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Originally Posted by Clansman  I often suspect a cover artist only reads the synopsis before painting, or pulls some piece of crap out of their closet that they haven't yet managed to sell. |
This is hardly fair to cover artists, I'm afraid. The truth is that they are often given very little to go on by the publisher, are pressed for time, and are frequently bouncing between feast and famine, so they need whatever commissions they can get.
This is hardly new, as I recall tales of various pulp artists where they would sometimes get the contents for several magazines at a single go, and they were supposed to come up with the art for individual pieces as well as the cover in a matter of days; this meant they seldom had any time for doing more than scanning (at best) the stories, and usually were up 2-3 days straight simply trying to get the work out in time for the printer. I don't believe it's that bad (usually) today, but now and again I hear tales that indicate it's not always that much better....