The author says:
(This is a replacement for a cover submitted awhile back that, um, was not popular with the reviewers. I hope I’ve learned a bit from this one)
Eloise is a princess in hiding, an orphan, and an heir to the throne her uncle wants. In her grandfather’s day, Uncle Frideric would have staked her out for a dragon’s meal. Two birds with one stone, so to speak. Fortunately, virgin sacrifices to the dragons are passé now. Until the day she rescues a baby dragon, whose parents are searching desperately for him. Then she might just be food for wyrms, if they don’t realize she’s their heroine first…
[original submission and comments here]
Nathan says:
As 3-D rendered people go, this is good. (I have a visceral hatred of “pseudohumans,” but not everyone is so irrational.) Here’s what I would do:
- Change something in the background — streaks of color, soft-focus trees or catacombs or whatever… just so that the filler background doesn’t look like filler.
- Crop the artwork tighter:
…and then increase the title size to fill the space and make it easier to read at smaller sizes. (With an ornate font like this one, you really need to compensate with size for readability.) You can easily move the byline up into the space left at the bottom without obscuring any essential detail of the artwork.
- Possibly add a light order, or maybe just a texture around the edges, to compensate for the rendered figures. (I REALLY don’t like pseudohumans. Can you tell?)
Other comments?
Much better! But everything does need to be tightened up a little as Nathan suggests. The art could be cropped closer and the title could be larger (and I am not so sure how well that typeface with its fine lines holds up, either.)
The artwork is nice enough…but bothers me a little. It seems static for one thing, with the figures looking too posed and a little too artificial. (And I don’t believe the male figure’s sword for one second, let alone the way he is holding it.) It would help a lot of there were more interaction between the woman, man and dragon. At the moment they are separate elements with no real connection. Overlapping them more might be a step in the right direction. Someone with a hand placed on another might be an idea, or a leash on the dragon. Something to tie everything together.
Something else that is a little distracting is that all of the characters seem to be reacting to something off stage so that instead of the eye staying on the cover it tends to wander off to the right, wondering what everyone is looking at. And since there is nothing there the cover lacks any real focus or center of interest.
Looking at the cover again, I have add my vote to doing something about the background. It’s one of the reasons that the figures have no connection or context. They look like mannequins posing in front of a curtain.
As I kind of hinted at in my first post, I’m not crazy about the artificiality of the figures. They need further work to help reduce their too-obvious digital origins.
To sum up my suggestions:
Bring the focus of the artwork back within the frame.
Make the figures interact with one another.
Put them in a place rather than against a background.
Crop tighter.
Enlarge the title and perhaps rethink the typeface.
Work further on the figures to make them more realistic.
What bugs me is how the baby dragon is just standing on a random platform that doesn’t seem to be there for any reason other than to get it in frame. Why not have one of the characters hold it, or have it on someone’s shoulder?
My 2 cents… ( I really love the art!!!)
Maybe switch author name and title to better use the space. fill the empty black spaces with real texture- it can be anything, trees, buildings, whatever but add a light source to account for them being brightly lit. I used fire off screen in my example and added just a hint of red to them to blend them into the scene with that fire. (the fire also accounts them looking away) you could use a real light behind them like a lantern on a pole or magic effects but because the shadows are so prominent I think it really needs a source for that light.
A minor pet peeve for me was the mix of capitol and lower case in the words.
my example https://imgur.com/a/T5XdzJM
Shel, I love ya, but man, I really do not like that art. Not one bit.
But then again, I’m like Nathan; I really intensely dislike pseudohumans. I wish I could warm up to them, but I can’t. With the tens of thousands of affordable or free stock images out there that can be used, I just don’t get why anybody uses pseudos. I’d be interested to know what the ales figures are, comparing covers with pseudos to covers with “real” people or illustrations in the cover art.
Sorry…about all I can say is that Shelley’s work certainly improves some of the other flaws.
Shelley is indeed really good at doing that!
More than you know, brother, more than you know.
I’ve seen her in action in the Cover Design Studio group in Scribophile so I have a glimmering of an idea at least!
I really dislike the art. Just look at the man’s wrist as he holds that impossibly massive sword: it makes no sense whatsoever. I get the real impression that whoever did this took what DAZ (or whatever software he or she used) produced and accepted it without question. Details like that combined with the clumsy composition that has already been mentioned simply underscore all of the problems with the illustration.
Shelley’s work on the art improves it but, unfortunately, still cannot alter all of the fundamental underlying problems. For instance, the disconnected, unrelated figures, the strangeness of the figures staring off stage, the dragon on the miraculous platform, etc. Even the dragon’s fire looks pasted-on: it is a light source that is illuminating nothing.
I really think that the artwork needs to be redone from scratch rather than try to patch it up.
Aside from the dubious quality of the rendering (which makes all the textures look just a little too much like plastic) and the thoroughly unrealistic way that guy (who’s he?) is holding that seriously over-sized sword, I’d say the main problem with this cover is simply that everyone on it is all-too-obviously posing for the shot as if this were a family photo. I’m not saying you have to show an actual scene from the book, but maybe you could show a little more action? I don’t mean you have to show anyone charging into battle (unless that’s the kind of action most common to this story), but you should definitely have the dragon and the maiden and anyone else involved in the story doing something rather than just standing around staring at something the way they’re doing now.
Since I agree with Ron and Hitch and I have nothing more to add, I will just say that the characters look A LOT like Link and Zelda, even the sword looks like the Master Sword and the shield clearly has a Hylian Crest.
Thank you all for your comments, I just realized it was up (took a few days). I’m still learning Daz – and improving my content library. I’ll be taking almost all of your suggestions into account – I’ve already changed the background (Underground cave hallway with torches in sconces and other details, much more interesting than the plain rock wall. And I’ve swapped out the male figure to a more realistic one with a much more reasonable sword. Composition of scene, um, now that’s gonna be a bit of a struggle (due to my skill level atm). But I’ll work on it.
Glad you took all of our comments—some of which must have seemed pretty rough!—in the spirit in which they were intended.
When adding swords to your characters try to make sure they look as they are actually holding them…that is, that the weapons have weight. Don’t just insert them into the hands. That will add a lot of believability to the picture. If you have any light sources in the scene—such as the flame of the dragon (or, as you suggested, torches in sconces) don’t forget to have this light illuminating the characters. It’s a great way to tie all of the picture elements together and to really enhance the realism of a scene!
Here are a couple of examples of what I mean…
I made sure to add illumination from the fire outside the window to one side of the character http://black-cat-studios.com/photocovers/Untitled_1/imag006.jpg
Here I added a green glow from the radar screen to the character’s jacket and face http://black-cat-studios.com/photocovers/Untitled_1/imag027.jpg
Last time, promise.
https://dlcampanile.wordpress.com/2020/08/13/fires-maiden-cover-redo/
I hope I’ve addressed concerns. Now, before you all jump in – I KNOW I NEED TO REDO THE RENDER. *This is a mockup*, should be a lot more readable/viewable at thumbnail, but I’m not going to spend a lot more time before I get some feedback.
1. They are looking at a big bad. Not off the edge of the cover.
2. Font is not a skinny one, hopefully it’s not one of the overused ones…
3. They are preparing for confrontation, hopefully not as “posed” for the shot.
4. Background is a setting, not just a backdrop. Light is more obviously sourced.
5. I’ve pulled back quite a ways, partly also to reduce the uncanny valley/artificial people vibe.
Hey Deena! I’m late to the party but I wanted to put together some advice on this cover.
I thought it would be useful to walk you through how I’d approach this as a cover project so you can understand the principles that are at work in designing a cover.
An author is so close to the work they often can’t quite get the distance to see how to best communicate their book to a potential reader.
You’ve got a great blurb that is super clear and intriguing, you just need a few tips on how to get your cover to do the same thing!
My walk-through/advice is here: https://www.kathrynrosamiller.com/post/cover-advice-fire-s-maiden
No need for this to be a “last time.” This site is all about helping people with their covers so however long it takes, that’s what it takes…
Besides, two iterations is nothing compared to what the cover art for a traditionally published book might have to go through!
You did a very nice job! The cover is substantially improved!
The posing of the characters is very much better! They look more like a related group now and they look much less posed.
The setting is much better now, too.
Just a couple of comments/suggestions…
The big bad needs to be further into the cover. Where it is cut off looks a little clumsy. At least get the entire near arm into the cover.
The background is much better but the entire image looks as though it is in a fog. There needs to be much more contrast. Making no other change than contrast, see the difference here: https://www.charliehills.com/gallery/picture.php?/617/category/3
Don’t forget that the flame from the little dragon is a light source and that this should be reflected on the figures and the ground below it.
I think that in focusing on improving your figures and background you lost sight of where your title would go…with the result that it gets tucked up into the left-hand corner. Aside from making it look like an afterthought, this leaves a huge hole in the middle of the cover.
When creating an illustration for a book cover, one of the first thing the artist does is leave room for the text—a typical rule of thumb is to leave about 1/3 of the cover unoccupied by anything important. You can see examples of this in these cover paintings my friend Steve did: http://www.stephenhickman.com/kindred.jpg
http://www.stephenhickman.com/Toxic1.jpg
One thing you might do is eliminate the decoration above your name (which adds nothing to the cover) and lower the art until the base of the figures is more or less even to where the decorative device was. This would give you much more room for the title. This wouldn’t solve the problem of the hole, but moving the dragon further into the cover, perhaps so that it overlaps the sword, might help. This overlap would also go a long way toward connecting all the elements and establishing the scale of the dragon.
Here is an example of where I did only a couple of things I have suggested. https://www.charliehills.com/gallery/picture.php?/618/category/3
1. I lowered the art. 2. I enlarged and rearranged the title. 3. I increased the contrast of the art overall and darkened the upper part to make a better background to the title and to move the visual focus toward the figures.
I did not move the dragon further into the cover (which definitely needs to be done) nor did I add any ambient light from the little dragon’s flame.
One more thought: you may have made the figures too small. Making everything a little larger would make the figures, their gestures and expressions clearer. It would also allow you to have some overlap between the characters and the dragon, which would help with scale and depth.
https://www.charliehills.com/gallery/picture.php?/621/category/3
Y’know, no matter what you do to that image, whether the Dragon is huge, or closer, etc. all I can see, every time I look at it, is the wee Fire-Lizard (ooops, wait, sorry, that’s Anne McCaffrey’s invention), BABY dragon, flipping off the big dragon, à la that infamous “famous last act of defiance” drawing of the mouse flipping off the eagle that’s coming to eat him. I just can’t see anything else when I look at this.
Sorry!
I think that’s fine. It’s dramatic in its own right and, more importantly, it suggests story. What needs to be done is to tie all three main elements—the two humans, the little dragon and the big dragon—into a cohesive visual. Among the things that help do this is to take care of eye lines: characters should be looking at the things they are reacting to; characters casting shadows onto objects and other characters; utilizing overlapping planes; being sure that light sources cast illumination onto objects, etc. etc. Paying attention to such details goes a long way toward making an illustration a cohesive whole.
Kata, thanks so much for the advice, I just quickly read it. Sorry to be so long to respond, I started a new job a month ago and life is a bit nuts right now. Saving it to go through again later in much more detail. And thanks to everyone else too. 🙂 I’m re-reading all of it tonight. Part of my headache is that I have to borrow a PC to render anything – my graphics card is in dire need of an upgrade.
No problem/rush – it’s there as a resource when it’s needed. Good luck!