This is Why Professionals Cringe at my Efforts

I mean... I think it looks better with a drop shadow. I think my main problem is that the light is coming from different directions in all three images. (Scratch that — my main problem is I'm not a visual artist. But whatever.)

New version:

Previous version for comparison:

This is Why Professionals Get Paid

Here we have an example of two steps forward, one step back.

The dragon still isn't working, but you can definitely see it better, so... I don't know. Maybe I'll look for a different dragon that isn't so monochromatic.

Fading out the bottom makes the text much more readable. I opaqued the bricks slightly, but it's hard to tell I did it.

Oh well. It's an interesting exercise. And honestly, this is better than a significant percentage of the urban fantasy covers out there.

Here's the new version:

And the previous one for comparison:

Crowdsourcing Art Knowledge

No, this is not about machine learning (which isn't artificial intelligence, no matter what they keep calling it). This is more basic.

I turns out I know nothing about visual arts. The last time I learned anything was in kindergarten when they told us the primary colors were red, blue, and yellow, and then I became a programmer (uh, there were a few years in between) and found out they changed the rules and the primary colors are really red, blue, and green. My life has been a lie.

So mostly I do things in GIMP (because I'm too cheap to pay for Photoshop) and click on buttons and add layers and choose "colorize" and try every filter that exists and hope it all looks good. That either works or I give up and do something else.

But I know other people know what's going on and do these things with intention. So my question here is:

How do I make this look better?

The final cover will look something like this:

I need to go back and darken the bottom of the image so the text stands out, but first I need to fix the disappearing dragon. And maybe other stuff...

The image is made from these three pictures I licensed from DepositPhotos: a brick wall, a person, and a vector dragon.

The dragon completely fades into the background.

I'm guessing I need to... desaturate the brick background before adding the person and the dragon? Is that the term I want?

If I can figure out the right terms, I can find a video on YouTube that will tell me how to fix this.  I hope.

Quick Break For Very Important Info

I've been busy doing stuff (hey, someday I'll get this book in shape!), but I just wanted to say that there are five absolutely adorable kittens on the kittencam, so if you were waiting for new fosters, this is your chance!

(4 boys + 1 girl, no names yet, and they're about 5 weeks old)

Totally Rocking It Here

So now that I've learned everything there is to know about DazStudio (pause for laughter), I've decided to inch my way toward my real goal, which is creating new covers for my Jackpot Drift series.

(I'd like to reiterate: the company I paid to create the original covers did exactly what I told them to do, and those covers are fine. But I think they give the impression of written-by-a-man-all-tech-and-no-character-development-sf, which is exactly the opposite of what I need and may be scaring off my target audience.)

As much as I dislike character-based covers, I think I need to have them for this series. My vision is a woman's back as she looks into a valley filled with cyberpunk-ish buildings, sheep, bicycles, and a spaceship in the sky. If I can create that, I think it will give readers all the clues they need.

It's very possible I will decide I'll never have the skills to create this. And that's okay. But I'm going to start iterating in that direction and see how it goes.

Yesterday, I created a rock.

Before you laugh, you should know that I had to learn about Blender, an entirely different program, in order to do this. DazStudio lets you incorporate a bunch of objects and set up lights and cameras. Blender allows you create those objects. (That's my basic understanding, which may be totally wrong. All I know is that DazStudio primitive objects are one of: cube, sphere, cone, toroid, plane, and that wasn't good enough.)

Anyhow, like I said, I created a rock. Behold my rock!

And here is my rock (multiplied by 10) in the growing scene that may eventually be the book cover:

Baby steps!

Webcomic: Day 28

Want to see where this all began? Start here! It's hilarious, I promise. (Uh, not the story. My attempt at making a webcomic.)

Things I learned today

1. First off, I had to look back to the beginning of the month to find the link above, and wow, I really have gotten better. Go, me! I had trouble with the lighting on the last panel and I mostly fixed it!
   
   
2. I totally forgot Gary was a Genesis 9 and thus looks nearly identical to the high mage Genesis 9. But Gary has a smile, so clearly they are different people. Also, they have different clothes.
   
   
3. I have learned a ton about how to place objects. I think my next step will be to see how close I can get to the Jackpot Drift series cover images I want without buying a bunch of new stuff. (That was the end goal with all this.) I think I'll probably end up buying things, but it's kind of amazing how much things can be repurposed just by changing the size and color.
   

Webcomic: Day 27

Things I learned today

1. Why is there a red line halfway through Char's face in the second panel? I have no idea. The fog maybe? There's always something new.
   
   
2. It's hard to get emotional arcs in four panels with no art skills. This attempt at a webcomic makes me appreciate things like Questionable Content even more.