Cover Feedback (play attempt)

[Chessie]

Hey, everyone. I've been teaching myself how to do covers (harder than I thought it would be) and came up with this one for a novelette that I'm working on. Any comments or suggestions are welcome. I think the bit under the title is cheesy and will probably come up with something new for that. Anyway, thank you very much!

Spoiler: large pic

 

[BWFoster78]

I think that a cover really needs to draw attention at thumbnail size. This one is really indistinct. Everything sort of blends at a large size. It'd just be a blur at thumbnail, right?

 

[Chessie]

Hm, yes. Yes. I can totally see that. Any suggestions on how to fix that? And thank you.

 

[TheCatholicCrow]

Let me begin by saying that I REALLY like this cover. I find it very visually interesting and, by looks alone, I can tell you that it would catch my eye on a shelf. But, if the goal is epublishing I can see where some of the details are likely to be lost as a thumbnail.

So while it pains me to critique something that I think is already beautiful I would suggest that you try the following.

Personally, I would fade the green behind the title more as it seems to be competing with all of the script.
Move the title down more (so that it falls roughly on 1/3rd from the top) and possibly but the title in a different color (one that will contrast with the green) ... (Either white or the blue that's on the fae's/fairy's wings- maybe a very pale blue).

I would make the subtitle / tag line a little larger too and move it down more (parallel to the tip of the wing).
Your name also gets a bit lost on the bottom.

Here's an amazing article on book covers in case you haven't read it yet. As with the Child 44 example, you could consider placing an emphasis on either "Fae" or "Escape". I would personally be more drawn in by "Escape" but of course it depends on your content.

Hope this helps!

 

[TheCatholicCrow]

If you don't mind my asking, how are you doing this? Is it layering and blending creative commons images or are do you have some other method like painting? I'm curious as I would also like to develop the ability to create my own artwork. I wouldn't mind outsourcing it now and then but I'd really love to have a little more control over the whole thing (plus the bonus of not having to pay for it. I'd rather pay for a round of professional editing than for a cover.)

 

[Chessie]

Hi, thank you for the suggestions Catholic Crow! I'll play with it more and the font color too.

I use depositphotos.com for my pictures and have a pay on request subscription, so I'm only spending a couple of bucks per picture. I also use pixlr.com for the cover making. I have photoshop but it's completely foreign to me and I find pixlr much easier to work with. After I get the cover I then use ipiccy.com for the fonts and last min touches. Thanks for the article!

 

[TheCatholicCrow]

Thanks

I don't have photoshop but I do love pixlr. Thank you thank you thank you! I will definitely look into the other sites.

 

[Chessie]

When I get home from work, I can PM you a few articles that discuss some cover art tips. Youtube videos help too but most of them are for photoshop, although pixlr is similar.

 

[Devor]

I think it looks fine as a thumbnail. Truthfully I didn't like it until I zoomed out.

CatholicCrow is right about the font. "Escape" in particular is a little hard to read. It might be easier to try fixing it by giving the font a very light shadow effect, and see if you like that or not, before trying to mess with the fading of the green behind it.

I don't think the subtitle font is readable enough. That might just need a larger size.

You should put the author name in the same font as the title. Generally they say to keep to two fonts.

I don't think I like the red line. But I might just be thinking too hard about it. Maybe if it was less bold and had a texture to it.

I think the image looks pretty good.

 

[Philip Overby]

I also like the image, but I agree that the font might be harder to read because it's a similar color to the image. I think playing around with this a little more and it'll be really great.

 

[skrite]

the artwork in this image is amazing. I wish i could pull off art like this.'
nice work

 

[Chessie]

the artwork in this image is amazing. I wish i could pull off art like this.'
nice work

Aww, thanks. I didn't do the image though, it's from a website. I played around making the cover for a few days though.

 

[psychotick]

Hi,

I find the image too confused. I think the first thing you should do is kill that half inch border around the image, then play with the fairy's wings to make them stand out against the greenery. Also the rest of her, skin and clothes need to stand out more. I get the feeling you were trying to vignette as it's called in photoscape. That can probably be done better simply by using photoscape to bring a bright oval picture to life in the middle of a black background. Last on the fairy, it almost looks as though her wings come out of her neck.

As for the greenery it looks like you've overlaid different images of hedges and large leafs, and ended up smudging them together. Simplify this background until it becomes immediately clear what it is. Like the others I'd also change the font, though I'd keep that yellow - even dare I say if for my Australian cousins - the gold. It pops. The tag line doesn't work for me, and the orange line above it gets in the way.

Cheers, Greg.

 

[Chessie]

Psychotik, thank you for giving me more to play with! I'm not sure how to fade the leaves. The picture came with the leaves and the fairy together, I didn't do much to it. But maybe some contrast will help. I'm glad you like the yellow color of the font (me too!). Maybe I can make it a slight bit darker.

Thanks to everyone who pitched in suggestions. I appreciate it a million!

 

[K.S. Crooks]

I love the pastel look and the style of font used, but for me some colours need to change. For the text I would use red or orange to stand out from the green. Where you have sunlight on the leaves I would make strong light beams and have more yellow. For the fairy, she needs to stand out from the background. for her face, wings and dress I would have no green. The best way I have leaned is to prioritise the features of the cover: title, sub-title, author name, characters, background, symbols. Start with what you think is the most important and set that up first, then the res in your order of importance. What do you want to catch a reader's eye so they stop and take a closer look?

 

[Addison]

The artwork is beautiful, I'm guessing watercolor. Unless it's all digital, then flat out Wow.

My only critique is: The title color or something needs to change so it's easier on the eyes. The font is a bright color with a bright green behind it. Also the "One faeire. One Witch. One Deadly Fate." Is exciting and foreboding. The color scheme seems to contrast to that as it's bright and cheery. That's just my opinion.

 

[ascanius]

These are the problems I see. First there is not definable background or foreground.
When you look at the image where does your eye go first? I'm guessing it's going right to mid left center just below the letter P. Thats because you have a dark shadowed line of leaves that forms an arrow going up, the contrast of light against the dark line of leaves also helps pull your eye to the apex of the arrow. The thing is it stops there at nothing. Everything else is chaotic, too busy. When I look at the image my eyes just wander around until they hit the two lines of the arrow(light dark line of leaves). They stop on the fairy for a few seconds but are drawn to the high contrast area. When I look at this I can see it lacks harmony and balance and has no real focus. When you have any sort of line be it differences in contrast (light and dark) you eye is going to follow them, ideally your eye should go from one line to another until it rests on the subject or the focus, or even better travel around the image in a circle. The fairy has some focus but is lost, the fairy needs more definition, the rest of the image should pull the eye towards the fairy, this is depending on what you want the focus to be.

These are just my thoughts and this is YOUR work so take whats useful and discard the rest Good luck, and let me know if you have any questions.

 

[Chessie]

Thanks everyone for all the feedback. The image still needs some messing around with but I agree that it seems messy when in a thumbnail. Once I finish fixing it I may post a follow up.

 

[Starbright]

I'd just like to say that a more fuzzy cover, as yours is in my opinion, might be fine for a story that is more fuzzy and dreamy. Even if your cover breaks some of the "rules", trust your gut. It's also a good idea to keep previous versions, so you can quickly compare images with and without changes.
Good luck - it looks like you are on the right track.