As a new member I am not sure if this is the appropriate place for this or not, if it isnt my sincere apologies. I would like to get member feedback on my cover art. This is just concept mind you....and it is missing a spider running up the side of the wineglass. I have a friend in the psych field that deals with marketing and branding.....so tell me, when you close your eyes can you still see it? Feedback....thoughts...?
Is it about vampires? If so, I think it works okay except the spacing on your name needs a bit of work. It looks like all one word. If it's not about vampires, I'm not sure it works...
Totally not Vampires haha....the Antagonist is a wine drinker....what is missing is a spider up the side.
Just curious: what about this says vampire to you? When I first looked, I saw red wine and a red lipstick print. Vampire was not the first thing that came to mind. Which is not to say that it doesn't say vampire. I'm just wondering what you saw that I didn't.
This is good feedback....here is one of my other proposals....just a template to spin off of mind you
I'm with @BayView on this. Actually, at first glimpse, I thought the lipstick was a blood mark from a vampire's lips. If I wouldn't have seen this... I might've thought it was lipstick, but yeah, spiders, wine, the lettering and the dark background remind me of vampires.
As for where it might belong, it might be better somewhere in the Publishing forums, maybe under Self-Pub, since cover art has to do with book production, while the Lounge is for fun and games. So to speak. Anyway, I have to agree with @Tenderiser about the vampires, due to the blood-red lipstick and wine and the general darkness of the colors. The simplicity of the central image is good . . . maybe if the background were a little brighter, suggesting a fine restaurant? Or set the glass against a soft-focus shot of a wine cellar? The spider would work well in that context, to give the impression that there's going to be something a little sinister about the enjoyment of the wine in this story. Just an idea. The thing that struck me was the size and choice of the title font. With the swooshy serifs on the I and the N, I thought it said "BORDERTINE," which of course makes no sense. Even though I know that, every time I look at it the I, it wants to morph into a T, and my eye ignores the actual L and supplies another I that isn't there. Disturbing. If you could get rid of the serif on the top left of the I, it might work.
I guess I'm the only one who's not getting a vampire vibe off of this, but what I am getting is a Saturday night Cinemax (Skinemax) soft-core porn vibe. Which might be what you're going for Overall, I think it's pretty well done, but one thing I noticed is that the base of the wine glass is off-round and kind of looks like some sort of gel or thick clear syrup that's been poured, rather than just glass. I think the artist has got a lot of skill and potential though. Whether or not it matches what you are going for, I basically like it as a book cover.
Not impressed. If a spider is what you want, than go with a Black Widow hanging down from a thread, and replace the hourglass markings on its abdomen with a red wine glass. Also, the title of the novel is too small and should not, repeat... should not be in all caps! The only time all caps is acceptable is when the first letter of each word is larger than the rest of the letters in the word.
Not sure where you got that rule. To each his own preferences, but all caps is pretty common on novel covers:
Hack artwork by hack artists. Just so you know the difference, here's the first edition of Dune, by Frank Herbert... https://www.baumanrarebooks.com/rare-books/herbert-frank/dune/76687.aspx
I'm not saying that all caps are necessary, it depends on the book, but I just did a quick search for "ny times bestsellers covers" and got this. There are some with mixed upper and lowercase, some with all caps but larger initial letters as @Iain Sparrow suggested, but quite a few with just solid caps. True, cover art can be beautiful, I used to have a book of Michael Whelan covers, but the cover is there to help sell the book, not the other way around.
I had these glasses up in another tab, so your cover just made me think about if I should in fact go to IKEA next week. ...maybe not that helpful
Some of the best book covers, and perhaps surprisingly so, has been for the various editions of The Hobbit... https://fineartamerica.com/featured/the-hobbit-lord-of-the-rings-poster-watercolor-poster-handmade-poster-lyubomir-kanelov.html
Black + red + wine glass = something sensual. If I see that book lying on a shelf, I'd expect it to contain some sexy stuff inside, femme fatale and some intrigues. Sensuality would be the main theme in the plot. Is that how you want your readers to see the book? If I don't wan't to read that type of story, I won't even bother to look at the blurb. The second version looks like a cheap knock-off of "Silence of the Lambs", which would tell me that 1) the author couldn't spend more money on better cover because he didn't think his book would earn it back = this book is not very good, even the author thinks so. 2) the plot would be just as derivative as the cover = this book would sound like a cheap version of something I've read before. There's nothing to make me pick this book up.
Not the only one. At first glance, I thought this was Romance. And I'm a bit of an expert because I devour "vampire genre". Nothing vampir-y here for me. I thought it was Romance because of the lipstick on the glass. Lipstick = seduction = etc. I liked it. No idea what a spider will be doing in this picture, though. Black Widow? Then I'll think "femme fatale", Mystery. Detective story? (I wouldn't buy a book with a depiction of a spider on the cover. This is something to consider since there are many people who are arachnophobic. Sure you need it? The cover is good enough as it is.)
Excellent mention, Lots of previous feedback against the spider even to the point of "I wouldnt buy because I hate spiders"
