[WIP] Making my own cover for my story

#1
I think this is my first thread ever? I made it so that I can share my progress on making a cover for my book A Dragon Gnawing Its Tail

So some things about myself.  I'm just a beginner in digital art. I bought a graphics tablet last June or July, I think. But I really haven't done much drawing because of being busy IRL and writing my stories. My main reason for learning digital art is to make a cover for my book and I'm doing this now that's why I just want to share my progress. The one who sketched out the current cover was my friend who was more of a comic artist guy. 

My main method of learning is slowing down speedpaint videos on Youtube. That's just the way how I learn things haha. The program I use is Artrage because it looks beginner friendly. Also, my crappy laptop chokes when it tries to run photoshop. I just wanted to draw a dragon head because I like drawing dragon heads and I suck at body anatomy, so there. 

As of now, I don't know what to do for the background. Maybe just some splotches of paint so that it's easy.  

Maybe someday, when I get better harder, better, faster, stronger, I can make covers for the community too.


https://i.imgur.com/qHI3wDK.png

Second installment! I'm really slow at drawing. haha

https://i.imgur.com/kt2ju3W.png

Third progress. Added more contrast, shadows and some texturing, little details. Fixed the nose a bit, although I'm not sure if that dragon will be able to breath through that. Added a bit of details to the eyes. 

https://i.imgur.com/CRWSHTL.png

fourth part. And this is how the cover will look like if I finish it, minus the title, which I don't know how to put. Thanks for the input, everyone. Also thank you especially on the samples, Axelord. I think I'm going for simple, just a dragon that looks like it tying the book together haha.  

https://i.imgur.com/dUIlXPN.jpg

I keep changing my mind as to what the design on the head is haha. I'll have to go write some stories now. Maybe after awhile I can decide what to do with the head.

https://i.imgur.com/PWSUinK.jpg

And we're done. I adjusted his color to be a red dragon. What do you think? Haha. I just need to find some font for the title. 
https://i.imgur.com/tTbYMDO.jpg

RE: [WIP] Making my own cover for my story

#2
Making me jealous of art skills yet again. I need to find time to practice.
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RE: [WIP] Making my own cover for my story

#3
O_O Dang that's awesome.
I can put up with romance. I can deal with harems. But I will not tolerate 1-dimensional love interests and MC's who have a cardboard fetish.
--Penguin Overlord, Admira (Lover of All Things Feathered)

If I say that I will get something done in a week, estimate a month. Or two. Or a year. I'm really busy IRL so I only get a chance to read during short breaks.

RE: [WIP] Making my own cover for my story

#8
Gotta say I'm not a fan of the coming cover-art.

Then again, I'm a minimalist with a penchant for extreme contrast and simplicity (black on white, symbols, etc). I'm looking at the art and, no offense, but I'm thinking 'Woa, purdy edgy!' That's just a kneejerk reaction on my part but the first impression is always the heaviest even if I then try to appreciate the art afterward. Cover-arts is a function of ergonomics and psychology and, for me at least, it ain't clicking.

Make of that what you will.


Check my own covers for examples of what I think are good covers. Ignore the first, it's a placeholder I haven't changed but the other two are originals or at least something I am content with. Just to show what I like in a cover. I made them so they would be hard to miss when they showed up on the frontpage or in people's feed. The important thing about a cover (for anything) is that it's eye-catching and impossible to mistake even at a glance. Which is why I use black-on-white almost exclusively. Orange and purple/blue contrast well also, same are red and green (can't use that one for obvious reasons). Heck, that's only dual-contrasts. Tri-contrasts can be even better (Black-silver-any dark color, for example).

Other examples of covers I like, The Book of Five Rings (W.S. Wilson's) and American Gods. The first actually use the cover to force the onlooker to have a second, better look. The top and bottom orange-red bands along with the bold text catches they eye, then you see the relief in the background (hard to see, but the actual sleeve's background grey is matte and the signs are glossy which makes them stand out a lot). The second cover use slight variations of blue and texture (flat vs grebs) and completely forgoes hard and pure lines in favor of a hand-made look. The white of the tree-in-relief is the last and most imposing thing that jumps at you, completing the tableau.
Read Grand Weaver


RE: [WIP] Making my own cover for my story

#9
'Axelord' pid='819234' dateline='1481691422' Wrote: Gotta say I'm not a fan of the coming cover-art.

Then again, I'm a minimalist with a penchant for extreme contrast and simplicity (black on white, symbols, etc). I'm looking at the art and, no offense, but I'm thinking 'Woa, purdy edgy!' That's just a kneejerk reaction on my part but the first impression is always the heaviest even if I then try to appreciate the art afterward. Cover-arts is a function of ergonomics and psychology and, for me at least, it ain't clicking.

Make of that what you will.


Check my own covers for examples of what I think are good covers. Ignore the first, it's a placeholder I haven't changed but the other two are originals or at least something I am content with. Just to show what I like in a cover. I made them so they would be hard to miss when they showed up on the frontpage or in people's feed. The important thing about a cover (for anything) is that it's eye-catching and impossible to mistake even at a glance. Which is why I use black-on-white almost exclusively. Orange and purple/blue contrast well also, same are red and green (can't use that one for obvious reasons). Heck, that's only dual-contrasts. Tri-contrasts can be even better (Black-silver-any dark color, for example).

Other examples of covers I like, The Book of Five Rings (W.S. Wilson's) and American Gods. The first actually use the cover to force the onlooker to have a second, better look. The top and bottom orange-red bands along with the bold text catches they eye, then you see the relief in the background (hard to see, but the actual sleeve's background grey is matte and the signs are glossy which makes them stand out a lot). The second cover use slight variations of blue and texture (flat vs grebs) and completely forgoes hard and pure lines in favor of a hand-made look. The white of the tree-in-relief is the last and most imposing thing that jumps at you, completing the tableau.

It's a difference of tastes then. I must say that I'm not much of a minimalist, that is in general, because when it comes specifically to book covers, I really don't care about the art. I don't think there's many of us who don't care about covers. But if I'm asked what I want for I cover, I'd say I want art showing settings like these:

https://i0.wp.com/thebooksmugglers.com/w...=192%2C300
https://i1.wp.com/thebooksmugglers.com/w...=194%2C300

Looks like we're on separate sides of the spectrum. 

But there's no way I can do those covers I want with my current skills. I have seen many minimalist book covers of epic fantasy stories (not saying my story itself is epic, just using the term for hundreds of pages long high fantasy stories) that I really like, for example, the Wheel of time has a cover version of minimalist art. But I'm just not a fan of it.

Anyway, this is just a book cover for now within my skills. And mostly because I just want to draw a dragon head haha. 

That dragon won't be up close like that but zoomed out a bit with his tail showing being bitten by his mouth. The background won't be that color but I'm just using that color while drawing because I don't draw on white background. The dragon will be sharpened more and maybe some other stuff added, I don't know yet. Maybe a the tail coiling around a magic seal like this:

https://i.imgur.com/BfEqfJo.png
Meh, looks weird.

Are there covers you like that are not minimalist?

RE: [WIP] Making my own cover for my story

#10
There certainly are books I like with covers I don't like. But, that's not what you're asking.

I think halfway there would be something like a particular version of D.W. Jones' Howl's Moving Castle.
Also, Pullman's His Dark Materials.
Or, Weir's The Martian.
B&N's hardcover edition of Lovecraft's Complete Fiction.

I think those are pretty much on the highest of the spectrum. You'll note, however, that they each have gravitas and sectioned parts in their design, except Weir's who just went with a single color gradient for the cover. the Lovecraft Hardcover is an example of triple theme, and a rare one at that. Light blue, purple and black which actually do not contrast a lot with each other since the light blue isn't used as the demarcation between black and purple. They went with the bizarre with that one, going for a look no other books I've ever seen before had. Which, by that alone, caught my eye like mad in that store.

Taking your own examples ([1] and [2]), I'd say the second one, The Hundred Thousand Kingdom's cover is actually a good example of a middle ground. The cover is made up of three parts; the chevron(ish) in the middle that split the whole cover in two and the two remaining spaces (two triangles on the side which joins at the base). The book title breaks the flow a bit but the art for the cover itself is really well done in that. From afar, you get a good geometric presentation with two very contrasting gradients, black and yellowish-orange.


There are a lot of books I have whose cover-art just fucking kills me.
Read Grand Weaver


RE: [WIP] Making my own cover for my story

#13
Do you really need the cover to be the mc/ dragon? Well for me, I think using a human character(or the mc in human form) is catchy enough for a cover.  Although I suck at story telling using descriptive words, I do at least have a decent knowledge when it comes to art and catchy covers. Anyway it's just my opinion though. Carry on.

Anyway, Here I've drawn a flat of Aileen as an example. Just looking at it makes me feel sad. That's because it doesn't have a background.

https://img14.deviantart.net/d2f3/i/2016...asstzn.jpg

A simple character/s at the center and a breath-taking background should do it. If you ask me I would say like a city of Krysperium at the back or something?

I'll try and color it up for you if I do have some extra time.

PS. I depicted Mc was like a silver-bluish dragon or the like? So he's a red dragon after all? Well I'm still at chapter 12 anyway with am I saying?