hippiechos

Thank you @Red ochre. I used your facet plug-in for the crystal spikes in one of my versions of Sovereign. Unfortunately, it didn't pass the husband test.

Thank you all for the kind feedback. My husband is still not fully in love with Sovereign (when viewing the cover alongside the others in series), so it looks like I've got more edits to try with that one.

You're starting out better than I did. I couldn't even get the sides of my hearts to be even, plus your lightning bolt follows a logical path, instead of curving off at some weird angle. So yeah, keep at it, because you've got a pretty good start!

Happy Easter (a day late)! I like the speckled look you've got going on.

Very pretty works. I like the use of color and glow you've got going on. The result is great!

Ooooh, creepy spider. You did a great job, and I particularly like the way you can see the individual hairs, even though spiders themselves creep me out.

I like it! I particularly enjoy the texture in the yarn ball. Very nice.

Dude. That is one psychedelic skull. It looks like he's howling!

I really like the shiny effect. It has a nice golden glow!

Thank you!

Hi all! I'm an author who is super-duper slow with writing due to two young children and a full-time job on top of that, but I'm making my way toward "The End". One of the things they say for self-publishers is don't design your own covers, but I'm cheap and I enjoy creating art and I decided to anyways. My covers have seen many stages, from playing around with the twist tool in paint.net to get my base symbols, to the final product they are now. Everything I know about graphic design has been self-taught through tutorials and getting input from other people as to what works and what doesn't. Only Thanmir War and This World Bites are published, so I'm willing to take suggestions on any of the other covers. Sovereign has given me the most issues with finding something that I like, but I finally settled on what I have because it fits the tone of the story best. The four Ninier book covers were created solely in paint.net, using the various tutorials found around such as making a stone texture, making 3-D stone text, cracked floor effect, and realistic rough cast metal. This World Bites was put together in paint.net, with the world pictured made using paint.net's advanced planet tutorial. I also fell in love with this water tutorial, and found inverting the colors made for a pretty fire background. My attempts at digitally painting my characters: My Book Covers: A just-because experiment to test the realistic rough cast tutorial: Other cover options I tried but rejected: Back from 2012:

I think your facet plugin will work nicely. Thank you!

I apologize if this post was put in the wrong place. I've perused the tutorials section, but I can't seem to find something that quite fits what I want, so I'm looking for suggestions. I have a shape, and I want crystal spikes to be rising from that shape, toward the viewer. I'm thinking crystal spikes like this: But following a path like my attached swirl. If anyone can point me in the right direction or toss me some suggestions, I'd greatly appreciate it.

I'm trying to create a braid of hair, but I'm not sure the easiest route to take. I created a hair texture already. Is there a plugin that will bend an image into an L shape? Or maybe there's a better way? Any suggestions?

That looks like it'll work well. Thank you!

Thanks for the suggestion. It does add a yellow tint to all of the stone, but I was hoping for something more subtle that doesn't permeate everything. I tried adding noise, but the image is too large (300 ppi) and the noise doesn't show up. I guess I'll keep playing and see if I can find something.

Through many helpful tutorials, I made the cover for my book. I decided to update the title to be a metallic bevel, and most people say that the gold title (vs a silver-green or bright green) stands out the best. My sis-in-law suggested I add gold flecks to the stone, to help create a harmonious color effect. I'm not sure how to do that. Does anyone have a tutorial suggestion to add gold flecks?

Awesome. I hadn't come across the curly lines plugin before. I'm trying that out now. I tried GenTree previously, but I couldn't manipulate the branches to my liking.

Thank you! I will give that a try.

I've followed the amazing and awesome tutorials available via these forums to create a beautiful stone background, but it seems I can't find any about creating vines. I'm looking to create something somewhat realistic to the effect of: http://stocking-stuffer.deviantart.com/art/SS-0191-Wall-Vines-52124407 I know that's a real photo, but I'd like to create crawling vines in the shape of a tree, growing out from a central location at the bottom. Anyone have any suggestions or ideas on which tutorials to follow to get the best result?