Cover Art (done for fun, book's not really ready)

Well, my first impression is that it looks like a bad photoshop job. It has a sort of pasted together look. It's not really terrible.... but it's not really good either. The image doesn't really make much of an impression on me other than I've come to find backside views somewhat annoyingly omnipresent. I don't really know what to say other than it just feels average... and not really interesting.

 

what are CC images and what is a PDN?
pardon my simple questions, but i am looking into artwork myself.

 

One explanation for why images look pasted on (as, unfortunately, they do in this case), is that they often have different lighting sources and textures. To make it look as if the figure is actually standing in the tunnel, you have to try to give the scene a cohesive tone.

LIGHTING
The glow, for instance, only emphasizes the fact that the figure is on one layer and the tunnel is on another. There is a red light in the distance, shining towards the figure, so if you have to have a glow (I wouldn't), it should be red, as if the light is bouncing off the figure's chest.

The two parallel lines (tracks?) running through the tunnel should also have a soft red glow (stronger in the distance, weaker nearer the figure) as in reality they would be hit by some of that red light.

There are lots of shadows to the left and right of the tunnel, where the brickwork is not so clearly defined, but the figure has very few shadows and in fact is quite bright. Shadows are created by the presence of light, so whatever imaginary light source is hitting the front of the tunnel should match whatever is hitting the back of the figure. You need to think about that light source, and how you could darken some parts of the figure so that the direction of the shadows matches those on the tunnel. I don't use PDN (or even know what it is, to be honest), but in Photoshop you could experiment with the Global Light attribute and Lighting Effects filters.

TEXTURE
The tunnel and stones have a lot of texture, but the figure has none; it is much too smooth to be realistic. You need to roughen up the clothing somehow (if PDN lets you do that - in Photoshop you would be using the Noise filter, Blur, etc.).

Whatever is being revealed on the figure's back and hand (chain mail?) doesn't work for me. It is unclear what it's meant to be, and it's so bright that it distracts the eye from everything else. If the red light is meant to be a train, or the figure's goal/target, I would emphasize that and make that a focal point, rather than something he's wearing beneath his coat.

I hope some of this might be helpful, but I'm sure there are other people here with better and more technical suggestions.

Good luck!

 

You might want to think about having some of the glow reflected by the floor at the bottom of the picture. If he's glowing that much, some of the blue might strike the stones at his feet and give them a blue tint.

 

Hi Legendary Sidekick,

Photoshop is free with the Wacom tablet if you live in the USA; if you live in the UK and buy the Wacom here, as I have, you get ...nothing! Grrr!

I used Paint for a while but have now discovered Gimp and Krita.

Is this version of Photoshop compatible with Windows 8?

Presumably Photoshop is better than these free programs?