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meow. still here.
Mood: Contemplative, Thoughtful, Curious
Genre: Out of my comfort zone, but Historical / Literary mixed.
Specific: Nothing really
This is an old cover, but I’d like to know if there’s something that needs to be done about this.
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First thought: Wow, what a beautiful cover and it looks so real like I would see it at a bookstore!
Second thought: Not sure how it’s historical, but it does seem like it could be a literary fiction.
Three things:
Dress
I’m not sure what’s going on with the bottom part of the black woman’s dress. It looks like she’s melting into the path like the Wicked Witch of the West does in the Wizard of Oz (for the first time I’m realizing how many Ws are in there…anyway,) I think it’s the shading on the bottom matching all too well with the shading around the author name. Also the shading right below the woman’s stomach, something makes it look like it flattens out from there and she’s melting.
The era
I wanted to say something about the era, but I also want to say that whatever blurb goes there would most definitely aid the cover in showing the era. But as of now, I’m not sure what the era is supposed to be. It’s not clear when the story is supposed to take place. And you can show that through how the people dress and the background buildings.
That brick…bridge? Wall? Could be any era and anywhere. But while I do say this, as I mentioned in the beginning, the blurb could definitely help.
The lighting
This is something I noticed after staring at the cover, wondering why it seems a little off. It’s not just the melting dress, but the lighting on the characters. Maybe it’s supposed to look like a light is shining on them but in that case, where are their shadows behind them? Also, I think the walls nearest to them would have more light on them and not shrouded in shadows.
I’m not sure if the mood is contemplative. I would guess some light historical fiction especially since the characters are smiling and in the light.
But those are my thoughts. Let me know if you have any questions 
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Okay so all of this is definitely expected 
The dress looks odd because I tried to draw it onto her (before I had any idea of how to do that)
The lighting definitely needs a lot more work, and I didn’t know that when I made this cover, perhaps. Idk what I was thinking lol.
As for the time period…
I haven’t yet researched the era, so I picked something generic for the time being lol. Once I do, I hope to change that
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Good luck on it 
Come again once you’ve made it. I’d like to see it redone
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Has it been a while?
Yes.
Yes it has.
Do you mind if I drop a cover for you to critique?
No problem 
Could you fill out this form so I have some context of the cover?
Form:
Mood / Vibe of the Cover:
Genre:
Specific Questions if any:
Specific questions could be anything from “Does it look like an epic adventure fantasy story with dark elements?” “Does it look like romance is a big part of it?” “Do the colors look good?” “What do you think about the text placement?” or whatever you want
Okay, here it is:
Mood: Solemn/cold(ish)
Genre: Fantasy/Action
Specific questions: What do you think about the text placement? Also, does it look like it’s a cover that fits its genre? Does the lighting look okay on the sword & model?
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Been meaning to ask here after I redid one of my covers now I’ve redone one of my poetry covers! I’d love to hear what you think of it before I tweak it again 
Cover (current and previous versions if you have):
So the first cover is my previous cover, which acted mostly as a placeholder. The blue cover is my redo—it took me so long to come up with a solid concept for it—and I’m a bit satisfied with it, which almost never happens when I make something for myself
Mood / Vibe of the Cover: It’s supposed to be light-hearted, fun, basically not dark and angsty hence the brighter colors. The book is an experimental poetry book that contains stuff I wrote for college writing courses, so I was trying to create a work/assignment feel too by adding the girl on her laptop there.
Genre: Poetry
Specific Questions if any: Does it feel empty? If it does feel empty, what should I add to it? I have a tendency sometimes to have a rather bare first draft for a cover before adding a bunch of stuff to make things less empty. I don’t want to add too much stuff though or have too many things going on 
Thank you so much
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First Impression: What a beautiful cover! 
It looks so professional!
Critiques
These are critiques based on your questions and some things that I have noticed based on the form you filled out. Take these with a grain of salt. Yes, I have been doing covers for years and can give advice, but in the end it’s your cover and ultimately, you decide what to take in or leave out from my suggestions and advice
Mood
When I saw “solemn/cold(ish)”, to be honest, I didn’t feel that from this cover. It looks peaceful. Calm. Determined. I think it’s because of the warmish hues on the cover. There’s some sepia tones there and that comes off as warm to me Is it just me? Idk. These are my personal observations.
I’m just letting you know the difference between what the cover mood made me feel and what you were going for.
If you ask me what would make this solemn and coldish for me specifically, probably no light behind her head, and harsher light on her face to really make it pop.
But as I said, mood is subjective. If you want to mess with mood, it’ll be good if you deal with the other challenges and then ask around different people what mood the cover gives. If many say something similar to what I did, that means you might need to alter the color and harshness of the lighting. If they don’t agree with me, well then, ignore my subjective interpretation
Sword
So, the sword. It looks like it was added afterwards. You might work on the lighting of the sword and match it with the model…but I’ll get into the lighting a little later. What I’m not sure about is if she’s holding the sword by the blade or scabbard. To me, it looks like she’s holding the blade and in that case, I’m wondering if she’ll cut herself Probably looks like that because the scabbard (if it is a scabbard) is white.
The gold part also looks a little off in that it looks like the gold part of the sword was also added later. It’s probably the lighting.
I can also see some of the white part through the ornamented gold part. That looks a bit odd as if the ornament was added later on top of the scabbard. So, if you could turn the white part gold and blend it in, it might look a little more natural.
Lighting
This is a big one. I’ll try my best not to overwhelm you. Explaining lighting without showing it to you is really hard XD Bear with me.
What’s going on here?
The lighting of the sword is coming from the front right, and the model is quite faded, but then there’s light coming from the top right corner and it looks like it’s behind the model. So, it looks like the light is coming from all over the place which is strange because the model is in a bit of a shadow.
This lighting makes the cover look a little less put together.
Choose your light source
What you need to keep in mind with light is where it’s coming from. “Choose your light source!” artists often say, but what that means is, pick a spot where the light is shining from and match everything to that light. You can choose wherever and think carefully how that light would touch everything in its path.
If it’s hard to imagine lighting on a flat cover, imagine yourself standing with the sun shining on you from the right. It would hit the right side of your face harshly and the rest would be in shadow. Whatever you hold in your hand, depending on how high or low, how left or right, the lighting will slightly change.
Where is the light coming from?
If she is holding the sword by her face, and the light is coming from the right, I would think there would be light on her face and on the part of her hand holding the sword. Everything on the right side of the cover should be in the light if it’s coming from the right.
I hope this isn’t too confusing
Now, idk about this, but it also looks like the sword might be glowing on it’s own. I mentioned earlier that it looks like the light on the sword is coming from the front right. And this placement is a bit odd if there’s also light behind the girl’s head.
If there are actually two light sources (light from the right side of the cover, and from the glowing sword) you’d want more of that golden glow throughout the ornamented part, on the white scabbard (or blade), and on her hand. The light would also reflect back on her face, mainly the middle part of her face.
The lighting issue really depends on what is glowing or shining from where.
If you mess with the lighting, do come back. It’s really hard to give suggestions unless I see the real thing Choose the place where the light is coming from. I’m sure you can figure it out
Okay, now, those were the challenges that stuck out.
Let’s get into the text placement:
No issue. Yep. No issue. I think it looks great. It’s eye catching. It matches the genre.
Let’s get into genre of cover:
No issue. I think the cover looks like this will be a fantasy story. Not sure about the action, but I can guess from the sword there should be some good action scenes.
Overall, that’s my critique. I don’t have anything else to add. I think you have a good solid cover and only minor adjustments to make. Good luck and have fun!
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I’ll be back to do yours.
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TYSM for your compliments! 
MOOD: So for the mood, I wasn’t 100% sure about it but calm+determined works as well for me so it doesn’t make a difference. Thank you for pointing that out!
SWORD: So the ornament on the hilt of the sword was added later on, and I tried to change the color to match the golden aspect of the sword. As for the white part, it’s the blade of the sword which is supposed to be silver, but it seems it turned out wrong.
Is there a way to kind of prove that it’s the blade and not the scabbard? I did want to add blood onto her hand to show that the blade is cutting it but I couldn’t find any good blood stocks to use.
LIGHTING: As for this, it is the bane of my existence lol. I honestly can never really get it right and I guess it shows in this cover.
For my light source, I wanted to put it above her but slightly to the right so that it matches with the sword’s original lighting in a way but also puts a little bit of glow on where the highlights of her hair should be based on her natural hair color which is brown-black(ish).
Do you have any suggestions for how the lighting should be done on her skin if the lighting is coming from there?
( I shall come back after finding some time to get this cover fixed )
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Ah, yes, I was right XD It would have been an insult to the graphic if I was wrong. I think the colors are matched nicely, but the part that makes it look like it was added on is the bottom part, close to her hand, and the part where the blade is sticking through.
It’s the color that’s throwing me off. Swords usually have a shine on one side or have that middle dent and usually are held by the hilt. If she is holding it by the blade, well, I once heard that you can do that without hurting yourself, but it’s not a natural way to hold it unless it’s in the scabbard.
I found this great drawing which is really close to the composition of your cover:
You can definitely use this as an example. If the hand placement on your cover can’t be altered, you could get rid of the hand and just have the sword in front of her face. The best way is to remove the hand to have more space to alter the sword. Idk what your covermaking skills are like, but if you could only get rid of the hand and leave the sword, it would look more natural.
And then you have space to add the blade shine and the sword-blade appropriate shadows or designs.
I shall return with the lighting issue. I need to show instead of describe it
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Okay, so, I edited on top of your cover so that you can see where the light would shine and where the shadows would be dense. It became really bright and the color changed because obviously, I don’t have your layers, so it looks kind of ridiculous but at least you’ll get a sense.
The red markings are where the shadows are darkest. The shadows on the sword won’t be that harsh. You would have blended the lines quite a bit, of course, but just to give you an idea.
I hope it helps 
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First impression: What a nice simple cover It’s refreshing to see simple covers among all the chaotic fantasy covers.
From looking at it, I do have one critique.
The shadow on the text
The only thing that’s sticking out to me is the shadows on the words being quite harsh. Maybe fade them out a little more. Blur the edges a tad?
Something like this?
And maybe play around with font size and make the text dance. Make it look like the cover is having fun, too. Since it is quite a simple cover, you can do that without making it look too messy. What if you made “at a”, slightly smaller and diagonal in the other way? Just a thought
Now to your questions.
It doesn’t feel empty. If you make the text dance and have fun with font size, you can fill it out a bit. Right now it does look a little stiff and serious, and I wouldn’t have thought it’s poetry, but a teenfic story. Still, I don’t think you need to add anything.
A little suggestion
You might, however, experiment adding a little white vignette. Just a slight one. Maybe try with white and also try with pale yellow or pink. If you do add other colors, you can reflect those colors in the shadow of the title font. But you don’t need to do this. It’s just an idea I had if you wanted to put something extra
Take everything with a grain of salt and use your best judgement for your cover. If you have any other questions or want thoughts on additional covers, feel free to return as many times as you want
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