I am going to show you how far I came as a graphic designer/book cover artist. From knowing NOTHING about cover design, to having a pretty solid handle on it in less than 3 years while writing two books, creating a tarot deck, and working a full-time day job. I worked damn hard to get to where I am today, and I couldn't be prouder of myself. Now, on to the self-inflicted humiliation!
Cover number 1 - June 2021
I can't even begin to describe how terrible this looks now, but when I first made it, I was over the damn moon. I did it! I made it all by myself and it took a long damn time to make, too. At this point, I hadn't nailed down the subtitle, or even my pen name. I didn't have a pen name. It was just ... my name.
Pictured is Rowen, hovering over the Hudson in front of an electrical disturbance of some kind. That disturbance would eventually evolve into a portal, which you'll see in the next cover below. New York City in the background, fairy wings—this was before I knew what kind of wings she would have. Oh and that typeface ... don't get me started.
Cover number 2 - June 2021
Okay, now this, this is more in line with the image I was going for. The title didn't pan out, but the portal looks pretty damn good, as well as the water, and even Rowen looks ten times better. Still, I knew it wasn't right.
I spent a long time working variations of this one, trying out different colors, textures and such. I hid her wings a bit because at this point, once again, they were still physical wings. My idea was to make her live in isolation, never having physical contact with anyone because of having to hide her wings. I'm glad I changed them into what they are now, but I kind of miss the whole idea of being isolated like that and what that would do to someone psychologically over time. I also want my characters to suffer. Horribly. I wouldn't be a writer if I didn't!
Cover number 3 - January 2022
I refined the portal, ditched the water, made the city part of the bokeh background, gave the portal a little gaussian blur, and turned our heroine around to face the camera! Creating her was fun, harrowing, and exhausting, but I was damn proud. As I always am when I finish something that looks semi-decent. Oh! And I found my pen name. :-)
By this point in my Photoshop journey, I'd learned a lot about composition and blending modes. This is the first cover where I introduced her sai, and her glowy wings, two critical components of her character. I'd finally made up my mind as to the type of wings she'd have. Not feathered like an angel, not translucent like fairy, so what the hell are they? And what the hell is she? Read the book to find out!
Cover number 4 - January 2022
I tried experimenting with different cover designs. Several of which, I'd ditched Rowen altogether. I loved the simplicity of having just the portal, and this time, I gave the sai a key blade.
Yet another new typeface I was playing around with. I loved this design so much that I decided this would be the design on the hard cover of the book, while the next cover would be the design for the paperbacks.
Again, I gave the portal a gaussian blur to give the image some depth. It didn't look fantastic, but the effect is there! Sort of. Mostly. Moving on.
Cover number 5 - January 2023
I literally just said out loud, "Oh god, I can't believe I'm doing this." Please don't mind the tagline. It's too long, too dramatic, and is not the tagline of the book now. This cover was created to showcase not just Rowen, but Gabriel as well. Up to this point, I hadn't used the assistance of AI, except for whatever AI is used in Photoshop tools.
That said, Gabriel's image is a blend of AI and my own photo manipulation skills. Rowen's image started as a stock photo that manipulated and drew over. I liked the composition of this cover, but I struggled with proportions. The best part about this one, is I finally settled on a typeface! Actually, it's a combination of 3 typefaces that word very well together. And it's largely unchanged from the final version of the cover.
Cover number 6 - April 2023
This cover I had fun with because I used the elements that I created and tossed them into WOMBO Dream to give me new versions. Up until about a month ago, the portal I had been using came out of Dream, but it was originally an image I created. I just used AI for some flare.
Again, I was working on that damn tagline, but I kept the composition roughly the same. This would have been for the hard cover. The wings were too angelic for Rowen, so I had to ditch them. Kind of. They sort of became part of the wings up until the 2nd to last version of the cover.
Cover number 7 - August 2023
Here it is, the cover that ended up on my proofs. I was happy with all of it. Gabriel looked like Gabriel, Rowen looked like Rowen, and the sai, wings, and portal looked amazing. Yes, they were the images I used AI to provide more detail to, but again, I used a lot of my own photo manipulation to make the components of the cover mine.
That said, Rowen and Gabriel are indeed AI generated. I can draw, but on paper. I'm not fantastic with drawing human faces, but they were significantly altered by my own hand to make them look exactly how I needed them to look. So while AI created the base images, I turned them into Ro & Gabe.
This next image is the cover I thought was my final cover until I'd received some unpleasant feedback from an unpleasant stranger on the interweb. Surprise surprise. Some people don't give a shit if they hurt someone's feelings on the internet they've never met. In fact, some even enjoy the shit out of it. When I asked for feedback on it, most gave me good feedback. It was well liked, but there were some comments about the book looking like a Christian allegory. Being the anti-religious person I am, I sort of took that feedback hard. If nothing else, my book reflects my anti-religiousness, so I had to fix it. Here is the "final" cover I requested feedback on.
Cover number 8 - February 2024
The biggest negative on this one was the characters in the wings being too hard to see. That was the point. LOL. I didn't want them front and center. I wanted them hinted at, not the focal point. So, I reduced the opacity, kept the blending mode on soft light and made them melt into the wings. Oh and my sai is new and gold!
As you can see, the wings did look a bit angelic. I wasn't thrilled with this. They're not feathered wings, but that's hard to see because they're too bright for some to make out the detail. Especially in a small version of it like this one. But I nailed my composition! Nothing on this cover was AI generated except for the faces. And those were extensively edited once Dream created them.
Now, onto the surprise. In response to a very rude person in a facebook group of people who are supposed to be supporting each other through the self-publishing process, I chose to scrap my cover and create something that better aligns with my genre and is a bit more ambiguous. She accused me of spending a weekend to create that cover that I worked years to get right. So, my fuck you to her ended up being the best thing I ever did. Thank you, facebook person who I will not name. You just helped sell my book. 😉
If I change the cover again before the book comes out ... soon ... then I will feel like an idiot, but I am so freaking happy with the way this cover turned out, I just KNOW this is it. So, without further ado, here is the final cover. Once again, not a single item on it was AI generated. I used a lot of stock images, yes, but like a professional cover designer, I altered them so much, they barely resemble the originals. Next up: marketing this thing!
