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Post by ronmiller on Jan 9, 2020 23:33:40 GMT
Really? That's a good skill. I await your suggestions for improvement tomorrow. Goodnight. Thanks! But no uber skill involved. I forget exactly what I did (I think I did most of them individually by hand---that's easy: just a fuzzy spot with some spikes sticking out), but one way to do it is to simply make your own brush...something like this Then, by using the brush tool in Photoshop to randomize shape dynamics, scattering, rotation, size, etc. you can make nifty-looking stars.
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Post by Retread-Retired-Cameron on Jan 9, 2020 23:47:19 GMT
About now I think I'll stick with charcoal and a limestone rockface. At least I can chisel the rock if all else fails.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 10, 2020 4:50:12 GMT
I think the examples you have provided Ron, will help those who want to design their own covers. Also, I agree it's a good idea to have a few art lessons to "help develop basic skills, as well as providing training in composition, color and simply learning how to observe." I gave my husband a few lessons in the basics and he was amazed at what he was able to do. I'm all in favour of "having a go" at design, but I still say if you can afford it, hire a professional!
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Post by Deleted on Jan 10, 2020 8:50:58 GMT
Thank you, Ron. I will practice and see what I come up with. Actually excited about it. Thank you.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 10, 2020 8:51:30 GMT
Larika, I like your little lady avatar.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 10, 2020 11:07:00 GMT
I drew it today, painted it on the computer and uploaded it here. As you can see I haven't developed any shading skills yet. I look older in my cartoon than the 18 years of my previous lulu avatar!!!
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Post by ronmiller on Jan 10, 2020 14:04:09 GMT
Thanks Maggie, I drew it today, painted it on the computer and uploaded it here. As you can see I haven't developed any shading skills yet. I look older in my cartoon than the 18 years of my previous lulu avatar!!! It looks great!
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Post by ronmiller on Jan 10, 2020 14:32:38 GMT
I really like the stark, graphic appearance of this cover! I think it very nicely reflects the serious nature as well as the subject of the book. It's also pretty cool to give this book some relevance to today's reader by giving it such a contemporary look. There might be only just a couple of comments/suggestions. I would make the band of figures continuous across the front, spine and back cover ( 1). And fill in the empty gap marked X with figures. I would also not overlap the back cover blurb over the row of figures. I think that the only really serious thing I have is that the art looks a little too much like a scene in a busy airport terminal. I think that the effect can be of today's world, you just don't want to have too much that isn't really relevant to the book or doesn't immediately contribute to its themes. What you may want to do is eliminate pretty anything that is not a figure...especially some of the very random-looking shapes on the right hand side of the front cover. For instance, you might want to replace the shapes in the area marked ( 2) with figures. You may even want to take a second look at the grey and black rectangles ( 3), though they do reflect the black rectangle and box around "up." Finally, and this is a little thing, you might want to try just making "Collector's Edition" in a darker gold and eliminating the drop shadow. By the way (just out of curiosity) what makes this a collector's edition? Is there a special introduction, notes or something like that? If so, that might be worth mentioning at least on the back cover.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 10, 2020 18:47:11 GMT
Ron, thank you very much for taking the time to critique this. I think the black bar extending under the figures is brilliant. I did not think of it; hence the benefit of feedback. Thank you. I will work on it, and upload a new cover when I do the paperback version.
I did attempt to make this "cool-looking" for a new generation, with a clean accessible interior and trendy cover, while respecting the serious nature of the book. Thank you again.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 10, 2020 18:50:08 GMT
The bars and extra content on the edges will not appear on the cover as they will be cropped substantially, but moving the back content up is a good suggestion. And the inversion of the black figures under the bar, just brilliant. Looked at it again and it took my breath away. So glad I decided to ask you.
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Post by ronmiller on Jan 10, 2020 19:25:49 GMT
The bars and extra content on the edges will not appear on the cover as they will be cropped substantially, but moving the back content up is a good suggestion. And the inversion of the black figures under the bar, just brilliant. Looked at it again and it took my breath away. So glad I decided to ask you. Just gilding the lily. You had a really good cover to start with! I think that one of the main things to do is to make sure that the crowd of people is pretty continuous all the way across, with no gaps.
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Post by ronmiller on Jan 10, 2020 21:07:40 GMT
While I wanted to avoid including any examples of traditional media, I thought that these were simple enough to show. I think that one thing they do is help demonstrate that pretty much any media can be used to create the art for a book cover: in addition to things like acrylics or oils, there are watercolors, dyes, pen and ink, ordinary drawing pencils, colored pencils...even crayons. Covers have even been created using linoleum block prints and cut-out paper shapes. Whatever works is fair! Madame Butterfly (which was actually done for a poster) is plain ordinary watercolors. It took literally 30 seconds at most. The Painted Bird (an alternate version of one I posted elsewhere) is black ink and watercolor. I drew the bird with the stopper from the ink bottle instead of a pen in order to get the funky line. Typee was done with an ordinary Pilot Razor Point (the color was added digitally). So the point is: you don't necessarily have to render a photo-realistic painting (digitally or traditionally) in order to come up with something interesting and different.
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Post by ronmiller on Jan 15, 2020 22:52:03 GMT
Here is an in-progress cover I am doing for a friend. It's a reprint of a 50s paperback and we both wanted to maintain the effect of luridness and sleaze that the novel embodies. The background is a combination of a photo from my own files and a photo from the Library of Congress. The main figure is also a photo from my files. The original was in B&W so I had to add color. The background figure is a combination of a photo of a friend (for the pose) and an image from the LoC (for the face). Here is the final version:
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Post by Retread-Retired-Cameron on Jan 15, 2020 23:19:38 GMT
A good cover, reminds me of a few paperbacks I have from the '50s. It also reminds me to stick to what I can do reasonably well, at least if it doesn't involve cleaning tiny hienies.
P.S.: The spouse enjoyed seeing that cover as well.
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Post by ronmiller on Jan 16, 2020 12:07:15 GMT
A good cover, reminds me of a few paperbacks I have from the '50s. It also reminds me to stick to what I can do reasonably well, at least if it doesn't involve cleaning tiny hienies.
P.S.: The spouse enjoyed seeing that cover as well.
Glad that it reminded you of those old paperbacks, which is exactly what the publisher wanted and I aimed for! (Fortunately, I have several in my collection so I had some inspiration to go by!)
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