What do y'all think of my novel cover?

[2DLenzy]

My novel's still a WIP, but this was drawn months ago when the AF contest was on and I've recently revisited it. I redrew the peacock lord at the center, but I hadn't changed much else yet. I was hoping to get your opinions on what to improve/change while I'm redoing some things (or the whole thing lol)?

Genre: Action-Adventure, Fantasy

Here's the (working) story synopsis for some context: The phoenix shall return and burn the tyrants...
Or at least, that was the prophecy widely believed by the birds of Ayre after their king was murdered along with his lords eighteen years ago. The country of Ayre, having fallen under the control of the peacocks, faced another year-long winter at the hands of its most ruthless rulers, the Avernes family.
Gallin, a lowly rooster, grows weary of his life of service tending to peacock soldiers and desires to venture abroad like the adventurers at his inn. But he gets more than he bargained for when he meets a calloused, ex-kingsguard chicken-hawk and the princess of the ruling family--right in his inn. Now, the three must journey through perilous lands of snow, fight great beasts, and encounter various critters of the land in search of a relic of the Old Faith -the Fyre Chalice- in order to hail the return of a legend and save the world from the peacock lord’s wanton destruction. The Phoenix of Ayre has come!

(Yep, that's the villain on the cover, cause I love my toxic/evil characters.)

Any help is appreciated!

[BoomerZ]

Overall looks good. I don't really know what the person/thing is in the picture. Mysterious maybe? As for the title, the font seems to change. The "h" of the word THE, "f" of the word FOR, and The "a" of the word AYRE seem to not have the same effect put on them and seem out of place. The colors are a little dark but the lighting is good.

[kyupol]

Looks epic. I like it

[stiatent]

Hi friend this toxic evile peacock deffo giving dark overlord vibe, love it.
Hopefully aint coming for them chickens in your next series too lol XD

Think mostly the area by the left foot feels empty, a left foot might be too symmetrical/boring, can maybe show slight bit of the steps below his throne, or what if he has a gown or sitting on some ornate drapery there? Maybe a hint near that black spot where his left foot should be? You already have the flames in left hand and on sides so can imagine it as that casting slightly more lighting on lower half, and onto whatever you put around lower left foot?
Alternatively you can use lower section to hint something about the character or story as if emerging from the lower darkness or hint his tyranny.
The upper half is great as is to me, with the face shrouded in mystery

But can leave as is if you plan to put a sub title or something, over that very black lower region.
Seems interesting keep it up 🦚

[mremperor9167]

Tell me about this novel cover page and summary
VERSION: THE LAST WAR

"When the multiverse burns, only the strong will remain."

For months, Aryan has been haunted by visions—cities crumbling, armies marching, and himself dying over and over again. Each time, the destruction feels more real, the pain more vivid.

Then, one night, the nightmare becomes reality.

He awakens in a dying world, warships tearing through the sky, an unstoppable army marching forward. And at their center stands a being of absolute power—the Void Emperor.

Before Aryan can react, his body flickers like static, his mind fractures, and his world begins to unravel.

Then—darkness.

When he wakes again, something has changed. A strange symbol burns into his arm. His reflection in the mirror doesn’t move. A voice whispers in his head:

“The hunt has begun.”

Someone is erasing every version of Aryan across the multiverse, consuming their worlds and rewriting reality itself. If he doesn’t stop them, he will be next.

Now, Aryan must journey through shattered dimensions, uncover forgotten truths, and rally warriors for the final war. From war-torn empires to the edge of existence itself, he will fight for survival, for vengeance, and for answers.

Because if he fails…

There will be nothing left to save.

[2DLenzy]

Excellent advice guys! Made a few changes and I'm a lot happier with the results!

@BoomerZ hopefully fixed the issues with the title, cause after you pointed it out I could not unsee it. Also brightened up his robes slightly, figured I put in so much detail that it would be shameful to occlude it by shadow. I do love "mysterious" in describing this guy.

@kyupol Thank you! Hopefully my writing won't disappoint too much XD

@stiatent You know, I was actually thinking of adding a chalice to the scene - so I did- to hint at the relic that the heroes go for (also coveted by this a-hole) so your advice really worked out. I placed it by the left foot and lit it a bit by the blue flame.

One thing I redid - cause it was bugging me- was the winged sun-disk thing behind him (it looks like actual wings)...only to cast it in shadow oops XD. Might work on that a little bit, but I like everything else. Thank you!

[eldritchtroubadour]

TO me it looks a bit too dark, which could make it difficult for it to stand out when among all the others in the Community Page. But it does have some good alure and looks good overall.

[stiatent]

Yay​ yep it looking much better and seeing the chalice ans his robes the way his tail feathers and scales hinted on his robes reflect the elegance and vile (predatory snake-like) nature and the eyes on peacock tail is a wise choice too bec to me it says he likely has eyes everywhere hiding in the shadows 🦚
Love the torn flag below too, assuming its a nation je conquered
We on the forum may have creator mindset, but a great way to get a 2nd opinion on what the casual person sees, maybe you can your none-creative family and friends to see how they identify things hinted in the shadows.
Looks finished to me keep it up

[stiatent]

Cover gives Space -dark fantasy aesthetic of one man and a fleet against a dark overlord, it's a cool concept but if it's AI, Tapas doesent allow Ai art on their platform, check their terms and services. So you may have to find an alternative can prolly ask some novelists for advice on how they put covers together (expecially if youre on a low budget, unable to hire an artist or suggestions on free options they probably use. I'm doing comic here so not sure myself).

I enjoy the dramatic tone of your summary, but to me this is better for an "Excerpt of your novel" than an actual summary. Would reccomend for actual summary cut to about 1-3 short scentences (even 2 if you can). Look at movie synopsis for examples (netflix, cinema, official film synopsis online etc). Reason is that a synopsis is to quickly grab potential readers while browsing through series catalog & most people have short attention spans.
This video explains better, though it doesent have to be 5 words. The smaller the better eg. Say youre making an Instagram post etc. I'm always trying to reduce the length of mines, so its relatable. Keep it up and wishing you the best

[Panpan]

Hi 2DLenzy!

I'm going to be honest, so please don't take offense.

Honestly, I have NO IDEA what I was looking at. I had to read the synopsis and comments to figure it out (because the cover is the first thing people see without knowing the context). The size of the cover icon should be considered. It's going to be TINY, and all of the details you can only see when it's blown up will disappear. It's going to appear mainly black space except the title font (which is fine and bright). And even that large size above, I can't really tell. I think what you're trying to go for is mysterious, right? Unfortunately, I think that sort of vibe does get lost, especially when I spent a good minute just trying to get what the illustration was of.

I would definitely lose the total darkness in the bottom half. I want to see your character and details. If he's a peacock, I want to know at first glance.

[wolflu66]

I think it's good that you use some highlights or objects to guide the viewer's attention to the central character.

However, the character currently looks too dark and unclear, while the surrounding light steals the focus, making the focal point of the image lose focus.

I think it would be better if you could slightly increase the brightness of the face, and use brighter tones with sharp-edged brushes (not soft-edged brushes) to slightly outline the character's silhouette.

And make the flames on the left and right sides less bright so they don't steal attention.

Also, you could consider adding a new layer, changing the layer mode to Multiply, and using a soft-edged airbrush with black to spray around the entire image, which also helps emphasize the center of the image.

[2DLenzy]

Sorry to bother, but I had to do one more brightening of the image. The one on the left was the one I was satisfied with, and the right is the edited one taking more advice into consideration.
I swear guys, this image looks brighter in my software Used a Divide layer to take away some shadows, brightened the edges of the face, and decreased the opacity of the Multiply layers. Also added a vignette to detract the focus off the flames.

I didn't think about the size of the icon (didn't think to look at the app, and yikes, those covers are tiny!) Might be in trouble there, maybe.
But if it's still too dark, then, I'm not entirely sure what to do. I do want some darkness/mystery there, but I'm having trouble gauging how much is too much.

[wolflu66]

If you don't mind, let me try to make some modifications to your image.
But I don't guarantee it will be better than your original version.XDD

[2DLenzy]

Sure, I don't mind!

(20 characters)

[wolflu66]

What do you think of this? I moved the title of the work to the bottom.

I dimmed the brighter light sources around the character, I understand this feels regrettable, but I think some trade-offs are necessary.

I enhanced the character, although compared to the original version, my version appears to have reduced the sense of mystery.

At the bottom of the image, I added some objects to make the overall picture richer and to help readers focus more easily on the peacock character.

The floating flags I added at the top serve a similar purpose.
I tried my best XD. I wonder if my interpreted version meets your needs?

[2DLenzy]

Okay, I can see an improvement with the "sun disk" behind him. Yeah, that highlight I got might be too distracting.

I wasn't sure about the painterly effect at first (unless that wasn't intentional), but if it's gonna be tiny then I suppose less detail is better? It also adds a chaotic vibe to the character, and the embers are a nice touch! It's like he got a self-portrait done, and I'd feel bad for the artist XD

I initially didn't want to put the title at the bottom - covers his pretty tail- but eh, most novels have their title there, so I may have to compromise. Covers up what I've been having an issue with anyways

I really do like it! Really does put the character in focus a lot better. To be honest, I'm tempted use this version as is and just call it a day (with credit to you of course). Would it be wrong to use, or should I try to use it as a ref and give it another go? I'm leaving the option to you, cause I'm frankly a little tired of looking at him atm.

[wolflu66]

I don’t mind if you use this version directly, but honestly, a lot of areas were just loosely brushed in as a rough indication rather than detailed work. Using my current version would be more like using a half-finished piece.
The text on the flag above was just randomly scribbled by me XD.

[2DLenzy]

Oh, yeah, didn't see the text! XD

I may just borrow some from your version then, as a reference, and try to redo the piece. I didn't mean to sound like I'm giving up, but I'm really at that point in the process where there's more frustration than improvements. And this whole topic highlighted an issue that I've been ignoring for a while. But I'll give it another go! And maybe do more research. I'm glad you took the time to help me. It's greatly appreciated and I will use your advice to hopefully improve.

[wolflu66]

I'm looking forward to seeing your new version of the cover. Reinterpreting my reinterpretation of your cover in your style, haha, it will definitely be interesting.