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Book cover: comments please...

Tallulah

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I'd agree with kyuuei's comments--I thought it was a cavewoman, too. It's the hair and the fact that she is short and squat, with very short limbs. I think if you made her look more realistically human (she doesn't have to look like a sex kitten, though), and made the instrument clearer, and the object on fire clearer, the rest would look good. I like the side and back, too. I would use a font, rather than handwriting your name and the title, though. I think you need to make it clear to the reader that you're targeting an adult audience, even though you don't want them to have expectations of sex scenes or what have you.
 

JivinJeffJones

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If you're really set on that particular scene in the book you could possibly show the use of magic with the fire itself -- she could be pointing her wand or whatever at it and it'd be swirling up in a vortex or curling around an invisible wind gust or something. Seems very tricky to do though without making it look like she started the fire herself. But then again that doesn't really matter. The point of the cover is to attract people to read the book. Personally I think you'd be better off doing something that communicates the fourth god theme (ie the deity). Putting out fire is salutary but not intriguing. People do it every day.
 

ThatsWhatHeSaid

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Looks like you want me to do less work!

First: I want to draw the cover myself. I really appreciate your comments, but I won't use a photograph or clip-art, even if it would look better. After all, I've written the book myself too, even while somebody else could have done it better. I'm not going to let somebody else draw it, even if you're doing it for free.
Secondly: I don't think the cover will boost or diminish sales. This is a self-publication.
Thirdly: frankly, I prefer figurative covers to abstract ones. That's why I made it like that in the first place. Then again, I'm the sort of thirty-year-old who reads children's books instead of adult ones. While the covers of ThatsWhatHeSaid are nice and stylish, they make me think of the sort of fantasy I wouldn't read. The sort of fantasy fiction where they are travelling along mighty landscapes, discussing strategies, seducing each other and having sex. This is not the content of my book. Especially that scantily-clad warrioress - my ESTJ heroine would never wear that. She likes to protect her body when going to the battlefield.
I'm sorry, folks - but even in my imagination common sense trumps good looks.

I wouldn't want people anticipating a certain style or imaginative sex scenes and being disappointed.

noose.jpg
 

lunalum

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It's very cool to hear that you are going to publish this :)

As for the design, I really like how you did the back cover. I think that the design might work even better if the front cover was a little more like the back... more typed letters and breaking the main picture into a few pictures in the circles, to sort of clean things up. Still, as it is, this cover interests me more than a lot of the mass-marketed "professional" designs out there.
 

EJCC

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It's very cool to hear that you are going to publish this :)

As for the design, I really like how you did the back cover. I think that the design might work even better if the front cover was a little more like the back... more typed letters and breaking the main picture into a few pictures in the circles, to sort of clean things up. Still, as it is, this cover interests me more than a lot of the mass-marketed "professional" designs out there.
+1. :yes: I totally agree with this.
 

OrangeAppled

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If the OP shows the rough composition, then I think it's nice. I like the back especially. Use the drawing as a template in Adobe Illustrator though - you'll get clean, professional looking illustrations that way, but it will still be your artwork.
 

Tamske

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Thanks, all of you!

I think the "cavewoman" who is actually meant to be Miran the sorceress has some perspective problems. Her right arm is meant to come at us, the left to point a bit towards the back. But as it is now, it looks more like Miran's arms are too short. The legs are simply too short.
I tried more sketches and took some photos of a willing model. Right now I'm thinking of replacing the woman by just her hand holding a wand. Makes it more abstract and at the same time, you'll see a magic wand, so it's clear there's magic involved. I'll also enhance the blue glow around it.

I did make it with the computer, but I purposely didn't use the smudging tools to make it smoother. I tried for a more "hand-drawn" look. Maybe that's what makes it look amateurish? I'll smoothe it out and see whether it improves. After all, I worked two years on the text, I'd better work hard on the cover too!
 

Lien

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i was really tickled by ThatsWhatHeSaid's book cover ideas. very.. sex-it up. :yim_rolling_on_the_

i like your idea more personally, lots of details and personal. you seem to have lots of cool ideas.

are you using photoshop? i'm not sure if you have a tablet, i feel you were using a mouse because it is kind of circly-blocky intead of like... having that tablet pen more natural pressure. having just a mouse, that will make it difficult to color. but not impossible.

maybe this could inspire you (it was done by someone with just a mouse)
http://www.merekatcreations.com/mere_images/port/piro.jpg

and this too, i think. i can't remember. http://www.merekatcreations.com/mere_images/port/miho.jpg

______________________________________
i'll try to offer you tips:

- you don't really need to use smudge tool to make it smoother, you could possibly like make a gradient (darker-lighter/light-dark/color-another color) color and then layer it..,

like http://i51.tinypic.com/v5a0ec.jpg (sorry for the.. not pro example but i thought it was a good example because it was on a paintchat and they had limited colors and no pen sensivity so me and my friend had to make do. it was like using a mouse) ignore everything but the background.

if you look closely to the night sky, you can ttell where each color begins and ends. ()

it creates an illusion if you layer it like that. i think you were like changing the opacity/flow for the color to make it go lighter-darker at some points, it's not impossible to make it smooth by coloring like that but.. i don't know, to me you you have to kind of guess at the next color.

using the tools like smudge/dodge/blur can actually make it look messy and amateurish. it's actually a rule of thumb that new people should keep away from those tools for that reason or use it sparingly (it's more like, finishing touches)

(but if you have the right idea in mind, you can make it work)
- to make it look more natural looking i would like... thin out the brush/not keep it the same size (do you understand? like size 10~3)

- if you want solid black outlines, like crisp, you might want to learn how to use the pen tool (if you have photoshop)

your cover has got a freshness to it i feel, when you polish it up try not to lose that freshness :)

***make sure you're saving your art in .png format!!! so the color is lossless. jpeg is like for photographs. though you might have done that just to have it load quicker for us<3. saving in other formats sometimes makes it fuzzy.
________________

hmm those were all the tips i could think of.. well.. i don't know what to say, but keep adding and working and you'll find your own personal method<3 looking forward to see the end-result.

oh and.. if you weren't using photoshop i might have to figure out some other way how to explain it.. sorry for the lack of brevity.

keep us posted?

--
oh right. do you know how to use layers?
 

Tamske

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@ Lien: I'm using the Gimp, which is a sort of Photoshop freeware :)
I do use a tablet; and layers, and the pressure sensitivity of the pen; so I don't think the tools are a problem. Maybe I just have to exercise a bit more with them ;) (or maybe I'm just not that good at drawing...)
Don't worry about Photoshop or not. I understood everything what you wanted to say. This adds actually a bit to my conviction that the Gimp can do the same as Photoshop. And I would give this hint to everybody. Instead of spending money on the software, use the free software and spend your money on the hardware and get a big tablet!
 

kyuuei

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To take from my favorite series of books ever:

AlannaTheFirstAdventure01.jpg


^ Woman. Knight in training. Not a sex kitten, but realistic and looks feminine, and like she's about to kick ass, which is presumably what your girl is suppose to be doing. It doesn't have to be sexy to be hardcore for females. And honestly, we've had enough sexy in fiction novels. We could use someone taking us more seriously once in a while.

I agree with fonts being used as well.. It seems only childrens books now-a-days use their own handwriting, and it doesnt' help that you have the back typed up. Maybe a more interesting, and suitable, font downloaded online for free that goes with your theme? Then the back could be written in the same font as the front and side.

The point of the cover is to attract people to read the book. Personally I think you'd be better off doing something that communicates the fourth god theme (ie the deity). Putting out fire is salutary but not intriguing. People do it every day.

I think the fire thing could work.. but if the god does look a particular way, maybe you should be able to see hints of him in the smoke the massive fire is creating, or in her shadow, or something.. Something should pay attention to the title of the book. :yes: I think that's the last I can say on it for now. Let us know how it's going though!
 

Tamske

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I replaced the cavewoman by a hand holding a wand. I placed the light effects on other layers (no, not only to prove I can work with layers, lol!), so I can give you four different versions.
voorblad1.jpg

voorblad2.jpg

voorblad3.jpg

voorblad4.jpg


Edit. I did scale the images to half their size to make it a bit easier, but somehow they appear full size on the forum. I don't know why...
 
Last edited:

Lien

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I replaced the cavewoman by a hand holding a wand. I placed the light effects on other layers (no, not only to prove I can work with layers, lol!), so I can give you four different versions.
voorblad1.jpg

voorblad2.jpg

voorblad3.jpg

voorblad4.jpg


Edit. I did scale the images to half their size to make it a bit easier, but somehow they appear full size on the forum. I don't know why...

i kind of miss the girl. but i like the magical ruler.

i have a question about your pen sensitivity. it looks like doesn't taper off at the ends, it's like rounded.
for mine it's like this--> http://i54.tinypic.com/2940yg2.png
--

used gimp. i get it now, it had to do with gimp itself. i was using sai paint tool as an example. http://i56.tinypic.com/2d94jnb.png
if you want to see for yourself you can download it, it's pretty lightweight: http://sai.detstwo.com/sai/

gimp is free but the least configurable, sai is trial and versatile but kind of niche, really good for outlining, photoshop is expensive but has like infinite options. still there are ways to get them all for free. ;)
 

Tamske

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About these rounded edges... hmmm... I only switched on the opaqueness. I guess I can switch on size too, such that it would taper off...
Anyway, I've sent the image to the publisher yesterday, so there's nothing I can do about it any more. I did smoothe out the background a bit, that's all. Thank you everyone, I know where to come for good comments!
 
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