Like what other people mentioned, it just… doesn’t look professional, I’m sorry. But I do like the background with the snow. Maybe remove the figure entirely and focus on a silhouette heading towards the castle in the distance.
It’s not that the figure is a bad design, but I feel like something simpler like a silhouette in a snowstorm is easier to polish and turn into a professional look.
Honestly, I think it could actually work as it is, but the spacing, location, font, and color of the text all don’t work. That said, a silhouetted version like you suggested would also be very strong, if not an improvement.
I say this from the absolute kindest place I possibly can, but I agree with others that it is not professional quality. As personal art, or even a children's book, it looks great, and you have talent. However, if I were looking for a book to read, I would pass this up if this were in the adults section of fantasy.
Your book cover is THE first thing people will see, and even though we say, "don't judge a book by its cover", absolutely everyone does and will. You want your best foot forward as much as possible, and unfortunately, this doesn't meet that standard. You're better off looking for a professional that you like the style of and commissioning a piece from them. Give them your concept art and let them have a go.
It's *so* true that people definitely judge books by their cover. I mean... *I* do. But I totally agree, this is an amazing piece of art! It's just not *quite* book cover material... *yet!*
I agree with others. The pose looks unnatural, the background is too bright; castle is too big. Version with snow looks better as an image, but I can't really see it on a book cover.
Maybe do something more stylised? Not "realistic" snow, but a few big snowflakes around the character, on a dark background, on which you would barely see the outline of the castle; maybe with some light coming from a tower...
I'd move the character to the middle, and figure out where the tittle and authors name goes. You shouldnt cover your character with them.
Hello Finn! I definitely see what you are going for with the illustration :D I love the hair of the character and in general the rendering is quite nice for the character. I can see that in comparison to other book covers its still lacking. The previous comment made some good sugestions how you could get your hands at an illustration that looks more professional. In case you want to change your current illustration instead here are some suggestions: There are definitely some areas you could improve to make it look less "cheap".
First thing is that you could look at the character and how the neck looks a bit unnatural. This comes from the body being turned to far away. Maybe you could take a reference or look for one for this pose and change it accordingly.
Other then that maybe look into contrast: If you put a black white filter on the pic it shouldn't look washed out. Change the values of the background compared to the character (in other words make the background darker to contrast with the character). The contrast between the sky and ground is also too little so try around there as well. You can probably find some examples of how to improve contrast online :) Next thing would be composition: I would probably pull down the horizon and make the castle smaller to have a nicer composition. You should also put in a placeholder title in the size you want it in and adjust the composition accordingly. In general and for the font, I would suggest that you do some research by looking at covers that look and feel like you would like your cover to feel. Find a cover where you like the font and try to find a similar font from there.
I’m gonna be honest - this is not professional quality - at least not for adult novels. Children’s picture books yes, but a fantasy cover no.
If I saw a book with this cover in the fantasy section I would assume it’s a terrible self published book (and let’s be honest, if your idea/writing was good enough to be published it would have been).
Take others advice and maybe explore a different avenue for a cover.
>if your idea/writing was good enough to be published it would have been
Que the stories of famous writers being rejected over and over again. I agree with your previous opinion, but publishing is more than just about quality.
People are so silly, yes there is a lot of bad self published writing but that doesn’t mean it’s all bad and it doesn’t mean you are a lesser writer for doing it. That’s ridiculously pompous and is like saying no one with skill goes to community college because if they were smart why wouldn’t they go to Harvard?
Vanishingly few amongst a sea of turds.
Many people self publishing think they're Brandon Sanderson and the truth is that they just couldn't clear the bar and wanted to get their precious little baby out to the world without editing it. It shows in the quality not just in the art and editing but in the books themselves.
There's a lot more "noise to signal" in the self published world due to the lower barrier to entry. However, there's also a ton of really great self published fantasy out there too. Some that I'd recommend:
- The Hands of the Emperor by Victoria Goddard
- Queen of None by Natania Barron
- The Lord of Stariel by A.J. Lancaster
- The Wolf Among the Wild Hunt by Merc Fenn Wolfmoor
- The Heretic's Guide to Homecoming by Sienna Tristan
Hope this helps!
That is a matter of opinion, you probably have not tried very many. There are plenty of popular self published authors. There are advantages and disadvantages to both, trad pub and self pub. If you are on this sub as a writer, you should probably look into them before dismissing one so easily.
I’ve tried about 100+ because I’m always willing to give one a chance and be surprised
But one thing they all share is the glaring lack of editing and bad writing.
It’s a sad but true fact - just because you think your baby is great/fantastic/the greatest work of fiction ever written, doesn’t mean it is and doesn’t mean the world will think so. Sure you can have fans who will accept some bad writing to be supportive. But every Single Self published book I’ve read has shown me within a few pages exactly why it was self published - and it’s never a good reason.
I'm sorry you are confusing facts and opinions. Considering that trad pub can't have bad editing is laughable, but honestly, it looks like you're not interested in straying outside of your bubble
It's not my job to give you examples. It's not hard to google that stuff on your own. You don't sound knowledgeable about the subject, in fact you sound very ignorant, so I was hoping to shed some light on the matter for you. But this exchange has proven pointless. Good day.
I would recommend reading Wool.
Self-Published, and it was so phenomenal that it legitimately changed the self-publishing world. You may know it as the TV Show 'Silo'.
If you want the truth I can be honest with you. I’m a professional illustrator and graphic designer and design blu ray covers for my job.
Tbh, you’re not a good enough illustrator to pull off a professional looking cover. Your skills just aren’t there yet. You’d need years more practice. I think you’re better off going a different route for your cover. Maybe try photography or a more graphic cover. Something simple. AI might even be able to give you a better cover (hate suggesting AI but it would likely give you a better cover). Study other covers and what they do that works.
If you want an illustration then maybe try to simplify it like the book Evergreen by Autumn Woods. Or maybe just hire a real illustrator.
I'd like to add that you shouldnt use AI for anything beyond finding a good composition. You should still make the art yourself / edit pictrues yourself.
I'm not a fan of AI taking over an artists job. Theres moral issues involved in using it. But- OP needs more help than composition and editing. OP can't draw people. She/he needs to use a model or AI's help making the figure look better. Or hire an artist.
This is exactly the sort of situation where AI shines. While what is above is well beyond the skills of most people, it's far from a professional job. If the choice is between this and something AI generated, then the best choice is absolutely going to be the AI generated option every time.
Hiring a professional artist is almost certainly going to give the best results the vast majority (but not all) of the time, but not everyone is going to be able to afford that or be able to justify spending that money on a project like this when it may not even prove to be a success at all.
Yeah, I don't use AI and AI might take over some of my work (not all of it, it won't be able to design the back of blu-rays, but it might do front covers if it gets good enough). So I'm not a huge fan. But I do think they could help self published authors come up with better covers. I don't know if I would fault a self published author from trying it out.
The tech train is something that cannot really be stopped, merely slowed. The moment AI can create fluent art with no uncanniness, it will 101% be used. It is already used for a lot of cover art. For me, for my website, I'm gonna use a lot of AI generated illustrations for my book scenes, items and stuff, as for background textures and pretty much everything else I can, because 1) there are no capable artists nearby, 2) the few I know did not want to, and 3) it would cost (tens of) thousands to create all that content. Even background textures can be hefty expensive from stock sites.
Feed the machine your own piece of art and allow it to develop concepts based on it, then provide those to an illustrator as a basis for future art.
It has a place and a purpose. The issue with AI is that it's scraping real art without the artist's consent. That issue could be addressed and solved in future, at which point real illustrators whose work is willingly contributed could be licenced in the same way music samples are.
There is the eternal fine line between copying and getting inspiration. As I don't know how AI works to the detail I cannot comment on it more, but the fact is, most of human art is copying and re-creating the existing world as it has already been shaped. The moment something popular blows up, all the "original and DIY" channels fill up with work that is obviously derived from it. Dune being the recent example. Many people don't even realize how much they copy sub-consciously.
So, at worst, AI rips off existing works, at best it works like humans: show it a pile of pics of something, and it essentially creates algorithms for all the details and derives content from it. Similar, but not identical. There are as many types of dragons in the fantasy art as there are artists, and most of them look the same from a distance.
It would require an understanding of the theory of design and anatomy for drawing to explain what isn't working. It isn't just something you can get a few pointers on and fix. The idea is good, the execution is amateur. That's not meant to be an insult, I couldn't do it either because I am not a designer or an illustrator.
You know what you need? LIGHTING.
You have some shadows, but I think you need some more dramatic lighting to really add to this.
Add another layer, set it to multiply and a nice reddish purple grey color, plop it over the whole thing. Then carve(erase) some spots where the light would hit. (I would recommend not very many spots as snowstorms are dark)
Do another shadows layer but only add it to the darkest spots, such as inside her hood, under her cape, etc.
Add in a lighting layer for the spots the shadows aren't, though you can overlap them sometimes for a fun effect.
Lastly, I would put the snow over her as well(though not as thick), and add in some lighting on the castle to make it pop a little more. Lit windows, a little glow, etc.
It's a great start, but in my experience lighting makes ALL the difference!
Snow version looks better. Looks very "fables for children." Can probably look decent with good typography. I'm assuming hiring an artist it's out of budget for a custom cover. Forget putting anything at the bottom, the contrast between the colorful dress and the white snow will make it hard to read.
It looks cheap imo because of the “By: [your name]”
Just put your name along the bottom.
The cover art is fine but it scream Young Adult fantasy, which isn’t a bad thing if you’re doing YA — if you want more adult fantasy, just have the character looking away, no face, make her slightly smaller, highlight the background a bit more — have red text maybe?
If you're just planning on posting it to RoyalRoad or something like that, it's fine. Though, and I hate to tell you this, an AI generated cover would probably get you more clicks
If you're planning to sell it, even just as an ebook on kindle unlimited, absolutely not. Hire a professional artist. Or spend more time practicing. Because I cannot see this selling that well, regardless of the contents of the book
I would not click on anything that has an AI cover personally. As an artist myself, AI is plainly stealing from us, and to have another artist (a writer) not supporting us digital/traditional artists for a cover is a big no for me. You could easily get a cheap cover from a beginner artist that wants to work on something small to start up, or work on something yourself (as this writer has done). I much prefer this cover, which they've worked on clearly for hours, than a cheaply made AI cover made in seconds with stolen artwork from hardworking artists.
I mostly agree but I hazard a guess that the vast majority of people do not care *at all* that the cover was AI generated if it looks good.
And it's not "made in seconds". A year or so ago I tried getting into AI generated images myself thinking it would be piss easy. Well, it wasn't. After a month of doing it a couple of hours each day, I got maybe 3 images I was actually happy with. Sure, that is a LOT faster than if I tried to learn to actually draw. Even if you're good at it, I sincerely doubt you can just churn out 100s of generated images a day. Well, you definitely can but 99.9% of them are garbage.
Unless that has *dramatically* improved in the last year or so, I'd say it'd be faster to commission the cover from an artist. It's possible it might be cheaper too, unless you already have a computer with a powerful GPU.
The sad fact is, it's the luddites again. If something can improve productivity, it will 100% be used. The average consumer very likely does not care at all how the cover was generated, if it looks appealing.
And yeah, it took me about 200-300 pictures, a lot of cutting, copy-pasting, adding and blending in images to get the cover concepts I sent to my cover artists.
Some pictures, like those I generated for my book characters, look spot on from the first picture. I was actually extremely excited how nice pics it was able to churn out, with very small details, zero uncanniness. It goes all bonkers when you want to get multi-character pictures or complex pictures out of it. For that, image to image using photoshopped concept art is what comes in handy. It can "blend" them together and generate detailed art from simple silhouettes and shapes. A grey line drawn with paint in an existing picture turned into a sword.
So at best, it is an one-click solution, but in general it's a bit like CNC machines: it looks like something you just throw a block of metal in and press a button and a perfect part comes out, but in reality it needs a lot of skill to get anything worthy out of it.
I sort of like the art especially the character at the front because it's got a certain appeal, although some stuff like the neck could use adjusting but im not going to pretend like i know anatomy. I think the castle looks a bit out of place in the background. Like it's not that badly drawn but maybe it's something to do with the placement and shape of the castle, since you could probably do more with the perspective and it seems too close to the character so maybe make it a little smaller in the distance to give it a more mysterious feeling. I think it looks a bit dull in the background and the brushes you used to draw it might not have helped either. Maybe a different colour that gives off the same vibes as gray would help make it less flat, like a washed out shade of dark blue, although just take that with a grain of salt since im not confident using colours.
Also the snow maybe looks a bit cheap and I don't think the solid line patterns of snow are helping, it looks a bit off. maybe try out different brushes and snow shapes and all that until you find something that makes the snow look like it's proper snowing and not just placed in the background as white noise, also maybe it would help if you make the character's physical appearance affected slightly by the weather too like specks of snow here and there and colder shading. I think a lot of the colours in the piece just seem a bit bland and they could be played with a lot more to make it more eye-catching, since despite it being snow there are still a ton of shades of blue and grey to mess around with, and there's not much contrast in the background
Otherwise I think if you want it to look professional straight away then you'd have to hire a pro who already knows how to make that sort of stuff. Also Idrk how to draw professionally either so sorry if this advice isn't right
As an artist myself, I can say that the quality is lacking a bit, I mean I really like the lady in the piece but it doesn't read "cover" to me. It lacks some composition and proper contrast too. However, it is a nice concept though. If you'd really like to draw it yourself since this is a start, I'd suggest referencing other books to learn from them and see what you're lacking and maybe choose a font as well as style that feels right to you. Good luck
Firstly, I like the storm but maybe make the Castle clearer. You could lean on the aesthetic and show only the silhouette of the Castle, or you could make the Castle stand out, loud and bold. Maybe intensify the storm around it but thin the snow right in front to add to the mystery. Right now you're just getting the worst of both worlds.
Regarding the girl, I think a 3d rendition would be much better than a 2d one. Her expression needs to be thought out, is she surprised, scared, suspicious or something else? Id go with scared but idk the context behind the cover. I agree with one of the other users that the pose looks unnatural, because her head is turned an impossible degree relative to her body. I'd simply twist it a little to look more realistic and also cloak her features a bit, adding to the mystery appeal of it. Maybe have her hood cast a shadow on her face.
Anyways, that's my two cents. I don't have enough context so my suggestions are somewhat generalised and based on what I think would look best. I'd be happy to discuss it with you if you desire.
...was it too much work to post directly from your computer or something?
Yes. It does look cheap looking. It looks a post for a fan art sub that a 13 year old that described that they are 13 in the title would post.
You know what...
You've got promise. This is artwork that's above average. You just need a bit more practice to elevate your work to the next level.
If you want this to be a cover, focus on the castle. Having a really crisp looking figure in the foreground is distracting, you want there to be some mystery, so focus on the castle that's obscured by snow.
Next up: play with perspective a bit. Don't show the whole castle, give us a taste, hint at its size. Make it look different and unique by working with perspective and using different shapes.
And never stop drawing, never stop doing what you like to do
Agreed!!!! *Never* stop drawing just because people are saying this particular piece isn't professional looking enough, because it's probably better than I could do, considering I can't draw buildings at *all* and I *hate* anatomy.
I am 100% serious when I say *never* stop writing/drawing. Practice makes perfect!
Jumping on this: there's a lot of people giving good advice from the point of a knife. You are growing as an artist, and it's just fine. Keep going. Hone your craft. Appreciate your successes. Good luck!
One reason that it doesn't look professional is that it's...not good.
The art style is OK, not the best, but not the worst either. And the idea is alright too. But it has a huge problem of detail.
The details .... wrong. The hood of her dress doesn't seem natural, her face is too "empty", the castle doesn't look like a "finished" castle, it looks like an outline that should be polished before the work is done.
If you only fix how her hood is shaped, then this would be a good cover for a childrens /middlegrade fantasy book, but if you are aiming for YA and higher, this is in desperate need of detail.
Here are some ideas: Add lines to the snow, add flags to the castle, give the walls some texture, hell, if you can, move the castle further back and add more things around the castle. In short, don't go for "disciplined drawing of exactly 4 things I want the cover to have."
IMO it has good composition. The perspective looks a little off to me (makes castle look close to foreground). Colors are a little saturated and the style leans more on the cartoon side than realism so it seems intended for younger audience. Love the character and costume design though. You’re a good artist, I’d just recommend trying a commission.
First off, let me just say that I think you're very talented!!
However, I do agree with the other commenters who say it doesn't look professional. But hey, I write *and* I draw, and I don't think my drawings look professional either, so I mean no hate at all! I think you should keep practicing for sure, because you are very skilled! I'm sure in time, you could redraw this and make it look much more professional.
To be honest, it reminds me of a Wattpad novel cover with the "By: Finn" at the bottom. Try looking up some popular book covers, and take inspiration from those! (But don't steal the designs, obviously.) Speaking of Wattpad covers though, you could try using a website like Canva! They have some cool text options, and some interesting templates to start from. I definitely do *not* think you should use AI, though.
I would encourage you not to think of your book cover as an artistic endeavor, but as an exercise in marketing.
In the industry I work in, the cover image and title are what we describe as "packaging." If you were writing for a traditional publisher, you would not get to choose your cover art; this is a decision that would be made by the marketing team.
Bearing that in mind, here is the process I would recommend if you are on a limited budget and want to spend $0-$100 on your book cover:
1. Go onto the Kindle store and find the book category that most closely matches the *specific* genre of fantasy you are writing. Get as *highly specific* as you can: if you are selling a romantic fantasy novel, then look at the [Romantic Fantasy](https://www.amazon.com/Best-Sellers-Romantic-Fantasy/zgbs/digital-text/14530456011) category bestsellers. If you are writing [Dark Fantasy Horror](https://www.amazon.com/Best-Sellers-Kindle-Store-Dark-Fantasy-Horror/zgbs/digital-text/157062011/ref=zg_bs_nav_digital-text_4_14530456011) then look at the best-sellers for that category.
2. Spend some time looking through the covers of the 50 to 100 best-selling books in your category. You will probably notice certain patterns: there are certain font types that are popular. The font you find on the cover of sci fi books is different from the font you find on romance books, and so on. Some genres prefer a picture of the hero on the cover, some genres prefer a picture of a sword or a dragon. Just look at dozens of thumbnails at a time, try to get a general sense of what seems to sell best in the genre you're working in.
3. Your goal is to recreate that aesthetic for your book cover. If you are selling people Fantasy Romance novel, then you need to make it *look* like the cover of a Fantasy Romance novel. If you are selling people a Sword and Sorcery book, you need to make it *look* like the kind of cover that readers expect to see on a Sword and Sorcery book.
4. Your goal is to *procure* artwork. This doesn't have to involve *creating* artwork. You can [search the public domain](https://www.pexels.com/public-domain-images/) for copyright-free images that you can legally use without needing to request permission from anyone. Or you can look on stock sites where you can find "premade" book covers for $50-100, find one that matches your book's vibe, and go with that.
If you have a more substantial budget, then you can go to a professional who specializes in book covers. I would not expect to pay less than $200 for this service. I would expect a competent professional to charge closer to $400-500.
I'm going to go against the grain a bit. If it is an exercise for fun and helps you get into the mindset, keep doodling. I personally have a lot of fun acting out scenes and recording my own narration. But it doesn't mean if I was published that my stuff is what would be going on Audible.
A ton of author's have little say over their book covers and for good reason. It's the same reason why great authors don't always make great directors. A lot goes into designing something. Covers, genre, and even titles are a marketing skill and less of a writing one. But I will say, despite the clear skill level you are at, this image has decent framing and characterization. I understand the general vibe, even if it is a bit cliche.
But nobody would pick it up off the shelf. I think if you were honest with yourself, you wouldn't either. Maybe if it was for a children's book and possible not even then. This is where realism can be beneficial. Maybe it isn't something you will actually use, but if it develops yourself and your idea of your story–or if you are just having fucking fun doing it–doodle away. I would just be ready to relinquish the reigns if the day comes and you are presented with a better option.
I think it's wonderful that you are artistic and I think you should use this piece of art in your social media as an example of character art that you created.
I do not think you should use it for your cover because it does not fit the style of adult fantasy covers. Hire a professional cover artist. Your cover is the first thing buyers see and if they don't like your cover, they'll never even click to read your blurb.
This is so cute Finn. Your book cover design is incredibly charming, don’t mind the criticisms, they come from a good place, but just follow your gut. I suspect you’re on the younger end, so just enjoy creating, don’t worry too much about what other people think until you’re older :)
Something about it feels childish in a way. Don't get me wrong, it's a nice piece. But it looks like it belongs on a children's book. It looks like it was painted, and the woman on the cover is very bright. At least to me, it's hard to take a book seriously when the cover is featuring an adult Maggie Simpson.
Please note that these are just critiques, and I mean them in the nicest way possible.
Well for one the Typography and formatting is REALLY BAD. But also while the art is decent for an amateur it lacks action and the anatomy makes no sense. The color and Lighting is also mediocre. If you really care, I would just pay a professional. Many excellent artists online have quite reasonable commissions, and you can use the art you have as an example for them of your Main Character or whoever she is.
What I did was I created a cover art from my own vision and blended it together with AI, which also added all the extra details like fancy clothing and backgrounds (after fine-tuning it for about 300 times, cutting and combining previous generated pics and blending them together again with pic-to-pic tool), and then submitted this idea to an actual cover artist: "this is something I was looking for".
Original and artistic covers do not need to follow the typical trend of cover art. This is because the generic formula "use all these tips and tricks to create the BEST cover art that turns your book into instant harrypotter sales magnet" can actually be detrimental - everyone uses it and the book sales lists are just LOADED with very nice - but very similar - looking covers. In the end, you will stick out like a lottery ticket amongst 10 million others.
So it can be beneficial to take some artistic freedoms - just don't look amateurish or DIY. Don't get offended, it's really difficult to make professional looking AND original covers. I'm several orders of magnitude below that, but I had a vision, and I used AI only to illustrate that to an actual artist.
Child and youth books covers with illustrated art can look a bit bonkers and still fly. They often look like that, actually.
I know most people will hate me on this but you can use something like Copilot to improve upon this, maybe provide me a version of this image and I'll provide examples
Figure needs more harsh shading, remove the “by:” next to your name and center it with a more professional looking font (you usually see helvetica or something similar with straight shapes and sans serif), lessen the snow effect to a light dusting and slightly blur the background, and then put a little snow in front of her at a larger size.
If you can use the shading on her to better show the anatomy, right now it’s too unshaded so while I know she’s supposed to be looking over her shoulder it looks more like her head has fully rotated 100 degrees. I think what will help most is neck and cloak shadows and then some lighter shade where the hair meets the cloak. Also define the shoulder a little more with highlight and by shading the cloak behind it (the shoulder should be one of the closest things to put pov but looks flat).
A lighter detail you could change is the shading on the cloak which doesn’t flow well with the anatomy, it needs more bend over the shoulder and about the side of her face.
Please don’t get discouraged, I think it’s a good start and commendable that you are drawing you are trying to draw and write your own cover and story. You did a lovely job on the composition :)
FYI - you never put "by:" on a book cover. Just put the author name. The avg reader is not going to go "hm, I wonder why there's a name on this book?" If someone's name is on the cover, it's because they're the author.
Also, the font is a strong no. It does not fit the genre, or mesh with the cover concept, at all. Best of luck
(Source: I work in publishing)
It doesn't look professional and people do in fact judge books by their covers.
If you want to be recognised as a professional, pay a professional to design the cover. Before jumping to that however, I strongly suggest paying an editor and trying to trade publish first.
The fact that you couldn't even export this image and elected to photograph your own screen says a lot about your lack of professionalism and proficiency in this arena.
If you want to be paid as a professional artist, you need to conduct yourself like one: irrespective of the contend of your art.
I want to be ultra clear on this one. If you were to publish this, a publishing house would likely see this as a massive red flag in the future for your quality control.
Despite many comments, I think this is perfect! Why do fantasy and sci fi covers have to look "professional". Yours has character, soul and love putten into it. It doesn't need to look realistic, super accurate, like a computer had generated it etc. (the Harry Potter books worked well)
I love it!
It's honestly beautiful.
For your question:
With snow: Looks a bit more like the character should be struggling and more covered up maybe. It gives off "more agency" vibes, as if she was on the run. The castle is still a mystery and could be evil.
Without snow: Looks like she isn't too much in a rush but it's cold and the castle offers shelter. It's a bit calmer.
I'd make it, so it reflects the scene.
Omg no ofc I did not say that 😂 one can be true for both but what I said was that THIS art piece has charm and character, does not mean others do not.
What I personally think is that often prof. art tries to be "too" accurate and good. This also doesn't mean the pictures above are bad, it means that they look special to me. They do remind me of childrens books and I love that. Fantasy Adventures -for me-, have always been somewhat related to a childs creativity and imaginative mindset and to have a cover that reflects this, is cool imo.
I also think modern covers often (not always) do not leave much room for imagination or the covers are intentionally designed to not show faces, too much scenery, color etc.
They often do not appeal to me, so I like the route OP is heading much more.
Like what other people mentioned, it just… doesn’t look professional, I’m sorry. But I do like the background with the snow. Maybe remove the figure entirely and focus on a silhouette heading towards the castle in the distance. It’s not that the figure is a bad design, but I feel like something simpler like a silhouette in a snowstorm is easier to polish and turn into a professional look.
Honestly, I think it could actually work as it is, but the spacing, location, font, and color of the text all don’t work. That said, a silhouetted version like you suggested would also be very strong, if not an improvement.
I would take what you’ve made to a professional cover designer. The CONCEPT is good so they can just make a more professional version of it.
I say this from the absolute kindest place I possibly can, but I agree with others that it is not professional quality. As personal art, or even a children's book, it looks great, and you have talent. However, if I were looking for a book to read, I would pass this up if this were in the adults section of fantasy. Your book cover is THE first thing people will see, and even though we say, "don't judge a book by its cover", absolutely everyone does and will. You want your best foot forward as much as possible, and unfortunately, this doesn't meet that standard. You're better off looking for a professional that you like the style of and commissioning a piece from them. Give them your concept art and let them have a go.
It's *so* true that people definitely judge books by their cover. I mean... *I* do. But I totally agree, this is an amazing piece of art! It's just not *quite* book cover material... *yet!*
Yes, I think with a professionals know-how and experience, it has potential.
I agree with others. The pose looks unnatural, the background is too bright; castle is too big. Version with snow looks better as an image, but I can't really see it on a book cover. Maybe do something more stylised? Not "realistic" snow, but a few big snowflakes around the character, on a dark background, on which you would barely see the outline of the castle; maybe with some light coming from a tower... I'd move the character to the middle, and figure out where the tittle and authors name goes. You shouldnt cover your character with them.
Hello Finn! I definitely see what you are going for with the illustration :D I love the hair of the character and in general the rendering is quite nice for the character. I can see that in comparison to other book covers its still lacking. The previous comment made some good sugestions how you could get your hands at an illustration that looks more professional. In case you want to change your current illustration instead here are some suggestions: There are definitely some areas you could improve to make it look less "cheap". First thing is that you could look at the character and how the neck looks a bit unnatural. This comes from the body being turned to far away. Maybe you could take a reference or look for one for this pose and change it accordingly. Other then that maybe look into contrast: If you put a black white filter on the pic it shouldn't look washed out. Change the values of the background compared to the character (in other words make the background darker to contrast with the character). The contrast between the sky and ground is also too little so try around there as well. You can probably find some examples of how to improve contrast online :) Next thing would be composition: I would probably pull down the horizon and make the castle smaller to have a nicer composition. You should also put in a placeholder title in the size you want it in and adjust the composition accordingly. In general and for the font, I would suggest that you do some research by looking at covers that look and feel like you would like your cover to feel. Find a cover where you like the font and try to find a similar font from there.
I’m gonna be honest - this is not professional quality - at least not for adult novels. Children’s picture books yes, but a fantasy cover no. If I saw a book with this cover in the fantasy section I would assume it’s a terrible self published book (and let’s be honest, if your idea/writing was good enough to be published it would have been). Take others advice and maybe explore a different avenue for a cover.
>if your idea/writing was good enough to be published it would have been Que the stories of famous writers being rejected over and over again. I agree with your previous opinion, but publishing is more than just about quality.
Regardless of how many rejection letters they received along the way, at the end of the day they were published by a publisher.
Are you saying there are NO good selfpublished authors?
People are so silly, yes there is a lot of bad self published writing but that doesn’t mean it’s all bad and it doesn’t mean you are a lesser writer for doing it. That’s ridiculously pompous and is like saying no one with skill goes to community college because if they were smart why wouldn’t they go to Harvard?
Vanishingly few amongst a sea of turds. Many people self publishing think they're Brandon Sanderson and the truth is that they just couldn't clear the bar and wanted to get their precious little baby out to the world without editing it. It shows in the quality not just in the art and editing but in the books themselves.
I’ve yet to read one where I haven’t shut it due to crap dialogue, derivative settings and characters, and just plain bad writing and plotting.
There's a lot more "noise to signal" in the self published world due to the lower barrier to entry. However, there's also a ton of really great self published fantasy out there too. Some that I'd recommend: - The Hands of the Emperor by Victoria Goddard - Queen of None by Natania Barron - The Lord of Stariel by A.J. Lancaster - The Wolf Among the Wild Hunt by Merc Fenn Wolfmoor - The Heretic's Guide to Homecoming by Sienna Tristan Hope this helps!
That is a matter of opinion, you probably have not tried very many. There are plenty of popular self published authors. There are advantages and disadvantages to both, trad pub and self pub. If you are on this sub as a writer, you should probably look into them before dismissing one so easily.
I’ve tried about 100+ because I’m always willing to give one a chance and be surprised But one thing they all share is the glaring lack of editing and bad writing. It’s a sad but true fact - just because you think your baby is great/fantastic/the greatest work of fiction ever written, doesn’t mean it is and doesn’t mean the world will think so. Sure you can have fans who will accept some bad writing to be supportive. But every Single Self published book I’ve read has shown me within a few pages exactly why it was self published - and it’s never a good reason.
I'm sorry you are confusing facts and opinions. Considering that trad pub can't have bad editing is laughable, but honestly, it looks like you're not interested in straying outside of your bubble
I’m guessing you, or someone you know, is self published? Because you’ve given me no examples to refute my claims…
It's not my job to give you examples. It's not hard to google that stuff on your own. You don't sound knowledgeable about the subject, in fact you sound very ignorant, so I was hoping to shed some light on the matter for you. But this exchange has proven pointless. Good day.
[Here you go, Mr. Lazy.](https://reedsy.com/discovery/blog/best-selling-self-published-books)
I would recommend reading Wool. Self-Published, and it was so phenomenal that it legitimately changed the self-publishing world. You may know it as the TV Show 'Silo'.
Thank you - that’s one I actually haven’t read so I’ll give it a go.
If you want the truth I can be honest with you. I’m a professional illustrator and graphic designer and design blu ray covers for my job. Tbh, you’re not a good enough illustrator to pull off a professional looking cover. Your skills just aren’t there yet. You’d need years more practice. I think you’re better off going a different route for your cover. Maybe try photography or a more graphic cover. Something simple. AI might even be able to give you a better cover (hate suggesting AI but it would likely give you a better cover). Study other covers and what they do that works. If you want an illustration then maybe try to simplify it like the book Evergreen by Autumn Woods. Or maybe just hire a real illustrator.
I'd like to add that you shouldnt use AI for anything beyond finding a good composition. You should still make the art yourself / edit pictrues yourself.
I'm not a fan of AI taking over an artists job. Theres moral issues involved in using it. But- OP needs more help than composition and editing. OP can't draw people. She/he needs to use a model or AI's help making the figure look better. Or hire an artist.
This is exactly the sort of situation where AI shines. While what is above is well beyond the skills of most people, it's far from a professional job. If the choice is between this and something AI generated, then the best choice is absolutely going to be the AI generated option every time. Hiring a professional artist is almost certainly going to give the best results the vast majority (but not all) of the time, but not everyone is going to be able to afford that or be able to justify spending that money on a project like this when it may not even prove to be a success at all.
It’s so cool you design blu ray covers but NO AI
Yeah, I don't use AI and AI might take over some of my work (not all of it, it won't be able to design the back of blu-rays, but it might do front covers if it gets good enough). So I'm not a huge fan. But I do think they could help self published authors come up with better covers. I don't know if I would fault a self published author from trying it out.
The tech train is something that cannot really be stopped, merely slowed. The moment AI can create fluent art with no uncanniness, it will 101% be used. It is already used for a lot of cover art. For me, for my website, I'm gonna use a lot of AI generated illustrations for my book scenes, items and stuff, as for background textures and pretty much everything else I can, because 1) there are no capable artists nearby, 2) the few I know did not want to, and 3) it would cost (tens of) thousands to create all that content. Even background textures can be hefty expensive from stock sites.
You can't stop me
Evergreen is an ironic title for someone named Autumn Woods.
Yeah, it makes me wonder if it's a pen name. I feels planned.
nah bro fr suggested using ai 💀💀💀💀 im so done
Feed the machine your own piece of art and allow it to develop concepts based on it, then provide those to an illustrator as a basis for future art. It has a place and a purpose. The issue with AI is that it's scraping real art without the artist's consent. That issue could be addressed and solved in future, at which point real illustrators whose work is willingly contributed could be licenced in the same way music samples are.
There is the eternal fine line between copying and getting inspiration. As I don't know how AI works to the detail I cannot comment on it more, but the fact is, most of human art is copying and re-creating the existing world as it has already been shaped. The moment something popular blows up, all the "original and DIY" channels fill up with work that is obviously derived from it. Dune being the recent example. Many people don't even realize how much they copy sub-consciously. So, at worst, AI rips off existing works, at best it works like humans: show it a pile of pics of something, and it essentially creates algorithms for all the details and derives content from it. Similar, but not identical. There are as many types of dragons in the fantasy art as there are artists, and most of them look the same from a distance.
It would require an understanding of the theory of design and anatomy for drawing to explain what isn't working. It isn't just something you can get a few pointers on and fix. The idea is good, the execution is amateur. That's not meant to be an insult, I couldn't do it either because I am not a designer or an illustrator.
You know what you need? LIGHTING. You have some shadows, but I think you need some more dramatic lighting to really add to this. Add another layer, set it to multiply and a nice reddish purple grey color, plop it over the whole thing. Then carve(erase) some spots where the light would hit. (I would recommend not very many spots as snowstorms are dark) Do another shadows layer but only add it to the darkest spots, such as inside her hood, under her cape, etc. Add in a lighting layer for the spots the shadows aren't, though you can overlap them sometimes for a fun effect. Lastly, I would put the snow over her as well(though not as thick), and add in some lighting on the castle to make it pop a little more. Lit windows, a little glow, etc. It's a great start, but in my experience lighting makes ALL the difference!
Snow version looks better. Looks very "fables for children." Can probably look decent with good typography. I'm assuming hiring an artist it's out of budget for a custom cover. Forget putting anything at the bottom, the contrast between the colorful dress and the white snow will make it hard to read.
It looks cheap imo because of the “By: [your name]” Just put your name along the bottom. The cover art is fine but it scream Young Adult fantasy, which isn’t a bad thing if you’re doing YA — if you want more adult fantasy, just have the character looking away, no face, make her slightly smaller, highlight the background a bit more — have red text maybe?
If you're just planning on posting it to RoyalRoad or something like that, it's fine. Though, and I hate to tell you this, an AI generated cover would probably get you more clicks If you're planning to sell it, even just as an ebook on kindle unlimited, absolutely not. Hire a professional artist. Or spend more time practicing. Because I cannot see this selling that well, regardless of the contents of the book
I would not click on anything that has an AI cover personally. As an artist myself, AI is plainly stealing from us, and to have another artist (a writer) not supporting us digital/traditional artists for a cover is a big no for me. You could easily get a cheap cover from a beginner artist that wants to work on something small to start up, or work on something yourself (as this writer has done). I much prefer this cover, which they've worked on clearly for hours, than a cheaply made AI cover made in seconds with stolen artwork from hardworking artists.
I mostly agree but I hazard a guess that the vast majority of people do not care *at all* that the cover was AI generated if it looks good. And it's not "made in seconds". A year or so ago I tried getting into AI generated images myself thinking it would be piss easy. Well, it wasn't. After a month of doing it a couple of hours each day, I got maybe 3 images I was actually happy with. Sure, that is a LOT faster than if I tried to learn to actually draw. Even if you're good at it, I sincerely doubt you can just churn out 100s of generated images a day. Well, you definitely can but 99.9% of them are garbage. Unless that has *dramatically* improved in the last year or so, I'd say it'd be faster to commission the cover from an artist. It's possible it might be cheaper too, unless you already have a computer with a powerful GPU.
The sad fact is, it's the luddites again. If something can improve productivity, it will 100% be used. The average consumer very likely does not care at all how the cover was generated, if it looks appealing. And yeah, it took me about 200-300 pictures, a lot of cutting, copy-pasting, adding and blending in images to get the cover concepts I sent to my cover artists. Some pictures, like those I generated for my book characters, look spot on from the first picture. I was actually extremely excited how nice pics it was able to churn out, with very small details, zero uncanniness. It goes all bonkers when you want to get multi-character pictures or complex pictures out of it. For that, image to image using photoshopped concept art is what comes in handy. It can "blend" them together and generate detailed art from simple silhouettes and shapes. A grey line drawn with paint in an existing picture turned into a sword. So at best, it is an one-click solution, but in general it's a bit like CNC machines: it looks like something you just throw a block of metal in and press a button and a perfect part comes out, but in reality it needs a lot of skill to get anything worthy out of it.
I sort of like the art especially the character at the front because it's got a certain appeal, although some stuff like the neck could use adjusting but im not going to pretend like i know anatomy. I think the castle looks a bit out of place in the background. Like it's not that badly drawn but maybe it's something to do with the placement and shape of the castle, since you could probably do more with the perspective and it seems too close to the character so maybe make it a little smaller in the distance to give it a more mysterious feeling. I think it looks a bit dull in the background and the brushes you used to draw it might not have helped either. Maybe a different colour that gives off the same vibes as gray would help make it less flat, like a washed out shade of dark blue, although just take that with a grain of salt since im not confident using colours. Also the snow maybe looks a bit cheap and I don't think the solid line patterns of snow are helping, it looks a bit off. maybe try out different brushes and snow shapes and all that until you find something that makes the snow look like it's proper snowing and not just placed in the background as white noise, also maybe it would help if you make the character's physical appearance affected slightly by the weather too like specks of snow here and there and colder shading. I think a lot of the colours in the piece just seem a bit bland and they could be played with a lot more to make it more eye-catching, since despite it being snow there are still a ton of shades of blue and grey to mess around with, and there's not much contrast in the background Otherwise I think if you want it to look professional straight away then you'd have to hire a pro who already knows how to make that sort of stuff. Also Idrk how to draw professionally either so sorry if this advice isn't right
As an artist myself, I can say that the quality is lacking a bit, I mean I really like the lady in the piece but it doesn't read "cover" to me. It lacks some composition and proper contrast too. However, it is a nice concept though. If you'd really like to draw it yourself since this is a start, I'd suggest referencing other books to learn from them and see what you're lacking and maybe choose a font as well as style that feels right to you. Good luck
Firstly, I like the storm but maybe make the Castle clearer. You could lean on the aesthetic and show only the silhouette of the Castle, or you could make the Castle stand out, loud and bold. Maybe intensify the storm around it but thin the snow right in front to add to the mystery. Right now you're just getting the worst of both worlds. Regarding the girl, I think a 3d rendition would be much better than a 2d one. Her expression needs to be thought out, is she surprised, scared, suspicious or something else? Id go with scared but idk the context behind the cover. I agree with one of the other users that the pose looks unnatural, because her head is turned an impossible degree relative to her body. I'd simply twist it a little to look more realistic and also cloak her features a bit, adding to the mystery appeal of it. Maybe have her hood cast a shadow on her face. Anyways, that's my two cents. I don't have enough context so my suggestions are somewhat generalised and based on what I think would look best. I'd be happy to discuss it with you if you desire.
...was it too much work to post directly from your computer or something? Yes. It does look cheap looking. It looks a post for a fan art sub that a 13 year old that described that they are 13 in the title would post.
You know what... You've got promise. This is artwork that's above average. You just need a bit more practice to elevate your work to the next level. If you want this to be a cover, focus on the castle. Having a really crisp looking figure in the foreground is distracting, you want there to be some mystery, so focus on the castle that's obscured by snow. Next up: play with perspective a bit. Don't show the whole castle, give us a taste, hint at its size. Make it look different and unique by working with perspective and using different shapes. And never stop drawing, never stop doing what you like to do
Agreed!!!! *Never* stop drawing just because people are saying this particular piece isn't professional looking enough, because it's probably better than I could do, considering I can't draw buildings at *all* and I *hate* anatomy. I am 100% serious when I say *never* stop writing/drawing. Practice makes perfect!
Jumping on this: there's a lot of people giving good advice from the point of a knife. You are growing as an artist, and it's just fine. Keep going. Hone your craft. Appreciate your successes. Good luck!
One reason that it doesn't look professional is that it's...not good. The art style is OK, not the best, but not the worst either. And the idea is alright too. But it has a huge problem of detail. The details .... wrong. The hood of her dress doesn't seem natural, her face is too "empty", the castle doesn't look like a "finished" castle, it looks like an outline that should be polished before the work is done. If you only fix how her hood is shaped, then this would be a good cover for a childrens /middlegrade fantasy book, but if you are aiming for YA and higher, this is in desperate need of detail. Here are some ideas: Add lines to the snow, add flags to the castle, give the walls some texture, hell, if you can, move the castle further back and add more things around the castle. In short, don't go for "disciplined drawing of exactly 4 things I want the cover to have."
IMO it has good composition. The perspective looks a little off to me (makes castle look close to foreground). Colors are a little saturated and the style leans more on the cartoon side than realism so it seems intended for younger audience. Love the character and costume design though. You’re a good artist, I’d just recommend trying a commission.
First off, let me just say that I think you're very talented!! However, I do agree with the other commenters who say it doesn't look professional. But hey, I write *and* I draw, and I don't think my drawings look professional either, so I mean no hate at all! I think you should keep practicing for sure, because you are very skilled! I'm sure in time, you could redraw this and make it look much more professional. To be honest, it reminds me of a Wattpad novel cover with the "By: Finn" at the bottom. Try looking up some popular book covers, and take inspiration from those! (But don't steal the designs, obviously.) Speaking of Wattpad covers though, you could try using a website like Canva! They have some cool text options, and some interesting templates to start from. I definitely do *not* think you should use AI, though.
Sometimes less is more. Maybe just a solid color + silhouette of person and snow is enough for this
I would encourage you not to think of your book cover as an artistic endeavor, but as an exercise in marketing. In the industry I work in, the cover image and title are what we describe as "packaging." If you were writing for a traditional publisher, you would not get to choose your cover art; this is a decision that would be made by the marketing team. Bearing that in mind, here is the process I would recommend if you are on a limited budget and want to spend $0-$100 on your book cover: 1. Go onto the Kindle store and find the book category that most closely matches the *specific* genre of fantasy you are writing. Get as *highly specific* as you can: if you are selling a romantic fantasy novel, then look at the [Romantic Fantasy](https://www.amazon.com/Best-Sellers-Romantic-Fantasy/zgbs/digital-text/14530456011) category bestsellers. If you are writing [Dark Fantasy Horror](https://www.amazon.com/Best-Sellers-Kindle-Store-Dark-Fantasy-Horror/zgbs/digital-text/157062011/ref=zg_bs_nav_digital-text_4_14530456011) then look at the best-sellers for that category. 2. Spend some time looking through the covers of the 50 to 100 best-selling books in your category. You will probably notice certain patterns: there are certain font types that are popular. The font you find on the cover of sci fi books is different from the font you find on romance books, and so on. Some genres prefer a picture of the hero on the cover, some genres prefer a picture of a sword or a dragon. Just look at dozens of thumbnails at a time, try to get a general sense of what seems to sell best in the genre you're working in. 3. Your goal is to recreate that aesthetic for your book cover. If you are selling people Fantasy Romance novel, then you need to make it *look* like the cover of a Fantasy Romance novel. If you are selling people a Sword and Sorcery book, you need to make it *look* like the kind of cover that readers expect to see on a Sword and Sorcery book. 4. Your goal is to *procure* artwork. This doesn't have to involve *creating* artwork. You can [search the public domain](https://www.pexels.com/public-domain-images/) for copyright-free images that you can legally use without needing to request permission from anyone. Or you can look on stock sites where you can find "premade" book covers for $50-100, find one that matches your book's vibe, and go with that. If you have a more substantial budget, then you can go to a professional who specializes in book covers. I would not expect to pay less than $200 for this service. I would expect a competent professional to charge closer to $400-500.
What age group are you aiming at?
Generally, “By:” is a big giveaway of a novice/self published author. Just use your name, context is enough to let readers know what it means
I'm going to go against the grain a bit. If it is an exercise for fun and helps you get into the mindset, keep doodling. I personally have a lot of fun acting out scenes and recording my own narration. But it doesn't mean if I was published that my stuff is what would be going on Audible. A ton of author's have little say over their book covers and for good reason. It's the same reason why great authors don't always make great directors. A lot goes into designing something. Covers, genre, and even titles are a marketing skill and less of a writing one. But I will say, despite the clear skill level you are at, this image has decent framing and characterization. I understand the general vibe, even if it is a bit cliche. But nobody would pick it up off the shelf. I think if you were honest with yourself, you wouldn't either. Maybe if it was for a children's book and possible not even then. This is where realism can be beneficial. Maybe it isn't something you will actually use, but if it develops yourself and your idea of your story–or if you are just having fucking fun doing it–doodle away. I would just be ready to relinquish the reigns if the day comes and you are presented with a better option.
I think it's wonderful that you are artistic and I think you should use this piece of art in your social media as an example of character art that you created. I do not think you should use it for your cover because it does not fit the style of adult fantasy covers. Hire a professional cover artist. Your cover is the first thing buyers see and if they don't like your cover, they'll never even click to read your blurb.
Looks like it was drawn in crayon. Hire a professional artist
This is so cute Finn. Your book cover design is incredibly charming, don’t mind the criticisms, they come from a good place, but just follow your gut. I suspect you’re on the younger end, so just enjoy creating, don’t worry too much about what other people think until you’re older :)
“Let it goooo”
Something about it feels childish in a way. Don't get me wrong, it's a nice piece. But it looks like it belongs on a children's book. It looks like it was painted, and the woman on the cover is very bright. At least to me, it's hard to take a book seriously when the cover is featuring an adult Maggie Simpson. Please note that these are just critiques, and I mean them in the nicest way possible.
Well for one the Typography and formatting is REALLY BAD. But also while the art is decent for an amateur it lacks action and the anatomy makes no sense. The color and Lighting is also mediocre. If you really care, I would just pay a professional. Many excellent artists online have quite reasonable commissions, and you can use the art you have as an example for them of your Main Character or whoever she is.
What I did was I created a cover art from my own vision and blended it together with AI, which also added all the extra details like fancy clothing and backgrounds (after fine-tuning it for about 300 times, cutting and combining previous generated pics and blending them together again with pic-to-pic tool), and then submitted this idea to an actual cover artist: "this is something I was looking for". Original and artistic covers do not need to follow the typical trend of cover art. This is because the generic formula "use all these tips and tricks to create the BEST cover art that turns your book into instant harrypotter sales magnet" can actually be detrimental - everyone uses it and the book sales lists are just LOADED with very nice - but very similar - looking covers. In the end, you will stick out like a lottery ticket amongst 10 million others. So it can be beneficial to take some artistic freedoms - just don't look amateurish or DIY. Don't get offended, it's really difficult to make professional looking AND original covers. I'm several orders of magnitude below that, but I had a vision, and I used AI only to illustrate that to an actual artist. Child and youth books covers with illustrated art can look a bit bonkers and still fly. They often look like that, actually.
I know most people will hate me on this but you can use something like Copilot to improve upon this, maybe provide me a version of this image and I'll provide examples
Figure needs more harsh shading, remove the “by:” next to your name and center it with a more professional looking font (you usually see helvetica or something similar with straight shapes and sans serif), lessen the snow effect to a light dusting and slightly blur the background, and then put a little snow in front of her at a larger size. If you can use the shading on her to better show the anatomy, right now it’s too unshaded so while I know she’s supposed to be looking over her shoulder it looks more like her head has fully rotated 100 degrees. I think what will help most is neck and cloak shadows and then some lighter shade where the hair meets the cloak. Also define the shoulder a little more with highlight and by shading the cloak behind it (the shoulder should be one of the closest things to put pov but looks flat). A lighter detail you could change is the shading on the cloak which doesn’t flow well with the anatomy, it needs more bend over the shoulder and about the side of her face. Please don’t get discouraged, I think it’s a good start and commendable that you are drawing you are trying to draw and write your own cover and story. You did a lovely job on the composition :)
FYI - you never put "by:" on a book cover. Just put the author name. The avg reader is not going to go "hm, I wonder why there's a name on this book?" If someone's name is on the cover, it's because they're the author. Also, the font is a strong no. It does not fit the genre, or mesh with the cover concept, at all. Best of luck (Source: I work in publishing)
It doesn't look professional and people do in fact judge books by their covers. If you want to be recognised as a professional, pay a professional to design the cover. Before jumping to that however, I strongly suggest paying an editor and trying to trade publish first. The fact that you couldn't even export this image and elected to photograph your own screen says a lot about your lack of professionalism and proficiency in this arena. If you want to be paid as a professional artist, you need to conduct yourself like one: irrespective of the contend of your art. I want to be ultra clear on this one. If you were to publish this, a publishing house would likely see this as a massive red flag in the future for your quality control.
Despite many comments, I think this is perfect! Why do fantasy and sci fi covers have to look "professional". Yours has character, soul and love putten into it. It doesn't need to look realistic, super accurate, like a computer had generated it etc. (the Harry Potter books worked well) I love it! It's honestly beautiful. For your question: With snow: Looks a bit more like the character should be struggling and more covered up maybe. It gives off "more agency" vibes, as if she was on the run. The castle is still a mystery and could be evil. Without snow: Looks like she isn't too much in a rush but it's cold and the castle offers shelter. It's a bit calmer. I'd make it, so it reflects the scene.
are u saying professional art doesnt have character and charm? professional work doesnt have to be super realistic...
Omg no ofc I did not say that 😂 one can be true for both but what I said was that THIS art piece has charm and character, does not mean others do not. What I personally think is that often prof. art tries to be "too" accurate and good. This also doesn't mean the pictures above are bad, it means that they look special to me. They do remind me of childrens books and I love that. Fantasy Adventures -for me-, have always been somewhat related to a childs creativity and imaginative mindset and to have a cover that reflects this, is cool imo. I also think modern covers often (not always) do not leave much room for imagination or the covers are intentionally designed to not show faces, too much scenery, color etc. They often do not appeal to me, so I like the route OP is heading much more.