Feedback for FF Urban Fantasy Cover

XMissBrightSideX · Sep 8, 2015

I hope I'm doing this right?

Anyways, I was wondering if anyone would be willing to give me feedback on my cover? It's for an upcoming novel of mine, Hellebore, which is an FF Urban Fantasy. I'm curious whether it's appealing, if the text placement works, etc. I think it might be a little on the dark side?
I have some experience in digital art, but not much in cover design so fingers crossed.
Thanks for looking!

Dreity · Sep 8, 2015

I really like the font used for the title and author name. I think it stands out really well against the dark background. It does bother me that the model's head is covering up the letters though. I also don't think you need have "lesbian urban fantasy" on the cover if your blurb is clear enough, especially when the author name is covering half of it up anyway.

Other than that, I think this looks very professional! Great work.

ElaineA · Sep 8, 2015

I love looking at people's covers, but I am 100% not an artist or designer, only someone who might see your thumbnail on Amazon or somewhere. First, I love your people, especially the pose of the woman on the bottom. The partial face on top is very appealing, too. Soft and mysterious. My worry is I didn't read the title correctly. It wasn't until I read your post that I knew it was Hellebore. I thought it said Hellebose. (It's that little shadowy tail thingy at the bottom of the r.) I'd worry that when squeezed down to a thumbnail it would be tough to parse. I am having the same problem with the author name. I assume Kross, but again, the r is getting a little lost. Could be the dark background is hampering readability there, but that's an artist/specialist's bailiwick so I'll stay out of that.

Good luck with your book!

XMissBrightSideX · Sep 8, 2015

Thank you both so much for the feedback, I really appreciate it. I went back and adjusted some of things you mentioned. I moved the model so that the text is no longer covered, removed the wisps on the r's, increased the font size of the author's name and removed the subtext from underneath it. I'm used to working with large canvases (this cover started out at 6000X6000px) and it didn't occur to me to consider that most people will be viewing it as a thumbnail (with visibility obviously a factor that small). Thanks for pointing that out! I was going to increase the brightness more, but I couldn't increase it too much without losing details. Hopefully it looks better now though:

kevinwaynewilliams · Sep 9, 2015

The aspect ratio is off if you are planning on printing this: a standard book cover is 2:3, and this is closer to 3:4. Fortunately, you can crop off the right edge and bring it back to normal proportions without losing anything: at most you'd have to nudge the signature a bit to the left.

There's something about the heavy shadowing on the model's face that has distorted her apparent head shape. I might try to add just a few pixels more of head immediately by her right eye (left from our perspective) to see if I could fix it.

PastyAlien · Sep 9, 2015

I agree with Elaine about the font. Your latest version is better, but it's still not very readable and would likely be almost illegible as a thumbnail. It's a cool font, but I wonder if you'd be better off ditching it for something that's easier to parse. I'm not even sure if the last name is Kross or Koss.

Also, is it me, or is there something off about the model's cleavage? I find myself staring at it, and I'm not even interested in cleavage. I'm trying to figure out if that dark vertical shadow above her tank top is the line of her cleavage or a shadow cast from the jacket. If it's her cleavage, then she's definitely lopsided. I think. *tilts head* *eyes cleavage*

Other than that, I think it's a nice cover.

ETA: This link might help with the thumbnail issue.

XMissBrightSideX · Sep 15, 2015

Hey guys! Thanks for the crits, sorry I wasn't able to reply earlier. (My dog ate my laptop charger! :ROFL:

)
I worked on some of the suggestions mentioned. Thank you so much for your input. Here's the revision:

I see what you mean about her breast, PantsyAlien, but I'm not sure how to fix it. Unfortunately I don't have the skill level to modify them enough to make a difference. :flag:

SBibb · Sep 17, 2015

Other than the shadow/cleavage problem, this looks pretty good. If you want to try adjusting that, you might be able to sample a dark spot of skin and put a "blotch" of the darker tone over the bright area, then blur it and fade the layer so it the problem becomes less noticable. (Alternatively, you could do this with a lighter patch to lighten the shadows). I've found that technique to be helpful at times... though I'm not sure I explained that well. I use Photoshop.

Other side note, maybe put a little bit of darkness under "the Blood" in the series title, so it's a tad bit more readable? Wouldn't take much to fix, and you could still leave the hand slightly visible.

Good luck with your cover.

CathleenT · Sep 22, 2015

I think this looks MUCH more readable with your current font. You've sacrificed that neon sign vibe which was kinda cool, but readers need to be able to clearly read the title and author's name.

Do you know how to use Photoshop at all? You could probably take out the cleavage shadow with the rubber stamp tool. Or try moving it to the right since it's seems so awkward where it is. It might look awkward without any shadow at all.

XMissBrightSideX · Sep 27, 2015

Hey, thank you both for the crits. Sorry for not replying sooner. I wanted to make progress before posting again.

It's not that I don't know how to use photoshop. I am fairly familiar with it. I just couldn't make the 'new' cleavage anatomically correct. :lmao: It was incredibly frustrating and I feel like an idiot for not thinking of just eliminating it in the first place. I edited it to make the cut of the shirt higher and adjusted the shadow.

Thank you again, I really appreciate all the advice. Hopefully it looks better (If it counts, I definitely feel like it's a massive improvement over the first draft thanks to all of your critiques):

PastyAlien · Sep 28, 2015

Looks good; now I'm not going :Wha:

at her cleavage. And the new font is legible at thumbnail size (I shrunk my screen and it reads just fine). Good luck with your book.

ETA: I just noticed--looks as though there's a period after the S (in S.C. Kross), but not after the C.

Viridian · Sep 28, 2015

Very nice. I don't have any criticism to offer, other than yeah, you're missing a period.

oceansoul · Sep 29, 2015

I like the original font used way better. For me, the original cover worked except for the girl's chin on the upper half. I think that if you're going to include the second character, then we need to see her eyes. Eyes draw you in!

Other than that, I like it

PastyAlien · Sep 29, 2015

oceansoul said:
I like the original font used way better.

I agree the original font is pretty awesome. The thing is, it's not very legible, and impossible to parse at thumbnail size. When I shop for books on Amazon and the like, I view thumbnails first. If the title is illegible, I usually just go on to the next book, because I have the attention span of a gnat. It also sends the message (to me) that the book cover was not done by a professional, which would make me wary of the content (unfair, I know). I wonder if the OP could use that cool font for the inside title page instead?

All JMHO, of course.

XMissBrightSideX · Sep 30, 2015

@ PastyAlien Thank you.

Oops, didn't see that! Nice catch.
I really like the idea of using the original font for the title page/in the interior design. I'll definitely look into whether that's a viable option (I'm outsourcing for the interior design).

@ Viridian Thanks!

@ oceansoul I like the original font as well (and might use it for some of the promotional material) but I agree with the others on legibility issues. I feel with the new font it looks cleaner, though I do miss the feel of the original. In this instance I have to chose professionalism over artistic preference. In regards to the second person at the top of the cover, the original stock image actually doesn't include the top half of her face. :ROFL:

I chose that image because the character she is meant to represent is deceased and for most of the book she's a mystery to the reader and non-protagonist characters. I feel for the reveal of her character to work and feel satisfying, her representation must remain vague until the reader has solved the mystery.
I totally agree with you. Great eyes on a cover definitely draw me in as a reader and I will absolutely keep it in consideration for the sequel's cover.
Thank you!

Gale Haut · Oct 19, 2015

There's no image.

Feedback for FF Urban Fantasy Cover

XMissBrightSideX

Socially Awkward Sam

Dreity

ElaineA

All about that action, boss.

XMissBrightSideX

Socially Awkward Sam

kevinwaynewilliams

Be blunt: I appreciate it

PastyAlien

Space butthole

XMissBrightSideX

Socially Awkward Sam

SBibb

CathleenT

I write

XMissBrightSideX

Socially Awkward Sam

PastyAlien

Space butthole

Viridian

local good boy

oceansoul

PastyAlien

Space butthole

XMissBrightSideX

Socially Awkward Sam

Gale Haut

waxing digital artistic