Open…open… (Wizard of Oz reference)
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still, I’d love to hear your opinions on this… 
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Just so that I can give the best feedback, can you tell me what genre this is for? Also the mood you’re trying to go for?
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Oh! The genre is fantasy. 
As for the mood… I made this quite a long time ago, so I kinda forgot it… 
now that I try to remember it, it was probably dark? 
I forgot…XD. Sorry… 
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First off, it IS a beautiful cover. Pink and yellow are great combinations.
The lighting might seem a little off because the title color is only on the title. Also, the title and the scenery where the girl is seem like two separate parts.
To bring the two parts together, it might help to make the moon a similar glowing yellow to the title. Then the yellow glow would also appear on the girl’s hair, on the front of her dress, and maybe a bit on the left side of her face.
I don’t think the yellow has to be as striking as the title. Maybe similar to the yellow of the author name. Just a subtle banana cream 
Anyway, those are my thoughts. Feel free to ask any questions or come again with the same cover or another one, whatever you like 
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Point noted! I’ll go and try this now! 
Alrighty! I’ll probably make a brand new version of this cover!
And Thank you sooo much for this! You are so helpful! I read the whole thread and they are full of great tips and notes! 
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You’re welcome! Glad to be of help Like I said, feel free to come back again.
And, good luck on the cover!
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boop
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for my own book. Mood: Fantasy, intrigue, epic fantasy, magic etc.
for my graphic book.
Mood: fantasy, simplistic
for my short stories book.
Mood: wasn’t trying to go for anything, tbh. Just something that looks like an interesting text-based cover, because this anthology is all over the place.
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Welcome back
Cover 1
Initial Thoughts
I saw this cover somewhere else and thought it was beautiful Also gave me an idea for a cover I’m struggling to make right now 
Critiques and Suggestions
Two things I noticed.
- One, because “Betrothed” and “Emissary” are both long words, the extra swirly bit does make it seem a bit squished and jumbled. But I think it’s only the “O T” swirl that looks a bit like a lot. I feel like there are enough swirls without the O T connecting.
- Two, the smoke above the title abruptly looks like it’s been erased in a straight line. Maybe you could make it fade out a little more?
Also, just a thought, you don’t have to do it. What do you think about adding tiny green smoke swirls to the corners of the cover on either side of the author name? To kind of tie everything in? To me, it looks a bit like the castle and title are separated from each other. Just an idea
Cover 2
Initial Thoughts
Alright, this is beautiful. Do you just plan to post graphics or will you accept requests as well? If you are accepting requests, I would suggest to make that very clear in the cover. If I saw this passing by, I might just think it’s a fantasy novel. The “Graphic Shop” and such are going to be hard to see as thumbnails.
Critiques and Suggestions
Shorten that bit to “Graphic Portfolio & Shop”. If it is a portfolio, it might also be considered a “design dump”. I don’t think you need to say both “graphic portfolio” and “design dump”. Shortening it would allow you to make the words bigger and maybe even thicker as well. People who are looking for a graphics shop will be looking at the cover, I believe, because that’s what I always do XD I usually don’t check the “blurb” or description part right away so I might not notice that it is a shop. Other people might, idk, but of course, you do what you want with it Just my suggestion.
Cover 3
Initial Thoughts
Well, it is simple. I like the pretty font. Somehow gives of a literary fiction feel to me. Maybe it’s because of the wood-like background and off-white font and something about that swirling T gives off a lit fic vibe Swirling T 
Critiques and Suggestions
Pun aside, it just seems like there could be something more. But there is no more. As a text-based cover, at least from what I understand about typography-focused covers is that you can play with the text a lot more. I understand the anthology is all over the place, but are there a few elements you could add as perhaps, silhouettes or overlayed on the title? A forest, a butterfly, a flower, maybe a raindrop, book pages, a fountain pen…idk, something.
It just…needs the THING, the WOW, or at least some kind of “Oooh! I wonder what this could be?” Doesn’t have to have the wow-factor.
Also, curious, do you plan on putting “an anthology” or “a short story collection” on the cover? I don’t think it needs to be there though. Just wondering.
There you go! Thanks to you I’m figuring out a better way to structure my critiques for covers If you have any questions, feel free to ask
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Ah thank you so much! Very helpful suggestions! I did notice that the swirls need to be faded, but nothing I tried worked. Will try again.
As for Sigils, I wanted that quiet, minimalistic look to it, and I added Design Dump for the symmetrical look.
With Narratio, I really wanted more details, but there’s nothing that truly relates to the collection as a whole. It’s sort of my place for all stories that don’t fit elsewhere. To give an example, I have one thriller, one sci-fi, one fantasy, and one historical romance.
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You’re welcome
So, the related thing is you Do you have something that people recognize you by? Like for me, it would be a fox. That’s one idea if you need something.
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How about putting a swirly border on top and on the bottom in those open spaces? For Narratio?
Something like one of these?
The edited cover…
My eyes must be deceiving me or you sent the same one…looks the same to me 
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ah yes. Thing is… I like the literary fic feel it has, because most stories in it are like that
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ah it’s okay. I changed very little… mostly the background gradient is larger and greener and increased size of the castle. The edge of the swirl isn’t quite fading right, but I think it’s okay as is…
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Well, anyway, those are my suggestions. They are still pretty covers
Did you use two fonts styles for the title of Narratio? Or is there a swash in that one?
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Well, I like them for now, will probably not like them so much after a while, hehe.
Ah it’s a font with the swashes. I believe it’s LHFE encore regular, which I used everywhere this time.
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It’s such a nice lit-fic kind of font 
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well, it fits every mood, hehe. I’ve used that font on both my other covers, too.
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