I just finished the Sweet Dreams Players' Book cover. I'd welcome some feedback on it.

Specifically, how are the fonts, size and placement of text?
Is the upper left corner too distracting? Should the picture cut off below the title?

broken link?

link is fixed now, thanks!

much better.

Cool! the jpg does not compress black edging lines nicely in smaller screens but when viewed at maximum size looks excellent. Will work well on a print cover.

Very evocative. :)

Evan

I'm not bothered by the left corner, it doesn't look that busy at all.

The main Sweet Dreams title at the top of the page has grey and white fragments clinging to it that are very noticeable on that green colored background. It makes the graphic look pixelated. It looks like maybe you blew it up from a smaller image? The smaller graphics look fine.

The quotes are a little difficult to read, not alot just a little.

Also, I find my eye doesn't like the use of white in between the lockers, perhaps black may be a better choice? I also am not partial to the large blank space under the picture. Perhaps text filling in that space would help? I'm not sure though as that seems like that would put the barrel in a bad spot whereas it's placed well now I think.

The picture is great. I like that it has one of those dumb high school murals painted on the background wall, and that there is a Lizardteen eating lunch all by himself at one of the back tables. Nobody likes Lizardteens. Both of those made me chuckle.

Perhaps more opinion than you requested, I hope it's helpful anyway.

I'm not sure I'm seeing the same image. I don't see any quotes, murals, barrels, or lizard-teens. It's a picture of four odd-looking kids and a ghost-dog-looking thing. I get an index page, and the only link is to "PBcover.jpg." If it is the right image, then "espionage" is misspelled.

Andrew Morris wrote: I'm not sure I'm seeing the same image. I don't see any quotes, murals, barrels, or lizard-teens. It's a picture of four odd-looking kids and a ghost-dog-looking thing. I get an index page, and the only link is to "PBcover.jpg."

c is talking about the Sweet Dreams webpage from my signature. Good comments, thanks!

The cover image is the 4 teens in the hallway, with all the empty space timfire's talking about.

Thanks for catching "Espionage", Andrew.

No problem. Oh, and this link should take you right to the picture, instead of the index page, if that's throwing anyone.

Oops. It took me three additional times of scanning to see the intended link. I'm a bit confuzzled. Anyway then, to salvage a bit of my torn and shattered pride. *grins* Here's what I think.

It looks very nice. I love the colors, especially on the girl with the pink jackets purse. The dollar bill skateboard also gave me a chuckle.

I still don't think the left corner is bothersome.

I didn't get the idea that the fox is a spirit or ghostlike on first glance. I actually didn't get it until I was considering why the bleed through of the background was taking place. I think it being red also threw off my "getting it" since it's not a traditional color, for ghostly types.

The fonts look fine at both the sizes I can see. It's hard to tell though without seeing the size you are going to reduce to. I think that having the art under the text isn't a problem as it really pulls the title out to the foreground.

Hope that is more helpful. *chuckles*

The cover illustration looks amateurish, both in composition and line. Have you got any alternatives?

(Sorry I'm not being more constructive; however, wrt book covers, there's not much point in going into details if a quick glance doesn't catch your interest - five seconds of attention is more time than most games will get in the store).

Allan,

The title should be placed somewhat lower, and your credit should be placed somewhat higher.

Also, there's a typo in 'espionage'.

The point of focus in the picture is the lights in the upper left corner and the big empty space above the redheaded girl. Because the characters are very detailed my eye is drawn toward the parts of the picture where there isn't any detail. I think placing the title lower will help somewhat here.

If it's still possible to change the coloring, think about toning down the bright red clothes of the middle girl somewhat. The two kids on the right don't register that well because her outfit is a bit distracting.

--Jasper

Thanks for all the comments!

I've posted a (slightly) altered version here:

cover 2
I took out the hall lights quickly, so consider that hallway a sketch. I could spend more time on the corner, and texturing the door and wall, but it sounds like this cover isn't going to work at all. Its too static, flat and full of rectangles. I drew this picture 8 years ago, and I've been using it as the cover all along, but it's no longer my best work.

Here are some more dynamic black-and-whitealternate covers (just pictures, without titles) Do any of these work better?
If I have to draw a new cover image, what are the first considerations?
My photoshop coloring is indeed amateur. I may paint the next cover, or get a colorist to finish one of my black and white drawings (anyone interested?)

I'm glad I posted this early, while there's still time to start over before printing in August.