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I found it! Enjoyed the Seminar and looking forward to meeting up again with folks.
Fabulous! Glad to see you here!
Thanks! Okay, As discussed at the webinar, I'm going to put up a few different covers I've done that got rejected from a cover designer site, and crowd source what the problems might be. As these have already been rejected, I don't have too much heart invested in them any more, so, constructive criticism is welcome. Some of these are of course non-3D. Okay, after looking, I am VERY non-invested as it appears that I deleted them completely. I'll have to see if I kept a copy on my other computer.
Hi Tiffany, thanks for posting these up, some quick Monday morning thoughts:
Both of them have a lot of negative space, as if there's more to be added to the cover to finish it rather than this being the finished product.
The Portal: Both the title and the author name are difficult to read, in different areas they both fade into the background. Also, the font is very science fiction specific, while the background has a very painted feel to it. Many times with science fiction art work, you see a lot of crisp lines and high contrast work, so stylistically it's a bit contrasting rather than complementary.
Purple Skies: For me, the font is difficult to read, and there's not a lot to the image. It seems like there should be something else here.
Just my impressions, hopefully some other watchers will weigh in with improvement points. :)
I think Esther nailed it. They are both great starts, but they don't look finished. They look like they're waiting for something more. A few thoughts, please take with a grain of salt because I'm still learning too:
The Portal- this cover might look better with a more intricate keyhole design and perhaps a door for the outer space. Perhaps all the world stuff is visibly through the keyhole only and spilling out through the hole into space in front of it. That would focus the eye on what's inside the keyhole better. Some kind of light effects emanating from the keyhole might also look good and emphasize the sci-fi feel of the text.
Purple Skies- it's a great start, but the text and graphics don't tell us much about the genre or what the story is about. I think you need more imagery to communicate that and a contrasting color for the font. The dark purple will disappear at thumbnail size. Gold or yellow might work well with the purple background.
I meant to post on this one earlier- something bothers me about the character on the cover. She doesn't draw me in. The title, tag, pose and background are great, but the character just puts me off. I think there's something clashing about the hairstyle and the face. Could be the expression. Sorry to sound vague, I've been trying to figure this out since I first saw the cover.
Edited to add: After further thought, I think it's the hair and the expression. The hair seems playful but the situation is dire. It seems like she should look surprised and horrified, and the hair shouldn't be so perky. She looks like an older, weathered character (which is great!) but her hair seems like something a young girl would wear. Perhaps it needs to look as worn as she feels/looks. I don't mean to sound critical, but I think that what may be what's not clicking, at least for me.
Thank you for the critique, it does give me a few things to go on. Improvement points for the future. I'm not going to go about defending the covers, so no disagreement from me at this time!
@Llynara: Agreed for the most part.
I haven't done any covers recently, as I was waiting for the Webinar, before making more mistakes. So, Will be working on those in the upcoming weeks.
Thank you for taking the time to comment.
Just learning too, but I think you are relying on the titles you have given them to explain the picture - they probably wont apply to the author title who'd purchases them, might even hinder sales as you are narrowing down their perception with your title. I'd go neutral and just have 'Title Here' or something. I agree with _manne_ and Llynara said about the fonts readabilty and placement as well. The Purple Skies graphic doesn't 'say' anything and I wouldn't give it a second glance on a bookshelf, even something out of place (a boat and person on the water for example) could make people want to know more and pick it up to read the blurb. The colours in The Portal are more eyecatching, but without the title it is confusing and doesn't have a focal point inside the keyhole. A trick I learned at Collage was turn the picture upside down and see if you can see flaws - you stop seeing what you think is there, it breaks the associations in the brain - and see things that don't fit or balance.
Hope that helps, like I said I'm just aspiring too ;-)
Go about improving these in steps. There are some simple fixes you can try first. Here's my list (I'm aware some people here may disagree with some or all):
1. Ditch the fancy fonts. Look at what the bestsellers on Amazon are using.
2. Add a point of interest to your graphics. As noted by others, Purple Skies is largely devoid of anything to draw your attention into the cover. The Portal likewise lacks interest; give the viewer's eye something to follow. About the most interesting thing in the graphic is the dolphin at the very top. My gaze stops right there, which is not ideal.
3. Avoid areas of conflicting visuals. The bottom of The Portal is jumbled with both the author name and too much distinct imagery.
4. The layout of both is unbalanced. There are some simple "golden rule" or "rule of thirds" techniques you can use to greatly improve this. They're easy to learn and there are resources about it everywhere.
5. Try to convey a story. Even for ready-made covers, which are intended to be fairly generic, you should still add some drama that suggests there's action inside. Without being too specific, what might "Purple Skies" be about? Instead of making an all-purpose cover, consider aiming for a genre. Murder mystery? Romance? Science fiction? That dark forest looks foreboding. Is there something hiding in it, ready to come out? Does it mask a long, dark secret about a ruinous love affair that ended in tragic death? You're not writing the book for the author, but you need to give the cover some sense of drama and conflict.
6. Both images look like what you can get with ready-made clipart. Indy and self-published authors can find similar art. They don't need to pay you $35-65 (or whatever the price is).
RULE #1: Never, ever delete anything! You never know when you can use previous work as a springboard to something new and exciting. :-)
Pruple Skies: People have already told you about the fonts -- they are right. Go simple. Next, blow up the trees so they fill more of the space, and move the horizon either up or down. Next, add some more drama to the sky by adding darker clouds (either to both outer edges, so there is a zone of lighter clouds in the middle) or just darken one side and leave the other lighter. Next, play up the hint of blue along the shoreline. It's interesting and -- at a larger size -- would give you more of a range in your color choices.
Good luck!
Glad you enjoyed the critique. I'm looking forward to seeing what comes next. BTW: I don't hate the hair style, and I don't think it comes off as too young (as noted by someone else). To me, it looks fine (although perhaps a little too crisp in this render). I think just changing the lighting on her and the hair will fix that problem.
Don't worry I am remarkably hard to offend when it comes to constructive criticism. In fact my family took a look at this pic and responded with, "Wow she looks man-ish doesn't she?" They don't pull any punches. :)
Okay, I did find one of the old ones that I hadn't deleted. So, I present 2, one was accepted, one was not. I won't tell which one to begin with. So, Critiques and comparisons welcome. I've learned some things so far. One, that my color issues are more noticeable than I thought.
If it were me, I wouldn't have accepted The Rogue, and as-is, Wild Hearts will not read in thumbnail sizes. Consider improving it too, even if it happens to be the one that was accepted. At thumbnail, the horse's head and neck look a little like a certain part of male anatomy dipping into the pond (sorry!), and the title is very hard to read. Highly cursive fonts can be wonderful, but you have to be really careful which ones you choose. This is the one I prefer:
https://www.myfonts.com/fonts/charlesborges/desire/
It's expensive, and requires a lot of hand-work to select the typeforms you want. But the results are great.
At any rate, nice to hear you're having some success. Keep at it!
I already know which was accepted. I won't tell. Just as an aside, a site that has a lot of nice fonts for not very much money is graphicriver.net
Thank you for the suggestions, I'll give it another day before I tell. I have over 3500 Fonts on my computer (I'm a collector! lol) So, it's more a matter of finding the right one, and I think with the correct coloring, that even the font wouldn't be such a big deal. I do know that I have some color issues (like I can see more colors than most, I can pick out the tinies shades of difference, and one eye sees things with more of a cool tint and one sees with more of a warm tint. SO, the font sticks out just fine for me on the Purple Skies!) So, maybe I need to squint more when picking colors so that they have to stand out more. I have book marked the pages you both suggested, (because you can never have too many fonts).
Thanks!
So true! You can never have too many fonts.
@Tobor - wow, the Desire font is gorgeous!
Tiffanie- I have a lot of fonts too and there's a font viewer I use to help with find things (though I still get lost at times!) It's free, but I can't remember the name of it at the moment. I'll check when I get home. EDIT: It's Nexusfont, which is free here.
On the covers- I agree with what's been said here. Looks like Wild Hearts was the one accepted and the purple font on The Rogue is hard to read. There's a lot of space around the character too. I had that same issue when I was working on my last cover and found that zooming in closer drew the reader in better. Let the character look the reader in the eye.
My best advice is to look at what works in the genre that one is designed for- look at the top sellers and see what poses and positioning they're doing with the character, and how the space is filled around them. Hope that helps.
That's about 3,400 fonts too many for cover design! I know there's a temptation to use some fun unique font on a book cover, but just about every professional resource on the subject will tell you to stay with the common serif and non-serif fonts, venturing outside this rule only in very special circumstances. You can try different weights of these fonts, plus play with using all upper or lower case, but using the "Swamp Thing" font for a spooky book is old and tired, and a quick way to suggest amaeurism (it was overused with the R.L. Stein books). Of course there are some decorative fonts that, when carefully used, are perfect for the job. But by-in-large, standard fonts are a safer bet.
Consider picking up the color from the focal point of the main graphic. The sky color can't be the focal point, because it's "background." I know it's the title (though pre-mades shouldn't rely on the sample title as a graphic element, as the author will undoubtedly have another title), but who concentrates on things in the background? The problem with the foreground (trees) is they're black, and that seldom works as a title color unless it's on white. I'd probably go with convention and make the title/author white, maybe with only a hint of the purple in it. Or, if you chose to add a derlict boat or some other object in the scene as a dramatic focal point, perhaps pick up its color or lighter hue from the boat.
I realize I'm just a beginner and haven't completed a book cover, yet, to be submitted anywhere. Tobor did some great things to the one cover I was working on that caused me to go learn a whole new set of skills in Gimp. :) I think I can actually duplicate what he did with it now.
So, take my opinion with a grain of salt because I'm still learning the ropes as it were. That being said, there are posing and compositional issues with both covers and, if I had been looking for a cover for one of my books, both would have been rejected flat out. I'm sorry if that is harsh, just the way it is. If I had to guess, though, I'd say the one that got accepted was the Wild Hearts cover as that is definitely the better of the two covers. As Tobor said, that font doesn't do well in the thumbnail and, if I had accepted that cover, the first thing I would have done was change it.
I love horses and I love seeing them on this type of cover, but yours is too far into the foreground and not connecting with the characters. If he isn't actively interacting with the main characters he should be more in the background. Right now, he's just a little too distracting to the eye. Horses playing in the field behind the two characters would have been a smarter choice.
As I said, I'm still learning, but those are my thoughts.
Thank you everyone. The one that was accepted was the Rogue.
Wild Hearts was submitted afterwards, and was rejected ("Because we don't usually accept 3d rendered covers")
Purple Skies and the Portal were rejected for being "Too simple" Much like what has been said here.
I also have another that was accepted which was just a painted "old-time" arcane book with glowing runes.
So, there was definitely a thread running through the comments, which was what I wanted to see, would you feel the same way. And some things were the same, and some things different. But, I have some good things to think about. I know I have a much harder time coming up with things for covers, when I dont' have a goal in mind (Like covers for my own books or pre-written books) as opposed to generic covers, so that is something to work on, and actually a good place to work, as any comments would be about composition and art rather than whether it "fit" the book.
Thank you for the warm welcome, and I hope to have something new to share soon. I've been working on Promo pictures currently rather than book covers. lol.
Taking things that you all have said, in mind, as well as the knstrutions that I've garnered in other places (Indie Author Forum), I did 3 variations of the same scene. No words have been added at this point, in order to see the pictures better for critique. I asked for some "art prompts", and was given, "Miss Scarlet in the Library with a Canlestick". So, pros, cons, etc. thanks! Personally, I like the pose and positioning of the middle one, with the lighting of the 1st or third. But, in the thumbnails, you can't really see the middle one.
Initial thought; all three the woman is looking off to the left, thereby directing your eye that way. In the West we read from left to right. Try flipping them all. I agree about the thumbnail/lighting, but I am not keen on her having her back to me in the middle one.
I agree, first one is best. Love the lighting of the full size pic but may have to brighten to see it in the thumbnail.
Oddly, I like the middle one the best compositionally and for your lighting. However, if you've ever held a heavy candlestick that's lit, uhmmmmmmm...there's no way you'd postion your left hand that way. You could brighten the whole image without losing the nice rim lighting by positioning a grey bounce light near the bottom of the image, or by taking it into photoshop and doing a bit of post work, although I wouldn't do that before I fixed the pose. Just my two cents to make things more difficult.
I like the middle one best, but there are some posing issues. Aside from the way she's holding the candlestick, it also looks like her thumb is inside the candlestick from this angle. That could just be how the glass is refracting, though. If it were lit a little brighter, it would be a nice image for a cover or, at least, the good start of one. It reminds me a lot of the old gothic novels I grew up on. Try fixing the candlestick so it is more upright and, maybe, rotating her jus a smidge so that her back isn't completely toward the reader, but like she is in the midst of turning away, but not completely there. Not sure I've explained what I mean that well.
I purposely turned her to the left, because psyhologically she is holding up a light against the darkness which comes from the upper left.
There are elements of all three that if combined might make for a better shot:
1. The downward gaze of #1 provides a nicer diagonal sight line that helps in composition. However, the candlestick in that image is far too bright and overwhelms the scene.
2. The side-lighting in #2 adds interest, but having her wide Victorian rump face us straight on is a bit awkward.I agree that the overall lighting is a bit dim. In this image there's also unsufficient negative space in the direction of the action so it looks off-balanced.
3. The depth of field in #3 keeps us focused on the character, and the lower angle of the camera adds some suspense. However, her gaze is too level, which gives the viewer more of a horizontal eye path. There's more interest when it's diagonals.
* I agree with 3Dreamer that you need to flip the scene so she's facing to the right. This isn't a requirement, but traditionally, western viewers have specific "heat maps" we follow when looking at things. It starts upper-left, and moves to lower-right.
* For composition, you need to put in dummy text, or have it clearly in mind as you work, as that will affect the balance.
* Add an expression now so that you feel the emotion as you're working in the scene. Avoid making this a purely mechanical exercise. Feel what she's feeling and thinking. This will help you define the mood and intent of the piece as you develop this, and it makes for better results.