Show us your series poster & why it’s designed like that

The cover of my novel Jade Kingdoms is meant to show the rising of one's own strength, even as your world crumbles apart. The crystal around the main character is known as the Jade Construct, a manifestation of thought, memory and emotion. If one appears, it is never a good sign, for its a metaphor the user's mental state has succumbed to its turmoil.

The main character of the book, Suren, is depicted alone here. Mental health battles are done alone, no matter how much you're surrounded by inherently good people. In Suren's case - a highborn princess - she is met with animosity and ridicule concerning her mental fight, and so are many of her kin. It's a cultural poison that doesn't go away. That poison is why the colour green is so prominent...

....but its also prominent because Suren wants to heal. And the road to recovery is never a pretty one, no matter how it is romanticized. It's why I also drew the crystals as if they are about to entomb her. Suren is treated as a prisoner, objectified everywhere.

Love this thread idea 🥰

My cover actually has a morphing symbolism depending on where you are at this point in the series.

At first, the cover represents the main protagonist and the main antagonist to show their connection throughout the story.

Later, the reader comes to find that the description of the antagonist is very similar to that of another character in the story and the cover could easily become about this new relationship instead. It is also a specific scene in the story from when those two characters first officially meet.

The dark waters represent the emotional turmoil of many of the MCs. And the position of the bodies themselves in white clothing and light represent duality and also simultaneously sameness because a huge part of the novel is the idea that no one person knows everything and that no one person's story is right or wrong. "Blank spaces" (Lacuna in English) can only be bridged through creating mutual understanding. Which is why the book is also written in multiple points of view and why the two characters, regardless of who they are interpretted to be, are directly opposed and still connected.

And on that note- I put way more into this than I thought.

Here is my poster.

I was going for something with some combat elements while also having a comedic tone. It shows what the general series is about and what the main source of conflict will be. I don't weather I've managed to pull this off but I'm proud of this work none the less.

Here's the first cover of my upcoming comic Bounty Turn.

I designed it to show what the series is gonna be about. Downside is that it takes ten chapters for the main character to get to space.

Yes, I love topics like this! Everyone has such cool answers.

So, this is the cover I painted for volume one of my series... "Red Shift" tackles several different topics with two of the major ones being government corruption (how that destroys lives + civilizations) and the concept of individual reality viewed through the lens of dreams. The story takes place on a hell-like, industrialized world that is ruled by fear and manipulation. If you subdue the masses from birth, the idea is that they won't revolt... At least, the ruling party of this world believes this to be true. (They won't even allow most citizens to fly hovercraft because they are sure citizens may enact domestic terrorism! Maybe they just want to get a drink faster?) Anyways, the lava is there because the world is quite literally molten. It has a dense atmosphere and reddish hue because their twin planet planet permanently eclipses their pocket dimension's star, Binaria. (Yes, the two worlds + Binaria exist in a pocket dimension that moves through the membrane of all realities. I'm using a fictional version of the real physics theory M-theory. I won't get into that too much here.)

The horned cutie is one of the major female characters: Stellar. She is her world's (Apokolips) primary astronomer who scouts out other worlds for the military to invade. Later on, she realizes how wrong this truly is even though everyone around her screams that it is righteous. She knows that she can't fix what she has done. Sometimes you can't fix things no matter how badly you want too. Sometimes "sorry" isn't enough. Anyways, Stellar is dreaming on the cover. Hence her not being boiled by the lava. She and the other major character, Steppenwolf, have persistent odd dreams. Steppenwolf can't ever remember his even though they are trying to warn him about his future. Stellar recalls hers but believes her mind is responsible for stitching together visions of far away worlds. She is neither here or there: She exists in her own little world and is presently too scared to see beyond her own due her past actions.

I'm sorry if that was too long winded, I love talking about my concepts! >.<

I honestly have no idea. I was originally just working on a portrait of one of my characters from the comic then I just decided to slap the title on it, and wa-la.

The resoning behind mine is to show the importance of the tree in the story as well as the main protaganist. She up on a hill overlooking what lies below, but what's in the valley below changes a few times so it's better to not show what state it's in. As the story goes along I'll be adding more characters to it as they become more important in the story. It's mainly her story, but even though she feels alone in it, she isn't, so she shouldn't have to stand alone either.

plus the second version im still fixing up a bit

I kind of explained my cover in another thread, I’ll share here too. So I was inspired by the Transformers comic collections I used to have

I liked the idea of featuring one character for each arc. My novel spans years, so it’s a great way to introduce new characters, update uniforms, etc. Each arc will be released every 6~ months as I’ll be alternating releases with another series. I think it’ll be cool to see the characters grow

This is my cover!
I used some violet / purple vibes because is considered the color of the magic: the main character is a young mage!
The two protagonists are traveling and are in a city (The story talks about a year's long journey) and I wanted to show the relationsheep between them: Bertie, the boy, is a powerfulk mage but uses his magic to "play" with Hana, who's a child grown up in a military academy and is very disciplined girl. She watches the magic with true wonder;During their journey Bertie helps hana to rediscover her childwood and Hana helps him to become more responsable.
Hope You like it! ^ _ ^
(Sorry for my bad english, I'm Italian)

This cover I use as an introduction of the characters as well as hint about the series and chapters within.

There's Banusi (Anubis). It shows his signature weapon, purple color (a color hint of background if you know what purple means in history), his lucky earring (important to the story later on), the scar on his arm (part of his backstory as well as a few other scars hidden here), and cuffs in his hand that are about his back story and about what happens in the first book.

There's Dawn she's shown here without her skin condition (cosmetic spell she's been self conscious about it her whole life at the start of the series is only a few months into accepting it and showing it, so kinda a hint at backstory), shows her ears and tail (werecat), her outfit is meant to show a form of purity/enslavement due to her backstory, and her position is meant to hint at her role in a prophecy/love story.

Then there's Silver. He's shackled to a throne with a dented crown since he is the Full Moon King everyone wants to control and is shackled to a prophecy he doesn't want anything to do with. He is hiding his blind eye (backstory reason), is wearing clothes that used to be nice, but have worn down over time (hint and more of his back story), and is shown with his albino look (backstory reasons for white skin and hair).

The logo in the back is the logo that will be on the side spine if it makes it to print. The dark colors help with the overall mood of the series.

pretty straightforwards. that's Vainglory. though I suppose I could expand upon her look here

• for those of you unfamiliar with D&D, Vainglory's a tiefling. that means she has devilish blood somewhere in her distant ancestry. she doesn't like to talk about it.
• as a tiefling, Vainglory has a barbed tail. while she's wearing her bespoke plate armor, her tail is tucked behind her right leg
• Vainglory very much fancies herself a hero, and her religion (she's a cleric) celebrates heroism by incorporating capes into their standard fashion. Vainglory's furred cape is an important part of her look
• speaking of her religion, her armor incorporates quite a bit of it. the colors - gold, red, and blue - are its standard colors, and the symbols on her besagews (underarm caps) are a pair of lips and a somewhat strangely-shaped blue moon, which are both standard symbols of the religion
• Vainglory keeps her hair short so enemies have a harder time grabbing it. she is, after all, a combat cleric first and foremost (a War Cleric if you're familiar with D&D)
• that weapon is her unnamed war pick, a +2 magic weapon that is extremely difficult to use for anyone but her. most creatures that try to pick it up will simply drop it. she's been using it for six or seven years now and has it tattooed in various places
• speaking of - Vainglory has over 50 unique, consistent tattoos. yes, I draw them all every time. no, none of them are visible on the cover

It's actually a page from one of the episodes of my manga. It shows the 3 main characters up that point as well as the planet they're currently on, with a transportation station in orbit

I can’t draw, so I asked someone to make mine. The main character is a florist, so it has a flower. The story is a romance, hence Mr. Abs.

Ooo I really like your cover! Cute cat-boy. ^^

I just decided to re-do the cover for my webcomic/comic "Scion of Loki". I wanted to give potential readers a little more insight on what they can expect from the story as it progresses. On the left is Rune, a mysterious, eccentric sorcerer. On the right, is the "hero" of the story, Brok, a Viking. They'll eventually team-up and fight side by side. I decided to have an aurora borealis in the background since the "cursed island" that they live on is probably floating somewhere close to Scandinavia. https://tapas.io/episode/18869541

I'm not very good at translating my "artistic decisions" into words, but I'll do my best.

1. The protagonist on the top (Apollo). He's surrounded by bottles and empty cans, along with a cooler sitting next to him, indicating that he is/has been drinking. A bonfire behind him showing that he's possibly at a beachside party or some kind. He is looking up at the moon in this vast night sky, possibly longing for something else that is far out of his reach. The waves showing a little rockiness in his life.

2. The second protagonist at the bottom (Julian). They're in a fetal position, surrounded by blackness, heavy handedly showing they're in a dark cold place. Eyes the same colors as theirs staring in entertainment, possibly indicating their own mind playing tricks on them, and causing feelings of insecurity and paranoia. The blood symbolizing injury, maybe physical or mental. If you look closely you can see hands coming out of the darkness touching and pulling at them inappropriately, mental trauma from unwanted physical contact. Their posture and eyes being closed shows they're trying to protect themselves from their surroundings. Their lack of attire shows their vulnerability, with their small, boney frame showing fragility.

3. Character positioning. Apollo being on the top, looking away while Julian is on the bottom facing forward shows Apollo turning a blind eye to what is happening under the surface throughout the story.

4. The colors and setting. The nighttime setting with the overall darker color pallet shows a feeling of sadness and emptiness. Apollo himself showing to not be happy by turning away from the warm fire to stare into the cool night.

Overall I wanted to give readers an idea that this will be a serious character driven story, with a heavy tone and drama. Even though the themes of trauma and mental illness aren't obvious in the cover I hope readers get a bit of an idea from the cover.

My comic's cover is this ^^

1. The colors are like that because I wanted to give it a little magical feeling
2. The character is Elizabeth (my main character) and she is serious because she's doing a complicated spell
3. The title is with that font because the story is set in medieval times ^^

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The original version i had crazy ideas for it
1. The shadowy silhouette characters in the background are the main characters of the series but you don't know what they look until you read the series.
2. the moon looming over the title of the series giving you the impression that you're not on earth anymore.

Although nowadays this cover became really outdated. And even though it's my current banner of the series I still cringe at and I'm still blaming on replacing it.

At the moment this is serving as my current cover for now until I finish with my new but that will have to wait until I got some extra time. Dx college is barraging my time more than anything. And I reused one of the drawings I did back inktober of last year and just slapped on the title and my name on it. But it also stands out because:
1. the mc is walking through the rain setting up the tone of the journey he's gonna go throughout the story.
2. Wearing a black cloak and wielding a claymore sword on his sword shows what he has become.
3. i like it when a character is walking through the rain.

But that is my take on this I would love to hear your guy's thoughts about the original cover and the current cover. And which one you like more.

A lot of creative covers here

1. The first two characters to appear, Spring and Winter, stand back to back, showing off their tattoos that represent their significant season.

2. I tried to make the background cloudy looking to represent their weather powers.

3. The gray cloud represents Spring showers while the white cloud represents Winter snow.

1. The protagonist is behind a window because she's been homebound for so many years.

2. Blue and yellow. I adopted the colors of A Starry Night. Color scheme is mainly blue because story is more on the muted side.

3. Protagonist had hands over mouth. Docile for most of her life and only now given fully the chance to break out.

Second cover I'm considering

1. Protagonist sits on a broken mirror. Mirror is the self-image

2. Protagonist holds a wilted lily to her lips (pardon my skills). Lily is usually a symbol of purity.

3. Not really discussed in-story, but her wardrobe is a bit excess on modesty, since either the bodice or the scarf can be worn because both served the function of modesty and she's wearing both. Her sleeves are closed when sleeves can be let loose.

4. Slight outline of a birdcage behind her. Referencing her fiance's story of a bird.

5. Bittersweet flowers and Chrysanthemums on the edges.

6. She's holding a plume in her right hand and there are ink stains below. Referencing her advantage in knowing three languages. The object is also connected to one of the first things she does in the story.