I like the new one for the colour scheme, red which is a little more violent and tends to be darker But if it's a different type of 'dark' like emotional kind maybe the blue one? They both look awesome though...
I tried combining both and changed the color scheme. (removed the red though since it comes out as too bloody) here's how it turned out. (more of a horror look I guess)
The second cover somehow makes me want to buy the novel or at least pick it from the shelves. The first cover didn't give the same compulsion. Perhaps because the second cover is a contrast of dark and light and is freaking red. We always attracted to red things... https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4413730/ The color red attracts attention in an emotional context. An ERP study
If you want to make it dark and gloomier, I suggest you turn the wood in Grayish / Black (but not that black), since gray or black invoke 'desolateness', 'night', 'and 'sadness' on human's psychology. That greenish thing... Looks horribly bad...
Nah, I'm also glad that all my reading about color studies are not just useless procrastinating.......
The covers all look alright. I do wonder if the elements you've placed on them actually hold significance though, or are they simply there for aesthetics? If I can be completely honest, the titling is not good. I'd show you examples if I was at home, but alas. Though I do recommend that the title be the most important thing on you book cover. Mix around the fonts, perhaps "Amelia" be in cursive. Your author name another font. Different colours. Bring salience to the title. After all, you're promoting a story, not the art.
I would go with the new one despite the fact i like the original better. The original shows a clear dark tone, but it misses the fantasy portipn, so in this case the new one looks better as it has both a darkish time and fantasy.
it has the semblance of the story, not just purely art in this case. I guess i got that across at least.
SHHHH let's not bring my BL fantasies into this *cough cough* I love this THOUGH... the horn looks like it coming out of the back of her head, so maybe put the horn on top of white layer with a blur effect at the end so it doesn't look too weird when it just ends, or make it look like hair is covering up it's root naturally unless the horn is supposed to be on the back of her head and i just forgot something lolol
So i just noticed this, and you can say Im being picky but I believe all aspects need to be made 100% certain they are as desired haha The necklace charm looks 3D, the style is different than the flat paint of the rest of the cover. If it is intentional that's fine, it brings the eye to the necklace and makes it stand out, but if you don't want the necklace to be TOO out of place, I would suggest throwing it through a few filter passes and maybe alter the contrast between it's shadows and core so they are closer and less pronounced. Just my opinion looking at it now, and like I said, nitpicking a detail I wasnt sure if you noticed or was intentional. (still love it lol)