Would Love Some Cover Feedback Please

[HGohwell]

Yeah, the title kinda explains it all. I would love some cover feedback on my new potential cover art. If you want to judge just a first impression, here it is, if you'd like details to see what I'm going for, that's below.

So, some of you who've been around a while might remember I've been threatening promising to write a legit card game series for a while and even had a mock up cover about a year and a half ago that I wanted feedback on. However, since then I realised the semi-realism style didn't really work so well with the vibe and the script and characters went through some major revamping and now we're here.

So yes, a legit, actually how card games are played not like the anime more like a sports series card game series. The title is mostly place holder fonts to get the vibe and positioning, I'm still looking to see if I can find something I like better although the more I stare at it the more I like it so idk but that's the sort of vibe I'm going for, fancy to blocky but still readable hopefully. And I'm a bit worried it's a little bit too blank, but at the same time looking at similar genres I might put it in (GL, drama, slice of life) that doesn't seem to be too much of a problem, so maybe that's just me.

So, any feedback you want to give, I'd love to hear it and thank you in advance.

[Iris-Grimoire]

I feel like the cards are a bit too overrendered for a cover. Remember that readers will see this on a teeny tiny picture on an already small phone - it'll be like 2 pixels. They need to be bigger or at least a bit foreshortened towards the screen if you want them to be emphasized.

Other than that, it's pretty good - lettering, poses etc! One small nitpick though - not sure if it's intentional, the blue shirt character's shorts have a line that's probably a pocket, but looks like folds made by their butt, it's a weird tangent.

[lizardlullabye]

The purple eyes seem to be looking at the floating title rather than matching the stare of the other lady. It makes it a bit difficult to figure out their relationship -- friends? strangers? rivals? possible romantic interest?

Individually, the character look fine and cool. I gather that the left lady is goth who is humorous and the right lady is sporty competitive type character, which seems like a pretty fun combo. But them standing together . . .? I'm not sure what their relationship is, tells me very little about the story.

I agree with Iris-Grimoire about the cards. They are bit too much for the cover, and actually showing the back of the cards may work out better. It helps to showing these characters are playing the same game and asks small questions like "what card is it?" and "why are they holding the same card? is it a game?" You may possibly add the back-of-the-card design to the background if looks nice.

The font is nice. Bigger is easier to read.
Here is a sketch for reference.

[HGohwell]

Thank you for the responses, it's really useful. So, trying to avoid a major redraw (I might anyway to deal with some of the poses, I've fixed up some of the little mistakes, hopefully, and reworked a few bits to hopefully improve a bit. Bigger titles, simpler cards and the little art fixes.

And then a slightly more experimental version bringing in a bit of colour and a slightly more cardy background.

I'm still going debating doing a total or mostly redraw, so please feel free to let me know any further feedback and opinions.

[darthmongoose]

I think the second edited cover feels a little busy. I like the idea of adding more cardy stuff, but the dark cards are a bit distracting. Maybe they'd work if the opacity was nudged down a bit and they weren't over the text at all? The coloured text also vanishes into the characters due to similar colouring so I'd recommend keeping the text bright and contrasting; white works fine.

If you were to redraw, I do have some thoughts on the anatomical drawing... but I don't want to dump it all on you if you're happy with what you have and would just feel frustrated if I came along and pointed at a bunch of stuff after you've worked hard on it. It's a detailed drawing, so I imagine it took some time to do! No pressure at all If you did redraw, Lizardlullaby's layout looks really good.

[HGohwell]

Yeah, I definitely agree the second one is too busy, I think I went a bit too far in the other direction because it feels like just the white text and textured background is a bit blank. Like I have some instinct against things being plainer. Like I also have the second one but just with white cards and text which probably work better if I reign in my need to do too much.

I think I will have to do a redraw and maybe just reuse the background and title and composition vibe. So I guess this is going to end up more like a rough concept draft to get out the major snags before doing the real cover in the same vein, so feel free to dump the anatomical thoughts on me. Honestly, I can see quite a few that stand out and tried to fix a few without having to totally redraw, but after a while I got to the point of wondering if they were really such a big deal or was I being too much of a perfectionist and had lost perspective on how big of a deal they were after working on it for so long. If it were one of the panels I wouldn't bother so much but since it's the cover I want to put in the extra effort, yeah, please feel free.

[BoomerZ]

I would just add that you need some directional light. That will make them seem more 3 dimensional and less flat. Shadows make artwork pop. You have some fuzzy shadows around the legs and arms, but nothing is really defined. Most shadows don't fade out, they basically make a line of shadow beyond this point. This is about grabbing the reader attention to look at your product.

[darthmongoose]

It's great that you're open to feedback! You're doing great!

I've done a drawover, mostly as a thing to learn from for future pieces. I've tried to keep your proportions largely intact so it still feels like your style and keeps those elegant, long proportions.

I think trying to exaggerate the cards, even if it makes them bigger than is necessarily realistic for a playing card, might really help them stand out on the cover. I also threw a little shower of cards across the figures to scream "THIS IS ABOUT CARDS!" because Tapas covers are small and it being a GL about cards is kind of the unique selling point.

Watch the middle point of your faces. While it's fine in a manga style to play a bit fast and loose with this, particularly since the eyes are bigger, try to watch for things like making sure a parting in the hair is above the nose in perspective, and that eyes still feel like they're on the front of the face. The further eye on the Brunette is maybe creeping off a bit too far around the side of the face there.

The chest on the blonde is one of the biggest changes, because when the back is arched like that, and the neck pulled back, the chest would thrust out, and due to the curvature, the boobs would be higher up. I admit, I'm not the most amazing at drawing big boobs myself, so I've kept things pretty vague there Also on the other lady, I've had the tie get pushed out by the chest to really emphasise the sense of there being volume there.

The stuff about the....er.... groin topography only applies if the character is a cis woman or is post-op if trans, obviously. If you have that area with a line as you have it right now, it looks like she has a bulge that protrudes out and below the leg joint, which could be intentional, so feel free to ignore that part of the draw-over.

Anyway, I hope that's helpful. Boomer's advice to pick a light direction is also a very good idea. A more consistent light direction, rather than both figures being shadowed on their further side, would probably add a tough of extra polish.

Whatever you decide to do, good luck!

[feuersichel]

Oooh, i( personally) Like that version. It fitts well with the color of the text.

[river121693]

The one thing that strikes me as off is that the teal shirt person's eyes are 2 different sizes and too far apart. Have you tried flipping the canvas?
And from that angle, there should bee some space betweene the eye on the right (our right) and their cheek.

The white card background looks good!

[EncryptedWriting]

I have absolutely no use in this thread but I wanna say it looks really good and the advice everyone is giving is awesome.

Such a wholesome thesad. 🥹

[system]

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