Designing the nine new covers for my epic fantasy series The Psion Saga

Designing the covers of The Psion Saga: myth, method, and the ninefold vision

How I designed 9 high fantasy book covers in 3 weeks for under $300!


When I first began shaping The Psion Saga, I knew the story would be big — not just in page count, but in scope, symbolism and emotional weight. What I didn’t realise at the time was how deeply the visual identity of the series would become part of its storytelling. The covers weren’t an afterthought or a marketing necessity. They became a parallel narrative, a mythic thread running alongside the books themselves.

Across nine volumes, the artwork evolves from intimate and symbolic to cosmic and cataclysmic, mirroring Taeon’s journey and the widening world around him. And yes — the number nine was no accident. The entire structure was inspired by the Nine Worlds and the Nine Roots of Yggdrasil in Norse mythology. I wanted the series to echo that same sense of ancient architecture: a universe held together by living pillars, each with its own history, power and sacrifice.

This is the story of how I designed the covers — the choices, the symbolism, and the creative tools that brought them to life.

The mythic foundation: why nine?

Norse mythology has always fascinated me, especially the idea of Yggdrasil as the axis of existence — a living structure connecting realms, histories and destinies. When I realised my story revolved around ancient trees, psionic ancestry and a world shaped by long‑buried forces, the connection became irresistible.

So I built the series around the number nine:

  • Nine Ancient Sapphire Trees
  • Nine Anzaii artefacts
  • Nine books

The covers reflect this cosmology. They aren’t just illustrations — they’re visual milestones in a mythic cycle.

How the covers evolved across the saga

Book 1 — Symbolic Beginnings

The first cover is quiet, almost meditative: a lone tiger, a symbolic silhouette, a world just beginning to open. It reflects Taeon’s awakening and the intimate scale of the early story.

Book 2 — Expanding Horizons

A sweeping landscape, skyearls in flight and a sense of adventure. The world widens, as Taeon and Sarlice continue their journey in fabled Tanza, and the cover widens with it.

Book 3 — Confrontation and Chaos

A lone figure facing a monstrous tyrak. The stakes rise. The palette darkens. The story becomes dangerous.

Book 4 — Mythic Depth

A desert, a lonely feline traveller, a volcano in the distance. The tone shifts inward — toward ancestry, prophecy and the roots of the Nine.

Book 5 — Apocalyptic Forces

A skeletal god towering over and allied with Bal Harar. This is the moment the saga becomes cosmic. The covers reflect the intrusion of the divine.

Book 6 — Revelation in the Storm

The cloaked figure of Riftweaver facing a swirling vortex of psionic energy. The truth is close, but dangerous.

Book 7 — The World Cracks Open

Lightning, fissures and colliding energies. The gods are loose. Reality is breaking.

Book 8 — The Calm Before the End

Telby City looms large, while fissures of lava appear beneath it, threatening all. The palette softens. The story gathers itself for the final blow.

Book 9 — The Axis Revealed

A radiant world‑tree, glowing with cosmic light. The entire saga converges on this final image — the culmination of the Nine, the ancestry of the master psions and the mythic architecture that inspired the series from the beginning.

How the covers were made: tools, techniques and creative alchemy

I cannot afford to pay thousands of dollars to an artist for nine books, so I have to use my own graphic design skills to do it myself. I made all nine covers over my Christmas New Year break from work of 2025-2026. I’m not a traditional illustrator, so I built these covers using a hybrid approach — part digital art direction, part Photoshop layering, part AI‑assisted generation and part sheer stubbornness.

Here’s what went into them:

Stock images

Most covers began with carefully chosen iStockphoto stock images from two different artists whose styles complemented each other. These gave me the foundational landscapes, creatures and silhouettes. The two artists are Grandfailure and Iiuzishan.

AI‑generated elements

In three of the covers, I used AI to create occasional extra elements that would match the art style of the stock images. The tools I used were:

  • Bing Copilot
  • Adobe Firefly (inside Photoshop)
  • Neural.love

I never relied on AI to create an entire cover. Instead, I used it like a digital paintbrush — a way to add elements that didn’t exist in the stock images. 

  1. Book one has no AI-generated elements at all
  2. Book two has no AI-generated elements at all
  3. Book three has no AI-generated elements at all
  4. Book four has one AI-generated element, the volcano (Firefly)
  5. Book five has one AI-generated element: the wings of the demon horse (Firefly)
  6. Book six has one AI-generated element: the figure of Riftweaver (Neural.love)
  7. Book seven has multiple AI-generated elements: the lower part of the landscape (Neural.love) and the view of the red-dust plains of the waves through the tear in reality (Bing Copilot)
  8. Book eight has no AI-generated elements at all
  9. Book nine has no AI-generated elements at all

Photoshop compositing

This was where everything came together:

  • blending stock images
  • adjusting lighting
  • painting over AI artefacts
  • correcting edges and removing unwanted features
  • creating psionic effects
  • shaping the final mood

Each cover went through 2-5 iterations until the tone matched the book’s emotional arc. I have limited spare time, so I am very efficient. Doing all nine together in a period of 3 weeks was intense but effective. I probably spent about 5-10 hours on each cover in total. That's VERY fast.

Why the covers matter to the story

Each cover isn’t just a scene — it’s a thematic snapshot of the book’s role in the saga.

  • Book 1 begins with identity.
  • Book 9 ends with destiny.
  • Everything in between is the journey from one to the other.

The covers track that evolution visually, moving from:

  • small to vast
  • grounded to cosmic
  • symbolic to transcendent

Just like the story itself.

History of the covers

These are not the original covers. Book one has had three different covers published (even two series names, titles and author names, as it used to be Talon by Amanda Greenslade). Because the sales are not doing well, I have continuously tried to improve them. It also became apparent that with nine books I would not be able to afford to pay $500+ per cover for artwork. Furthermore, the different artists I engaged all had slightly different styles, which meant that they wouldn't go well together as a series. In December 2025 I undertook the challenge to redesign them myself using much more affordable assets, including stock images.

Here are some earlier versions of the covers for books 1-3:

The below cover features artwork by Caleb Salisbury.

The below cover features artwork by Sheridan Johns.

In 2025 I came to realise that the artwork on these covers was too literal. The only way I could complete a series in this style would be to find one single artist who could make all nine covers for me afresh. That would mean giving up the one perfect cover I've always loved (book 2, with artwork by the super-talented writer and artist Adele Sessler). Adele has never been available to make the rest of my cover art, nor could I afford it even if she was (shown below). 

In 2023 and 2024 I used AI tools to generate artwork for books 1 and 3 that I thought more or less matched the above art used in book 2. I also relied on the fonts and features like building the titles with the re-use of certain letters to tie them all together. As the sales failed, though, I thought deeply about what might be wrong with them. I felt that the tiger on that edition of book 1 and the dragon and rider on book 2 seemed too AI and too literal.

Trying to generate or purchase stock artwork that would actually match my characters or scenes would be difficult, if not impossible. If you look at successful fantasy series, today, most of them are symbolic. I wanted to emulate that approach while also including visual elements that matched with actual locations and beings in the world of Chryne. It just needed to be more distant, while still conveying the mood and theme of each book.

You can probably see that I appreciate the work of artists, and have tried over the years to work with them, but for a hybrid-self-published author, it simply is not practical and affordable.

Closing thoughts

Designing the covers of The Psion Saga has been one of the most unexpectedly meaningful parts of creating this world. They’ve become a visual mythology — a parallel narrative that mirrors the emotional and spiritual arc of the books. 

The nine trees and the nine covers inspired the nine books.

And together, they form a complete cycle — a world‑tree of story, imagery and meaning.

If you’ve enjoyed watching the covers evolve, I hope you’ll enjoy the journey they represent just as much.

You can read books 1 and 2 for free or buy the series online at PsionSaga.com

The series is published by James at Australian eBook Publisher and is available for sale on Amazon and at a variety of audiobook vendors.



AI disclosure: I used BING Copilot to review my novels and generate the early draft of this article. 

Disclaimer: This article reflects my personal views and interpretations. While I strive for accuracy, any errors or omissions are my own.

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