cover for Valda & the Valkyries

[Mark Neumayer]

Okay, I will be brave and post the cover I designed for my first book Valda & the Valkyries. It is original artwork made in Adobe Illustrator and then tweaked and finessed in Adobe Photoshop.

[angiepenrose]

It might be useful in this topic to post both your full size (or at least, large -- whatever'll fit) cover art and also a thumbnail, since one of the points of e-book covers is that the covers have to be catchy in thumbnail size as well as full. In this case, I pushed my laptop back and squinted a bit.

It'd also help to know what the book is about -- maybe get your summary blurb? If this is meant to be a light, maybe even humorous book, then I like this design. If it's meant to be serious, then the cartoony style of the valkyries doesn't quite work for that.

Also, the pic of Valda (I'm assuming that's her in the foreground) is cartoony (and her friend in the background even moreso -- more distortion) while her shield in the immediate foreground has enough detail to be nearly photo-realistic; that clashes a bit. I think this would look better with the shield done in the same style as the figures.

The line at the bottom, under your name, is right on the edge of unreadable. I don't know how much that matters to you, but you could probably up the contrast there just a touch.

I like the basic design, though, and think it only needs a bit of sandpaper.

Angie

[martinv]

This is only one amateur's opinion but here goes.

Judging from the cover I would assume this is a YA or satire story. I would imagine it close to Terry Pratchett's style.

And the text at the bottom is rather small but I don't mind.

[Carradee]

Looks like it's for children or humor.

I couldn't even see the background image and text below the author name without adjusting my monitor settings to brighter than is good for me.

[Mark Neumayer]

Thanks for the responses everyone.
I definitely like the idea of adding a blurb so people can get a sense for what the book is about. And posting both sizes. Here I go again.

Valda is a 15 year-old Dwarf girl who just can't fit in with the other kids. She dreams of traveling beyond the mountain where she has lived her entire life and having grand adventures. Too bad her centuries-old Dwarven society won't let women do any of that. But her dreams come true when she gets summoned to Asgard and turned into a Valkyrie. It's the perfect life, except: the other Valkyries resent a Dwarf being forced on them; Loki, the Trickster God, might be planning on using her as a pawn in some evil plan; and if she fails any of her duties, she and her family will be banished to the icy wastes of Niflheim. If she felt out of place before, wait until she has to deal with talking wolves, a flying horse, two wyrms, jealous Valkyries, angry gods, and a stable that needs mucking!

Here is the full size image.
and here is a screen grab of the thumbnail as it appears on Amazon.

That is a good point on the detail level of the shield. I'll have to tweak that.

Also notice how in the Amazon grab the color has shifted a bit, becoming less saturated than the original.

[Chris Chater]

I like it. It's cartoony but that would appeal to the target audience.

[R. L. Royall, Jr.]

Agreed, the cartoony aspect looks like it fits your blurb perfectly. What might lend it some emphasis is maybe to pull back a little and show Valda as noticeably shorter than the background valkyries, perhaps have the top of her head about the same height as the top of their shields.

[antheal]

I think this is great! It pops and is very engaging. My only comment is that the title font seems a bit 'flat' and very comic-booky. If that's the look you're going for, then you've got it. Have you played with shading or dimensionalizing (if that's even a word) to give the letters a little more depth?

[Gray]

Nice, Only quibbles are the shield as has already been mentioned above, and the bottom line of text isn't clear on the thumbnail version. A lighter/brighter colour would help there I think.

[edwinmason]

The cover tag line doesn't have to be readable in thumbnail. Dean is right: just having it there makes the cover look finished.

Not that it's a major point, but is she supposed to be left handed?

[angiepenrose]

If Valda is supposed to be a dwarf, then the style difference between her and the other Valkyries works -- I assume they're exaggeratedly skinny to make Valda look stockier by comparison, without taking Valda outside current norms of attractiveness.

Angie

[Mark Neumayer]

Jun 11, 2011 10:00:39 GMT -5 edwinmason said:

Not that it's a major point, but is she supposed to be left handed?

Yep, she is a southpaw. My father, mother and older brother were all lefties. I actually imitated them and wrote with my left hand until I got to Kindergarten and noticed all the other kids doing things differently. I have a vivid memory of trying to write something with my right hand and thinking "This is so much easier."

I did deliberately draw her in a different style than the Valkyries because the story makes a point of her being different while the valkyries seem all from the same mold. There is a line in the book about the valkyries "hair color ranging all the way from light golden blonde to dark ash blonde and their eyes covering the spectrum from sky blue to royal blue."

[gerald]

S'good ;D