With the cover artist, Elena Betti.

Elena’s husband was her model, holding a Latin dictionary and wearing a soft and thick blanket arranged to create the drapes she had in mind. She then took several photos, selected some, cut them out, and worked them through various steps.
Here’s the photo of the Latin dictionary held in position (but at less than a tenth of the original bytes!) Note, the robes are still uncoloured.

The original dictionary features in the early draft below –

Later, a different book was brought in, more massive and antique, resting more heavily on Metatron’s hand – see the final cover below. Also, the sky behind his head was changed – in the draft, there are hundreds of tiny wings – Blessed Souls – ascending to Heaven. But scrub that! They’re too tiny to recognise.
The hand gesture was changed for a different reason – a single raised fingers looks very much like a jihadi salute! So Elena went back to her camera and husband, and took more photos, including the final one below –

Put it all together and you get this –

Easy? I don’t think!
