COVER ART for a book I am writing... Critique requested

[chrisaakins]

So I have this basic Idea of a cover for my fantasy novel.

Questions:

• Does the cover make you want to read the book?

• What do you think of the font?

• Does the hand-drawn map look like a pic of an old fashioned hand-drawn map?

• How does the pendant look?

• Suggestions for layout changes? (I'm not 100% happy with the placement /layout of the title)

[chrisaakins]

Here is a second layout:

I like this one better.

[burvantill]

@chrisaakins I agree, the second one is better. Giving the title space is good, but the font is tough to read. This will potentially be on a display shelf, so you'll want the title to read fast. You have seconds to keep someones attention. The are a ton of fancy old style fonts that may read better and still give you the fantasy look.

[jwing]

• Does the cover make you want to read the book?
  I think it's pretty cool! You could possibly try work a little more decoration in somewhere, something that has to do with the book's story? (e.g. some kind of symbolic border)

• What do you think of the font?
  I think the font is okay, I had a hard time reading Heir on the first cover, but it's easier on the second version. It matches the mood of the cover well!

• Does the hand-drawn map look like a pic of an old fashioned hand-drawn map?
  I think so, although I'm no expert on old maps heh.

• How does the pendant look?
  Looks pretty good to me! Although I guess the texture might be a little rough for a crystal pendant, but that could purely be a stylistic choice.

• Suggestions for layout changes? (I'm not 100% happy with the placement /layout of the title)
  Hope you don't mind me scribbling all over your cover, heh, I was curious what it would look like if you flipped the colors of the background, the text, and the map border. I also darkened the map slightly to draw more attention to the pendant + I felt like the map illustration overpowered the whole cover.

[chrisaakins]

@jwing ooooOOOooo I like it. YOu can't really see the blood spatter but it is a definite improvement.

[chrisaakins]

@jwing @burvantill How is this? Red is always a catchy color. I like it so much better!

[chrisaakins]

Here is a version that passed my adult children's muster, who have actually read the book:

[burvantill]

@chrisaakins . The font is better but I still think it could be played with some more, the rest of the cover looks awesome.

[jwing]

The new font is sweet! That red is awesome but I feel like the background itself is too strongly patterned, it looks a little chaotic and distracts from the title. What if you kept everything as it is, but put a color/layer over the background to mute it somewhat? like this I guess

or

Also a small point but the color of 'Chris Akins' blends in with the map, a darker gradient might help it to pop out more!

[APHOTICMOTH]

I made this quick edit to maybe inspire you. Notes

Title should be readable at thumbnail size, especially if you are selling on Amazon and such..

Darker textured background, with a brighter more legible typeface. The top felt extremely heavy, pushed up the map to balance out the red a bit, and have a nice spot to feature your name.

Pendant was straight across for the most part, I angled it down to make it seem more interesting, it also leads your eye to the beginning of your name.

Tangent with the rope on the map, so I pulled it out a bit. Added a drop shadow to the pendant.

Overlapped the title for added flair.

Darkened and brightened the map to make it seem like the glowing pendant is actually a light source.

Added a bit of a border to break things up and tie things together at the same time.

I'm not a pro designer, these are just thoughts.

[chrisaakins]

This post is deleted!

[chrisaakins]

@CLCanadyArts wow you are so good at this! What font did you use? I really like the edits you made. I will work on making it more like that.

[APHOTICMOTH]

@chrisaakins Yataghan for the title - free.

Krasomila for the author name -free.

Dafont.com

Can't wait to see what you come up with.

[chrisaakins]

Okay... Here is the final-ish version I think. Thanks to @burvantill @jwing @CLCanadyArts for your input. The font was exactly the one I was looking for. This was my first serious attempt at cover art, so I thank you for your patience. I learned a ton with your help. Let me know what you think, if you don't mind.

[burvantill]

@chrisaakins Great job This looks very professional to me.

[chrisaakins]

@burvantill thanks Lisa!

[APHOTICMOTH]

@chrisaakins Nice!

[Casual-T]

Awesome (and very educational) to see the evolution of this. The final iteration looks great!

[chrisaakins]

@Casual-T Yes, this is what the forums do best. Help us to learn and grow. We have amazing people here.

[Rebekka]

All cover options for the book are beautiful. I think you should feel with your heart which one is the best.