[original submission and comments here]
Nathan says:
From one extreme to the other! 🙂
I like where this is heading — it definitely doesn’t give off the AI vibe of your previous submission — but it brings its own set of problems:
- Not much is visible (or graspable) from the thumbnail. I can’t make out any of the text, and of the rest, there may be a window, and either a path or a stream… If you change the typeface to something without as many thin elements, it will be more readable, and cropping the image a little closer will make the visual components of the image more prominent.
- The lens flare looks really artificial compared to the rest of the image. Trimming it down to just the sun, without the halo, would let it be prominent but not overpowering.
- That would also help the human figure, which is in danger of being lost next to the flare. A slight darkening of that figure’s silhouette would also bring more focus to it.
- There’s no need to make the byline look like an afterthought. put it on there margin to margin. (And you don’t need “By.”)
Other comments?
A definite improvement. The main issue is that the window and spot of light dominate the cover. The eye goes directly to these—and there is really nothing of much significance there. It’s just a window and an inexplicable glare. One has to stop and look closely to make out the tiny figure…even when the cover is seen at full size. You should not depend on a potential reader doing this. Your cover needs to convey its idea in a glance—and at any size. Since the eye does tend to go to the window, put the figure there—and make it larger. I have no idea what the glare represents but I suspect the cover would be better without it. (Oh…and if you really want to put “by” before your name, make it smaller and/or in lower-case.)
It’s pretty when seen full-size, but kind of nothing as a thumbnail. And I’d actually guess this was AI before the previous version…the palette and vague fantastic detail kind of reminds me of the infamous AI “painting” that won that art contest several years ago:
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/this-state-fair-changed-its-rules-after-a-piece-made-with-ai-won-last-year-180982867/
If the book is about a teacher and student, it would also make more sense to have two figures, as in the previous version, than one alone. I might keep this concept, but brighten it up and zoom in to make a better thumbnail, and have the student figure following the more confident and assured teacher toward the fantasy portal.
On the whole, I rather prefer your earlier cover draft to this one; generic as it was, the artwork was clear and coherent and immediately accessible to prospective readers. The artwork here is even more generic, but decidedly more difficult to understand either emotionally or intellectually. The human protagonist is nearly impossible to spot in the thumbnail, and not very easily noticed even at full size; meanwhile, what looks like a cathedral window with a lens flare reflecting a sunrise or sunset or some such offers no clue as to what kind of story this is supposed to be.
My recommendation? Go back to your first cover and add something to it hinting at these inter-dimensional portals the main characters use to travel from world to world as our esteemed host recommended to you that first time. Anything showing those characters up close either staring into a portal or emerging from one will work at immediately piquing a casual viewer’s interest far better than such a distant and impersonal image as you’re using here.