I'd like some second opinions.

[laccoff_mawning]

My newbie self decided to boot up piskel (very high tech, I know.) and create this little piece. It's now getting to the point where I think it looks like it could be a finished product. So I'd like a few more pairs of eyes to help form my opinion on what I should do before uploading it as my novel cover.

I have some thoughts on how I could improve the piece. For example, I originally wanted to extend the clouds upwards so clouds would cover more of the sky. I also pondered trying to shade the rubble pile or (please no) even the characters. That, and I'm noticing the sky colour blur thingy isn't as smooth as it looked in piskel.

The right hand side building feels a bit bland as well, but I'm also struggling to think how to improve it.

Lastly, I was wondering about adding something to the font. Originally I was going to do some parallelogram light blury things, but I discarded that idea as I wasn't sure how to implement it effectively. I could still try and add another cool lighting affect to the font, though. Or just change the font's size and make it bigger.

If something sticks out as strange or ugly, or you just have an idea for improvement, please say.

 

[Piisfun]

I'm not much for critiquing art, but at the very least I would increase the border thickness around your letters; right now, the ones on the rocks kind of blend into the background a little, and that's not ideal.

 

[JHarp]

Seconding the mention of border thickness, the bike wheel behind the text will contribute to it looking potentially messy in lower resolutions.

After that, mostly from my photography experience, I'd ask how you want to frame the shot, the camera looking up at a target is meant to be a hero shot, same for them standing on a pile of anything, it is meant to be a heroic moment.

After that, your shot isn't balanced equally, with a tower right behind the MC it doesn't 'frame' them both sides with a building but adds noise to their background, instead of them being the only thing front and center.

I'd also ask if the supporting character is required on the cover, given the single colour; matching the sunset/sky behind them, lower resolutions would have them as a blob that might merge into the background rather than showing a second character being present.

 

[RepresentingDesire]

I really like the art. The only thing I dislike is how the rubble at the front looks like a bunch of stone that has been glued to a boulder. I kinda see that you tried to give not that impression but I honestly don't know what the best way is to solve this problem, that's if you even consider that a problem.

 

[laccoff_mawning]

the camera looking up at a target is meant to be a hero shot, same for them standing on a pile of anything, it is meant to be a heroic moment.

This is correct. This is what I'm going for.

I'd also ask if the supporting character is required on the cover

The supporting character you mention is actually the main character. The reason why he isn't in the center of the picture is I thought the current composition including him on the side was funnier.

After that, your shot isn't balanced equally, with a tower right behind the MC it doesn't 'frame' them both sides with a building but adds noise to their background, instead of them being the only thing front and center.

So the guy in the center is an enthusiastic side character that's pulling the MC along in the story. Both are sorts of villains, though neither would claim to be. Hopefully that explains some of the reasoning behind the design choice here.

With all that said, I can move each character, building, rubble pile, cloud, and background all as separate things. If you have an idea on how you might choose to move these things around, I can try doing so and posting that image on here as comparison.

As for talking about resolutions, the image is 250 x 350. I did try dragging and dropping the image onto preview to see what it would look like smaller, but it didn't give me a preview like I thought it would. I guess I'll see what damage shrinking the image does when it's approved or something.

 

[JHarp]

This is correct. This is what I'm going for.

The supporting character you mention is actually the main character. The reason why he isn't in the center of the picture is I thought the current composition including him on the side was funnier.

So the guy in the center is an enthusiastic side character that's pulling the MC along in the story. Both are sorts of villains, though neither would claim to be. Hopefully that explains some of the reasoning behind the design choice here.

With all that said, I can move each character, building, rubble pile, cloud, and background all as separate things. If you have an idea on how you might choose to move these things around, I can try doing so and posting that image on here as comparison.

As for talking about resolutions, the image is 250 x 350. I did try dragging and dropping the image onto preview to see what it would look like smaller, but it didn't give me a preview like I thought it would. I guess I'll see what damage shrinking the image does when it's approved or something.

If it is what you are going for then there isn't too many problems for the shot angle and all that, the main issue with the buildings is mostly that the building being right behind the character adds extra detail that the reader might need to pick through on a simple glance, framing, putting a building each side is usually how images draw your attention center.

As for the main character in the background, honestly it is less of an issue of them being there and more that they are a yellow-ish orange on the orange, you have a really nice background of clouds and you could almost frame it better with your center shot character reaching up towards the sun overhead; rather than it being at a really low angle, hidden behind other details.

As for how your image looks when shrunk, since you uploaded it, you can just right click and open it as an image, and then use Ctrl+Scroll wheel or Ctrl plus - and + to change the zoom of the page, you can get the webpage to zoom the image smaller that way.

Either way, what I'm saying is more how I think for images and photography, you want balanced edges, symmetry to draw attention and everything else, that doesn't mean it is the best option every time, just a nice way to balance the scene and draw better attention to different parts of the composition.

 

[Gray_Mann]

When I say this, I'm genuinely not trying to be an arse here:

What clouds?

 

[Alski]

When I say this, I'm genuinely not trying to be an arse here:

What clouds?

On the left in the orange.

 

[laccoff_mawning]

This is the shrunken down one I see when browsing scribblehub. It's 100 x 140 in size, for anyone interested. You can definitely see the text become blurred at this size.

honestly it is less of an issue of them being there and more that they are a yellow-ish orange on the orange

One of the things I might try then is to jiggle some stuff around a bit and put the MC behind one of the buildings, for the extra contrast.

What clouds?

...
The clouds you'll be playing your little harp on after I find you.

Jokes aside, I got 3 cloud-like things on the bottom-middle left of the image. They're orange clouds.

 

[Gray_Mann]

They're orange clouds.

Do they signify radiation or is that fantasy/artistic liberty?

 

[laccoff_mawning]

Do they signify radiation or is that fantasy/artistic liberty?

No. I google searched some reference images of the sunset. Lower down clouds near the sun are tinged orangey-yellow by it's colour, while the higher up ones are greyish-purple.

 

[Gray_Mann]

No. I google searched some reference images of the sunset. Lower down clouds near the sun are tinged orangey-yellow by it's colour, while the higher up ones are greyish-purple.

Ah. Now that I'm paying closer attention, via the clouds, I would assume it's near sunset in the image.
Anyway, thanks for taking the time to humor me.