With the concept cemented, I went to work.

Here are the Poser models brought into Bryce,
with the rest of the world built around them.
I made sure to light them in key areas.

Here is what I did with the render in Photoshop.

And here are the two covers I submitted to Ione.
I'd planned on creating borders anyway, as in the one on the right,
but when I sent the version on the left as the first "final" cover,
Ione brought up a good point about the lamp:
it would be an anachronism for some of the stories in the book.
That's how I ended up with the version on the right.

Neat, huh? Want to see it again? >>