In the mid-1830s, American painter Thomas Cole created five remarkable pieces detailed the rise and fall of an imaginary civilization, a series he called The Course of Empire: The Savage State, The Arcadian or Pastoral State, The Consummation of Empire, Destruction, and Desolation. All five paintings are now, as far as I know, in the New York Gallery of Fine Arts, but I decided to also reimagine them as the front-to-back covers of a fantasy novel series, with the typical font play and some “Lorem ipsum” dropped in for back filler.

Please enjoy my rough draft covers for Thomas Cole’s imaginary fantasy pentalogy!