlier cover concepts.

The design on the left is inspired by LSD stamps from the 1960's. The design on the right utilizes the chemical structure of LSD and evokes a starry night sky. 

Each of these illustrations is included at various points in the text. Nick was amazing at conveying character descriptions while still allowing generous latitude for me to take artistic license in their designs. One of the main challenges was in creating very specific lab equipment. There was considerable time spent on eBay and lab equipment websites to get the right sizes and designs. I'm now probably on an FBI watchlist. 

The novel is available in paperback and hardcover on Amazon and several other outlets.