Tips for Comic Book Covers

[queenue]

Absolutely love the composition! The artwork is lovely. I find that the silhouetted figure in the bottom right corner is interesting, but should that really be on the volume one cover? If they are introduced later, why not just make them start to appear on the vol. 2 cover? That way, you could push the three other figures there toward the center and have a nice, more balanced composition.

My only other critique is that the title is very difficult to read, and would be almost impossible to read at a small size. I think you should experiment with color first: make the text of the logo white and then the background black so that it's more legible. If that still doesn't work, you may have to consider a new logo design direction. It is very important that your title stand out.

Thank you for sharing this! Your characters look AWESOME!

[queenue]

This cover is breathtaking!! Also, of course novels are allowed.

Your artwork is magical and your color scheme gets across a very relaxing, ethereal tone. I love the crystal fragments being used to frame the scene... altogether you've created a lovely composition. Your logo is very well done too, I only suggest making it a little bigger and thus more legible. Thank you so much for sharing.

[IdiotWithPencil]

@magnavarra @queenue @Iris-Grimoire

Thank you all for the feedback I really appreciate it, and I see all your points and will keep them in mind while I polish the Cover for the release =D

[AVXP]

Death's Touch seems to be violating almost every rule of design.
I don't know if you did that on purpose though.
So maybe you're going for something since it's hard to hit every rule like this by accident.

a) The scale is weird. We have a small character in the middle that's almost lost and it looks like the cat/rat thing with the helmet is HUGE in comparison, but it's drawn like a mascot or normal human size.

b) If that's a main character, they are facing away from the reader, which is an obvious rule break to show a character's back and NOT have what they are facing be the main focal point.

c) The purple dragon is pushed off uncomfortably close the edge left of the book- maybe that's why they look so worried.

d) At first glance, the bear in the background looked like a special effect shadow and it took a second to see it's another character.

e) The lighting/shadows are inconsistent. Purple dragon lit one way and the mascot is lit the other and the character in the middle has no highlights- and probably needs them the most to bring back their outline (rim lighting)

f) Ignoring the fonts, on my monitor, it's Red, Orange and Yellow. A weird choice since red + yellow = orange. It makes the "Death's" hard to read at distance.

g) The characters look jammed into the frame. They could use *a little * breathing room around the border.

h) The B&W is sharper, but it still takes a minute to take in what's going on.

i) As a concept, I'm not sure what this is trying to convey, aside from all these characters are in the book. It looks a little random, overall.

j) It kinda looks like an anthology since every character seems to have a different tone. I'd want to read the story with spaceman and the hammer first. That style caught my eye after studying the cover more.

[AVXP]

JADE Kingdoms.
I'd like to see what the title and name of book would look like reversed, so the Jade Kingdoms logo is at the top and the book's installment name- thing was at the bottom.

The top one, I think the character is lost in the middle. I had to puzzle-look to see a figure and only started searching since someone else said there was a figure. I'd enlarge the middle area to show the figure.

And like everyone else is saying, get the letters to stand out more.
Very attractive work.

Do you have any specific critiques that could help better those covers. I'm kind of just making them as I go, though I have already sketched some ideas. Any critique is welcome!

I just can't read the Black Belt Society in the middle.
I didn't even realize it was letters.

[IdiotWithPencil]

first thank you for the criticism (also ouch).

a) you are right with the rim light, the idea was to make it look small and lost since the story focuses on them being lost emotionally.

b) that was on purpose (didn't know characters looking at the viewer was a rule but still I did that on purpose)
the rest are thing I will take into account and give thanks for you pointing them out.

i) As a concept, I'm not sure what this is trying to convey, aside from all these characters are in the book. It looks a little random, overall.

I actually was trying to give the emotions each one has for the majority of the story, one is worried another angry and the third is mystery/ isolation. while also having the silhouette as the "looming threat"

I guess it didn't convey very well ;^_^

Thank you for your time and comments

Edit: also never studied design but tried using composition rules I learned about from a book so I'm not surprised I missed a lot of rules but I'm still and amateur in all of this so thank you for the help

[Iris-Grimoire]

Composition rules are good guidelines, but it's not the end all, and plenty of covers break that because they need to show as many characters as possible. A good rule of thumb that encompasses a lot of cover/icon composition is to look at the picture from really far away/with eye bleeding max contrast in drawing software, forget the context to the scene, and ask as a new reader: what can you interpret from this? Here's my cover as an example -

It's got a lot of rights with the colors, background effect and the logo has plenty of space, but let's say I want to verify if you can see it at a phone without paying much attention.

(desaturated a tad so it's not as much of an eyesore) This is what the reader sees at a glance. Every line in this picture, including the cut in the logo (which is still very visible!) points to the face and the arm. It's still readable as some sort of humanoid in front of a pattern that feels stressful and looming.
Now, looking at yours -

Kept the saturation this time. See how the white space just pops more than the characters, and how your signature stayed while most of the logo is gone? That's where contrast can be trouble in a mobile display. The purple character also looks like they're in two different poses at once, and half of the protagonist disappears in the dark area, making the purple one feel more important overall. AVXP suggested rim lights and those really can help out, even if the shadows are still very strong, and as mentioned before, making the logo thicker in a more contrasting background.

It might probably be gut feeling art advice and doesn't apply to things other than covers and icons, but I've heard it from a lot of indie comic artists while starting out so it's good to keep both negative space and what colors mix together when your mind isn't focused in identifying something. And there's no need to redraw, it's really more about rearranging parts and fixing small things.

[IdiotWithPencil]

I see what you mean and yes I'll keep that in mind, though the thing about the center character turning black actually was what I was going for since they are supposed to be lost and from what I have been reading around here is actually eye-catching (which is actually a win in my book)
will see about fixing that white and rearranging the positions and logo

thanks for the explanation =)

[surenlicious]

Thank you so much for taking the time to comment dear, I appreciate it so much! I definitely will take care of that logo, I was wondering if it wasn't too small haha!

[surenlicious]

Thank you for your comment, I appreciate it! These are good pointers for when I pimp the cover in the near future.

[AVXP]

My newest comic is out today on ComiXology.
Thought I'd share its cover here.
It's somewhere else on this forum- in a thread about latest page or also covers.
But anyway.....
It's the start of Season IV of Force Six.

Force Six, The Annihilators #32 - Comics by comiXology

[Viper_Comics]

How did u make ?i, I am new here, that's why

[snowy]

The image is a jpeg and the logo a png on a transparent background.

[hamza9644]

this cover for my comic ^^ https://tapas.io/series/ISEKAI-HANDLESS-BOY