take two days or two months, but let's be honest; you are lucky if the author gives you three weeks.
it is peculiar how authors spend months, sometimes years, writing a book -- and then expect the cover artist to spend a week or two. you would be surprised by how many authors want the cover made in less than a week. eventually the batch of concepts is sent to the author. it's not much pressure, to be honest, the worst that can happen is the author hates it and you have to go back to the drawing board (pretty rare, though); the second try is almost always successful. after a 