02 February 2013

Bones of the Fair cover drafts

I've been experimenting with cover layouts using the not-quite-final art for Bones of the Fair (the art is about 90% done, but is still in draft* - it's another of Julie Dillon's pieces).  The various textures and fancy-work are all screen grabs of stock art I won't buy until I've decided on a final version, so it's fairly low quality with fragments of watermarks all over the place.



  
Happy for any recommendations or criticisms!

*Aristide and Aspen's hair colours are currently reversed.  The third figure is Gentian, the new palace gardener.

12 comments:

  1. I like the middle one the best, except for the golden "Fair" wich lacks contrast and is not realy easy to read like that.

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  2. I like the Green! But the swirly font for "fair" in the 2nd, though you may want to drop a shadow under it like the "Bones" part since it odd to only have part of the title shadowed. :)

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  3. I like the green border but I think the yellow one provides better contrast. Assuming you haven't played with the brightness much between versions, the yellow border brings out the colours in the picture best.

    I'm not a fan of changing fonts in a title and I don't think it works in #2. I agree with SFReader that it drops into the background too much. Also, your author name is much too small in the first two :)

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  4. definitely green. Gold actually takes my eye away from the focus (maybe because it touches directly on the edge of the image) and black doesn't have the richness. I like the second fair font, but it looks a bit fuzzy. If you have the ability to make it crisp and the same colour as the main words, I'd probably find it clear, otherwise 1st font is fine. I do like the scrolling around the name on the 2nd two, but the scene is busy enough that I didn't even notice it until I read some comments above.

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  5. Thanks guys, will play with the fonts a little more.

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  6. i really think the first one the green goes the best

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  7. The covers of your books are beautiful and exciting, especially among the overabundance of swirly-glowy photomanipulation covers in the fantasy/sci fi section these days. As for this one, I like the green one best, but I think you should invest in a font other than Papyrus.

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    Replies
    1. Heh - the font is Tempus Sans - chosen because it reminds me vaguely of bones.

      But that's another point, guys - will too many people think this is the dreaded Papyrus font, scorned by many for, um, overuse?

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  8. Definitely the green border. And I think I agree that staying with one font is better. It's a bit unclear however because the gold color of the word 'Fair' is brought out nicely by the gold border. It may be worth seeing how the gold word color would look in the green border - whether it would work, or would add too many colors to the mix. Good luck with it. I look forward to reading the book.

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  9. The Gold one suits it the best because of how it catches peoples eyes with its dazzling "fair" letter.

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  10. I like the green the best. I just re-read Champion of the Rose, any idea when Bones of the Fair will be published?

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    Replies
    1. It's next up after "Hunting". "Hunting" has been a lot more work than I was anticipating, which is messing with my schedule a little, but "Bones" will definitely be out this year.

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