Wednesday, September 30, 2015
Seeking Opinions: Cover Design for Mana Mutation Menace
I commissioned someone to create a cover for the third book in my Journey to Chaos series. It centers around a magical disease called "Mana Mutation", which turns people into monsters physically and/or mentally, and attempts by scientific mages to cure it. What do you think about this design?
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Not a fan.
ReplyDeleteThat is becoming the majority opinion. Would you mind telling me why you're not a fan of it?
DeleteThere a few reasons I don't favor that image. The first is that the image lacks cohesion. It presents 3 different images mashed together that don't blend to form a single idea. It took me several minutes to realize the person breaking out of the window was trying to strangle the monster, partially because the poor blending between the CG hands and arms, and also because the green blotch and broken glass create a visual break at the elbow. Said window man (Eric?) is also looking behind the monster not at it. Sizing and placement of these three elements is just wrong. The monster doesn't look big it, looks like it's standing on a waist high platform in relation to the man in the black robe. Or the other way around, the man in the black robe looks like he is standing in a 2 foot deep hole. The CG, in general, is poorly textured and rendered.
DeleteImages are supposed to tell stories. This image is a mass of visual confusion and amateurish image manipulation. I hope this doesn't cause offense. I enjoyed your first 2 books and would buy the next even if it had no cover at all.
Thank you for such a detailed critique. No offense is taken. This is precisely the sort of thing I was looking for.
DeleteI think you'll be pleased to hear that I decided against this cover. I'm going with another one that is simpler, more focused, and (on reflection) does a better job representing the story.