Auromancer (Cyperpunk)

Day 28 of Thingadailies:

(For anyone reading backward, Thingadailies is a challenge to create a new thing every day during the month of February. I chose to do fake book covers in Affinity because I'm trying to get more comfortable using it so I can dump my Adobe InDesign subscription.)

I didn't have a plan for the day, so I decided to go with cyberpunk. Mostly because it's super easy to pick an image in DepositPhotos that will look striking on a cover. So here we are.

Font is Oxanium, because I couldn't justify using Flavors for this one.

Thingadailies wrap-up: While I may not be a pro, I'm at least as comfortable using Affinity Designer as I am using Adobe InDesign. That means I have a week to export all my InDesign covers and drop my subscription. I can do that.

Other than getting comfortable using Affinity, this month has improved my skills at picking an appropriate image to use, which is a huge win.

We will now return to our regularly scheduled programming.

Medusa's Revenge (Fantasy)

Day 27 of Thingadailies:

I decided I wasn't done playing with the Flavors font, so I grabbed a fun picture and made up a title. It was quick and fun, and I still need to add the last scene on a story that I have to edit and send out to my Patreon supporters tomorrow, so sue me.

I like it.

One more day! What should I do? I'll have to think about it...

Bobcat, Lynx, and Mountain (YA Fantasy)

Day 26 of Thingadailies:

Honestly, some days (eg, yesterday) you spend a bunch of time trying to get something looking halfway decent and finally give up, and then other days you just throw something together in 10 minutes and go "huh, that looks pretty good!" (Yeah, it's because the image is right.)

I need to get to the grocery store anyhow, so I'm glad this just sort of fell together. The font is "Flavors".

Avast! (Fantasy)

Day 25 of Thingadailies:

As usual, I'm not convinced I really hit the mark with this one. My friend Richard was trying to find a title for his time-traveling pirates story, so I grabbed one of my suggestions for this challenge. I think time-traveling pirates might need a mashup of images, and I've been trying to focus on using one image and letting the typography do the heavy lifting.

This uses the font Princess Sofia. I wanted to use Black Sam's Gold, but the title was illegible when I tried, so... Princess Sofia it is. A true professional probably wouldn't give up after two tries.

Dash the Fire Out (Mystery)

Day 24 of Thingadailies:

I feel like I've been scraping the bottom of the title list barrel recently. Not because the titles are bad, necessarily, but because they don't really suggest a specific genre. But with this one, I decided it could be a mystery series following one character, who gets called Dash. Thus, Celia Dash, female noir detective was born.

I leaned into the absurdity and I kind of love it.

Back cover copy:

NO ORDINARY DAME…

Celia Dash inherited her father’s detective agency, his love of single-malt, and the bullet that killed him. Now she’s the one people turn to when they have nowhere else to go.

A torn letter leads Celia to an old mansion with a fresh corpse. With the cops on her trail and only her wits and her wiles to protect her, Celia must solve the murder — no matter what it takes!

The Trespassing Photographer's Mistake (Thriller/Mystery)

Day 23 of Thingadailies:

This took a couple tries, as my first attempt used a photo of a "dead" body and it screamed "DIY cover" no matter what I did. I suspect a professional could have edited the photo is such a way that it worked, but that person is not me.

This attempt worked out much better. I like the angles of the film strip. I couldn't decide on the font color, though. Black doesn't look quite right:

Black

Brown fits better, but I think it shifts the genre into... something that's not thriller/mystery. As much as I'd like to believe I'm making it up, I don't think I am.

Brown

I'd probably go with the brown, but it's a close call. (I'd probably also change the title if I was really publishing this, so there's that as well.)

In any case, I'm reasonably happy with how this came out.

A Court of Artichoke & Rue (2nd attempt)

Day 22 of Thingadailies:

Okay, usually I do one of these things, learn what I can from it, and move on. But my first attempt at this title was so bad that it's been nagging at me. This isn't professional-grade either (the sword is boring and the whole thing is just sort of blah, but I was trying to use assets I already owned), but it's leaps and bounds better than the last muddy mess.

I used the Prida01 font and learned how to make some of the letters fancy (Stylistic sets in the Typography section of the Character panel). That unlocks a whole new thing that I'd known was missing but hadn't yet tracked down.

Anyhow, it's way better than the last one. I'm getting better.