Me too. This artwork seems to be stylized this way on purpose – not just by a bad artist. I don’t know a thing about typography, but I’m not totally turned off by the typesetting here. It could be a little crisper, but it works. IMO, anyway.
I’m actually a little nervous when it comes to typography…I’ve been thinking about doing my own book cover at some point, but while I think I could get a good stock photo I am mystified by what makes a ‘good’ font and whatnot. I’m learning a little bit more from reading here and looking at professional covers, but still. I’ll probably hire it out anyway.
I’m not a designer, but I believe it basically comes down to this:
– avoid all overused fonts like Comic Sans and Papyrus
– choose genre appropriate fonts, like swirly for romance, futuristic for sci-fi, gothic for fantasy and so on. No childish handwriting fonts for a thriller, no matter how much you like it. Look at genre books to see what type of fonts the pros are using. If you’re looking for a safe choice, “Times New Roman” and “Arial” are probably not it.
– it has to be legible. There’s nothing worse than a title containing a made-up word in a font you can’t read
– it has to be legible as a thumbnail, can’t be too thin or too thick
– it has to be technically correct, like correct kerning and such
– some fonts are just plain ugly.
I’m sure that pro designers here could add to this list.
Placement is a whole other issue. If you don’t know what you’re doing, play it safe and just put title at the top, author name at the bottom (or vice versa if you have lots of books and want people to find you more easily). Don’t put any stupid effects on them like shadows, bezel or gradient, odds are you’ll do it wrong. And don’t cover any major image parts, like the head of the character on the cover, leave some dedicated text space on the image instead. Refrain from adding any extra text like reviews, unless they’re from Stephan King or something, no “best selling”, “award winning”, no “edited by”, no “written by”, no overly long bylines, subtitles or whatever you call them, no “Book two of the third part of the weredragon bride of the green weredragons saga”. If you don’t know what you’re doing, keep it simple.
Like I’ve said, I’m no designer, so this is more like “Book Covers For Dummies” sort of advice. It might not be a recipe for an awesome cover, but I’m pretty sure it would keep your cover off this site, provided the image is decent or it doesn’t fall under the boo-ring tag. Although, it’s always a better option to hire a pro.
The execution is still amateurish. No self respecting artist would leave that much white space between objects. If this is done in oil, the proper way to work with oils is in layers, meaning that you first paint your ENTIRE canvas in pink, then add the skin color, then add the tongue ON TOP of that color. Same for acrylics, but not as necessary. Even with tempera you’re probably better off working in layers.
![cover[1]](https://lousybookcovers.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/cover14.jpg)
Wonder if they found this artist on Fiverr.
Nah. Dis tongue, not belief.
Those nose holes look like tiny, angry eyes.
Former title: BARF!
Actually, I like this artwork a lot! The cover is mainly spoiled by inept typography.
Me too. This artwork seems to be stylized this way on purpose – not just by a bad artist. I don’t know a thing about typography, but I’m not totally turned off by the typesetting here. It could be a little crisper, but it works. IMO, anyway.
I’m actually a little nervous when it comes to typography…I’ve been thinking about doing my own book cover at some point, but while I think I could get a good stock photo I am mystified by what makes a ‘good’ font and whatnot. I’m learning a little bit more from reading here and looking at professional covers, but still. I’ll probably hire it out anyway.
I’m not a designer, but I believe it basically comes down to this:
– avoid all overused fonts like Comic Sans and Papyrus
– choose genre appropriate fonts, like swirly for romance, futuristic for sci-fi, gothic for fantasy and so on. No childish handwriting fonts for a thriller, no matter how much you like it. Look at genre books to see what type of fonts the pros are using. If you’re looking for a safe choice, “Times New Roman” and “Arial” are probably not it.
– it has to be legible. There’s nothing worse than a title containing a made-up word in a font you can’t read
– it has to be legible as a thumbnail, can’t be too thin or too thick
– it has to be technically correct, like correct kerning and such
– some fonts are just plain ugly.
I’m sure that pro designers here could add to this list.
Placement is a whole other issue. If you don’t know what you’re doing, play it safe and just put title at the top, author name at the bottom (or vice versa if you have lots of books and want people to find you more easily). Don’t put any stupid effects on them like shadows, bezel or gradient, odds are you’ll do it wrong. And don’t cover any major image parts, like the head of the character on the cover, leave some dedicated text space on the image instead. Refrain from adding any extra text like reviews, unless they’re from Stephan King or something, no “best selling”, “award winning”, no “edited by”, no “written by”, no overly long bylines, subtitles or whatever you call them, no “Book two of the third part of the weredragon bride of the green weredragons saga”. If you don’t know what you’re doing, keep it simple.
Like I’ve said, I’m no designer, so this is more like “Book Covers For Dummies” sort of advice. It might not be a recipe for an awesome cover, but I’m pretty sure it would keep your cover off this site, provided the image is decent or it doesn’t fall under the boo-ring tag. Although, it’s always a better option to hire a pro.
The execution is still amateurish. No self respecting artist would leave that much white space between objects. If this is done in oil, the proper way to work with oils is in layers, meaning that you first paint your ENTIRE canvas in pink, then add the skin color, then add the tongue ON TOP of that color. Same for acrylics, but not as necessary. Even with tempera you’re probably better off working in layers.
Top of the page: sad ET upside down.
Ha! Yes, it does look like him.