Thanks Don,
The book cover is for a Mathematics PHD tutor.
The first image in the second post was for a project based around feedback enhanced prosthetics and was used in that instance for a ballerina.
The last image is actually a initial concept plan view for an exhibition space.
The cover on that book - could the colors be juiced up a little? It really is a bit depressing looking at all that gray, so I can only imagine what a math doctoral student is going to think. Math majors are often looked at as being a bit unusual to start with - it takes a special person to become one.
I'd say either go a little more "photorealistic" with the colors or choose a different palette. By photorealistic, I'm thinking the colors would be more realistic while not actually changing the image at all - in other words, not an actual photo, just the colors you'd find in nature.
Have you considered some of the studies done on colors and how people respond to them? I saw a weightlifter, real muscle-bound guy, lift a set of weights like it was easy, but when trying to replicate the act while looking at a card painted a particular shade of pink, he simply couldn't do it - he couldn't execute the clean-and-jerk motion to lift the weights. The color sapped him of his ability to raise his adrenaline for the burst of strength he needed. Eventually, some jails and prisons started using that color in the common areas as a means to reduce violence. I'd take it a step further and make the guard uniforms and inmate jumpsuits in the same color! I'd check this out and perhaps find a shade that helps to stave off depression - it can be hard for a math major doctoral candidate to keep their spirits up. Or maybe there's a color that aids in increasing brain function?
Not a lot of designers will take a factor like that into account, to which I say, "Why the hell not?" Web and print design can be much more than a bunch of pretty pictures tastefully arranged. There's not one reason at all why some science shouldn't be applied to produce a positive end result - other than the fact that few designers were science majors in college!