Popular Post hippiechos Posted April 14, 2017 Popular Post Share Posted April 14, 2017 (edited) 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: Edited May 8, 2017 by hippiechos Adding digital painting 15 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eli Posted April 14, 2017 Share Posted April 14, 2017 Great art work for your books. A nice way to start a gallery. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hippiechos Posted April 14, 2017 Author Share Posted April 14, 2017 Thank you! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seerose Posted April 16, 2017 Share Posted April 16, 2017 @hippiechos! You are very welcome! For your books images here is superb. Thank you so much. Quote Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever. Gandhi Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maximilian Posted April 17, 2017 Share Posted April 17, 2017 Nice covers! Very well done! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lynxster4 Posted April 17, 2017 Share Posted April 17, 2017 Those are really great bookcovers @hippiechos ! Well done! Wonderful start to your gallery. Quote My Art Gallery | My Shape Packs | ShapeMaker Mini Tut | Air Bubble Stained Glass Chrome Text with Reflections | Porcelain Text w/ Variegated Coloring | Realistic Knit PatternOpalescent Stained Glass | Frosted Snowman Cookie | Leather Texture | Plastic Text | Silk Embroidery Visit my Personal Website "Never, ever lose your sense of humor - you'll live longer" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hippiechos Posted April 17, 2017 Author Share Posted April 17, 2017 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Red ochre Posted April 17, 2017 Share Posted April 17, 2017 Very creative book covers. Well done! Quote Red ochre Plugin pack.............. Diabolical Drawings ................Real Paintings Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hippiechos Posted April 17, 2017 Author Share Posted April 17, 2017 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pixey Posted April 17, 2017 Share Posted April 17, 2017 Excellent work you have here - very creative and eye catching as well . Quote How I made Jennifer & Halle in Paint.net My Gallery | My Deviant Art "Rescuing one animal may not change the world, but for that animal their world is changed forever!" anon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LionsDragon Posted April 18, 2017 Share Posted April 18, 2017 Welcome @hippiechos! These all look fantastic! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hippiechos Posted April 25, 2017 Author Share Posted April 25, 2017 As I went hunting through my files for a parchment background I'd created long ago, I came across some old paint.NET images I'd made way back when (2012). They still make me smile, so I figured I'd add them to my gallery. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MJW Posted April 25, 2017 Share Posted April 25, 2017 Very well done! Better than many book covers I've seen in Barnes and Noble (and I pay attention to book cover art). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pixey Posted April 25, 2017 Share Posted April 25, 2017 Those are so pretty - the flowers are beautiful and are my favourite color . Quote How I made Jennifer & Halle in Paint.net My Gallery | My Deviant Art "Rescuing one animal may not change the world, but for that animal their world is changed forever!" anon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seerose Posted April 28, 2017 Share Posted April 28, 2017 @hippiechos! The flowers are beautiful. I like the colors. Quote Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever. Gandhi Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hippiechos Posted April 28, 2017 Author Share Posted April 28, 2017 Thank you, @MJW, @Pixey, and @Seerose! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beta0 Posted April 28, 2017 Share Posted April 28, 2017 D8 << Yes. I was left with my mouth open out of wonder. I fell in love with your artwork...specially the covers. I've seen many book covers and these... I'm not an expert about them, but they do have that feel of being of professional quality. So... *claps* Quote A Gallery Where to find me :D (Please, be careful. Some of the sites I'm on might not be family-friendly. 😱 ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ishi Posted April 29, 2017 Share Posted April 29, 2017 They are awesome. I love the fact that they are PDN-made and that the tutorials have made interesting paperback covers. Been reading some books lately and I also wonder hoe the covers were designed. What font are those? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scooter Posted April 29, 2017 Share Posted April 29, 2017 You show a great talent with your book covers. If I may, offer my own thoughts on your conundrum with the Sovereign cover. [Note: Please feel completely free to ignore any or all of the following. I only offer it in the hopes you will be less burdened and your husband can go back to sleep. ] Book three seems to be the only cover which has the stone background not "involved" with the rest of the element(s) (i.e. the "cracks showing through in book one, the cutouts of book two, the separation of sky from stone on book four.) With this book the "emblem" seems to be neither on the stone or above the stone, it's just there. Perhaps adding a shadow to show the emblem up over the stone or making the emblem seem more grounded with the stone/cracks slightly reflecting in the metal as it rests on the stone could make it seem more cohesive with the others. Remember, regardless of your decision, I really like your covers, Quote Scooter Age is only a number --in my case a Really BIG number, but there you have it When the prefect paint.net image is created, I will still be wondering "How they Do that?"- sigh☺️ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hippiechos Posted May 1, 2017 Author Share Posted May 1, 2017 Thank you, @Beta0, @Ishi, and @Scooter! @Ishi - I used Shangri La for the title and Berylium for my name and subtitles on the Ninier series and Euphorigenic for This World Bites. @Scooter - You are absolutely correct. It's something I was aware of myself that the symbol doesn't interact with the stone. What I've tried and failed to do several times is embed the symbol into the stone. I got a bit of an engraved effect in one of my rejected versions, but what I truly want to do is embed it deep like staring down into a crevice to see it buried within the cracks. Unfortunately, I haven't found a way to do that. Every thing I can think of to give it depth requires viewing it at an angle, rather than straight on. Or you can't see part of the symbol because stone blocks it. Or it requires shadows that makes the symbol too dark to see. I've tried moving the cracks up so that they're spread over parts of the metal, but then the symbol disappears too much. I haven't tried a drop shadow, but I figured I'd have to add more dimension to the symbol in order for it to make sense. One of the ideas I've been toying with is to change the direction of the light and maybe cast a shadow from the symbol and have it look like a clawed hand. I thought that might be a bit too much though. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beta0 Posted May 1, 2017 Share Posted May 1, 2017 @hippiechos You're welcome. Quote A Gallery Where to find me :D (Please, be careful. Some of the sites I'm on might not be family-friendly. 😱 ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scooter Posted May 2, 2017 Share Posted May 2, 2017 (edited) hippiechos OK, good to know. It may be a matter (SOOO easy for me to say ) of getting the symbol to "sink" into the stone by rethinking the color of its edges the current very dark ones seem to be there to define only the symbol, not to indicate the "walls" of the stone surrounding it. Perhaps thinking of "cutting into the stone" the shape you want, achieve that; Then create the symbol "in the cut out portion." This could guide your choices of color and shadow and reflections (if any). Let us know of your progress, it IS an interesting problem. Edited May 2, 2017 by Scooter Quote Scooter Age is only a number --in my case a Really BIG number, but there you have it When the prefect paint.net image is created, I will still be wondering "How they Do that?"- sigh☺️ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hippiechos Posted May 8, 2017 Author Share Posted May 8, 2017 I decided to try my hand at digitally painting some of my hand-drawn images. I don't have a scanner, so I had to tweak the levels of the photos I took of the sketches before using the black and alpha tool. It gave it an interestingly grainy look for my outline. The background I made years ago, using a tutorial that's now in the graveyard. I'm only in the beginning stages of learning how to digitally paint and still looking to improve, so I'll happily take suggestions. These are all characters from my current writing work-in-progress. I do have guys as well. I just haven't colored them yet. Naomi is the only full human of this bunch. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pixey Posted May 8, 2017 Share Posted May 8, 2017 They look amazing . You certainly have a flair for this . Quote How I made Jennifer & Halle in Paint.net My Gallery | My Deviant Art "Rescuing one animal may not change the world, but for that animal their world is changed forever!" anon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hippiechos Posted May 9, 2017 Author Share Posted May 9, 2017 Thank you, @Pixey! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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