I'm currently writing a novel in progress and I figured it was time to make a cover for it. This is the result of my trashy design skills. I think it turned out pretty ok but tell me ur thoughts on it! Would it entice you to reading it? https://imgur.com/a/s69FBrN I hope the link works
two image or separate? because design wise, its too crowded and the colors can get murky when reduced to a thumbnail. otherwise, I really like the art.
it definitely looks good and I would take interest in reading it! The colors and the art is honestly great but it does look a bit busy and like two different stories
There are two MCs in the story that's why I thought it'd be cool to make it like that but yes I agree...it looks like a lot of stuff going on.
I actually thing it’s very well done. Even professional looking. You should be proud of your work. It’s really good.
Thanks! I might decide to post a few chapters on here to see if it gets good feedback before posting to RoyalRoad or something
I don't like how these images were connected. I'd flip the bottom image to create a bit of symmetry, then I'd remove "A novel" because it's unnecessary and looks bad... Then, building on the symmetry I'd change the image borders to something like this: (Yes, I'm aware the border inst symmetrical) And fill the white parts with more source image of course. I mean, this cover is a collage, right? If so, you shouldn't have difficulty filling the spaces... You'll get something like this, only better: And you might think about removing transparency(/changing opacity back to 100%) in the title. It doesn't look very nice, compared to the bottom text.
Thanks for the feedback! Honestly I do agree with you, the line in the middle is definitely jarring, and someone did fix it up a little bit for me some time ago. (They removed "A novel" and meshed up the lines a bit.) I would def do what you said, but unfortunately the free program I was using, since I don't have photoshop, doesn't save the image so that you can save it and edit it later. Basically if I save it, the image will be saved as it is and I wouldn't be able to go back and edit it, instead I'd have to create an entirely new one. Plus it tends to crash frequently and you lose all your work. Sadly, I'm not good at all in designing online, nor do I have photoshop or any other credible program. This was just me trying to make a cover for my novel since I didn't have any other means to do so. I tried to remake it, but due to other technical issues, I couldn't. Maybe I could try again later...but even that image took me an absurd amount of time due to my lack of skills. I would have loved to implement your idea tho.
Oh, that's a shame then. In the future, you might want to try Gimp. It's not as user-friendly as Photoshop, but it's free and has a lot of tools available. Or... there's always a trial version of Photoshop (Though, I see it's changed over the years and now it's only a week long period.)
I suggest Krita, it's better than GIMP for painting, and also free (It was a fork of GIMP, but they split it because while GIMP was focused on trying to be feature parity with photoshop, Krita wanted to focus specifically on painting and clean easy to use interface. It can do more than painting but painting is its strong point). Only downside with Krita is their text tool leaves things wanting. You can also get Adobe Photoshop CS2 for free. It's the older version of photoshop, but its free "legalishly".
Thanks for the suggestions guys, I really appreciate it. I'll def try out those programs once I have some sort of break from school work
Speaking of Krita, it there a brush shortcut that softens the brush like in PS? Or do you actually have to switch brushes (e.g to airbrush)? Oh, it was CS2, huh? I thought it was the older 6.0 xD (but I couldn't find the info when I searched for it) If I'm not mistaken CS2 didn't yet have a source preview on the brush of the stamp tool yet (which was the first function that won the love of all scanlators, IMO). Still, it's not like Gimp has it either and IDK if Krita even has a cloning option...
There are ways to soften a brush like flow or fade(varies by brush), but why not use the air brush? Krita has easy brush switching via left click. I mean overall Krita has a way more powerful brush engine than photoshop so there is a lot you can do with the brushes and configure them. On the top bar you have size and opacity for brushes, but you can swap opacity for flow. There is a shortcut for brush opacity, but not a shortcut for flow changing, you have to move the slider that as mentioned can replace opacity. Photoshop CS2 was 9.0. I don't remember if it did preview or not, I don't think it did. Krita doesn't have a clone tool, because the brush engine does it. You select the clone brush, and ctrl + alt + left click, it does preview.
What I mean, it a means to control the edge softness of the brush. PS lets you change the "hardness" of the brush from 0-100%, and the keyboard shortcut jumps by 10% iirc. Aibrush is fine, but I'd like something in-between... So would I have to create a new brush of each degree of softness I'd like to use? What do you mean by easy brush switching via left click? Clicking the brush sidebar? That'd be annoying to me... Or did you mean something else? Oh, did you mean the right click widget? It's okay (assuming it can be customized), but it's still not as quick as a keyboard shortcut, IMO. Yeah, I'm pretty sure CS3 introduced it - we were so happy in the community to have it xD Ok, I found the clone tool. The preview I meant is showing the anchored point within the brush's boundary - that's not what Krita does (unless you enable it somewhere in settings or there was an update that added it after my initial install).
That is one option. Other option would be to use a stylus as krita supports dynamic settings based on pressure. If you want to configure it via shortcut though, it might be possible via Python API. Yes right click, sorry, typo. You can customize those brushes as you wish. You can also change them out via presets, and there are keyboard shortcuts for swapping presets. Check out "Ten Brushes" Ah, you want the preview within the brush itself, not just the anchor point, like this: It's under development.
Waow, all of them are amazing, you are so talented! i would never make an art like that even repeated my life QAQ