Many illustrations start with a clear brief. This paranormal book cover illustration for El tiempo paranormal de Samanta Welder (The Paranormal Time of Samanta Welder), by Luis Martínez Vallés, started with a good idea.
Paranormal book cover illustration
When a good idea finds its image
Luis asked me to create the illustration for El tiempo paranormal de Samanta Welder and, along with the commission, gave me a very powerful image: a specific scene, a feeling, that of something that has stayed hidden for too long and is about to cross over to the other side. From that moment, I knew the illustration should not tell the story, but contain it.
The Samanta Welder trilogy begins when a psychiatrist has to perform a regression on a person possessed by a demon. From there, the story expands into territory where science, faith and the paranormal collide head-on. Demons, ancestral creatures, sects, possessions and religious conspiracies form a narrative universe that called for a sober, unsettling image loaded with meaning.
A cover that does not explain, but suggests
Luis’s idea revolved around one very specific element: the wall. A physical and symbolic border, something that separates the visible from the hidden. I built the paranormal book cover illustration from there.
The female figure appears from behind, without a face. It is not a portrait; it is a presence. In front of her stands an old brick wall, marked by time. Through an invisible opening, an unnatural green light seeps out, a colour that suggests the demonic, the corrupt, what does not fully belong to our world.
This paranormal book cover illustration has no explicit monsters or action scenes. Everything happens in the instant before, the moment just before something happens. I wanted the human figure to look small in front of the wall, reinforcing one of the key ideas of the saga: human beings facing ancient forces that know no morality or limits.
One image for a whole trilogy
El tiempo paranormal de Samanta Welder brings together the three books of the saga in a single volume:
- Regresión al más allá, with a secret hidden behind a wall for 150 years.
- Señor, ten piedad, where a convent becomes the epicentre of an ancestral evil.
- Yo, que hago todo esto, the final resolution, with the demonic threat spreading to the capital.
The illustration had to work for the whole trilogy, not for a single moment. That is why I chose a symbolic image able to carry the weight of the entire story without being exhausted at first glance. I had also illustrated the covers of the individual books, so this cover closes a visual cycle with the author.
A deluxe hardcover edition
The book comes as a deluxe hardcover edition, and that also shaped the approach to the paranormal book cover illustration. I looked for an illustration with presence, made to last, that would still work once the reader knows how the story ends. An image that does not wear out with reading, but gains layers.
Synopsis
It all begins when the psychiatrist has to perform a regression on a person possessed by a demon. In this volume you will find the adventures of a psychiatrist and a group of journalists who become involved in situations full of demons, ancestral creatures, sects of killers, diabolical possessions and much more. All in a volume that brings together the three Samanta Welder books: Regresión al más allá, Señor, ten piedad and Yo, que hago todo esto.
Editorial illustration for dark stories
This project sums up how I approach book cover illustration: starting from a good idea, understanding the tone of the story and translating it into an image that does not compete with the text but accompanies and enhances it. A paranormal book cover illustration has to unsettle without showing too much, and leave room for the reader’s imagination. You can see more dark work on my horror illustration page and in the Taquicardia cover.
If you are developing a novel, a saga or a publishing project and need an illustration that builds atmosphere and story from the cover, write to me and we will look at it calmly. Every story asks for its own image, and finding it is part of the process.
