Reusing Pics for OLD BAD COVERS to make NEW GOOD COVERS: A Lesson to All

So yeah. I took these pics that I used to make weird covers that were for contests or games on Figment and reused them to try to make better covers out of them. These pics are not used in the way they CAN BE used. Meaning that their full potential is lost in these bad covers.

(Important note: None of these covers are legal. I only take credit for the creativity.)

Let me show you this first cover. It was for a game...contest thing where I had to use two opposite colors in a cover. I chose purple and yellow and did a horrible job on the font placement. I won't even go into the "Story Behind the Cover" because that's not the point. The point is that this cover is hideous. I look at it and it makes me CRINGE.

But I knew the original pic, the girl, could be used in a better way. And I hope this is better... I tried my best, guys, I really did but the girl is standing in such an awkward position. Here's the original pic:

So I made some Fan Art: Lana Del Rey, Sherlock Holmes, and LOTR

IMPORTANT NOTE: None of these pics are legal pics so I claim nothing but the creativity that went into making the final product.

I was just having a bit of fun and decided to share them with you guys, whoever you are :P

Hope you enjoy them! And tell me which one was your favorite. Now without further ado...

Remaking My Steewpid Amateur Covers

Stupid is actually pronounced "steew-pid" but apparently people started saying it like "stewpid" and it stuck (SuperCarlinBrothers Jay talked about this in a video...about something. I forgot which one.)

I've been making covers for...for...uh, 7 years or so. Gosh. That's a long time.

Anyway, I started to do it seriously about 4 years ago. Now I make covers that actually look like covers and not "cover artwork". You'll see what I mean :)

I decided to post some of my remake attempts on old covers. I will post the old cover and then the remake. Just to make it clear, I will label the legal ones as "legal" and I will also be posting ones I made for people and I will label those as "Title & Authorname copyrighted" so you know which ones not to steal. Actually, most of them will probably be "Title & Authorname copyrighted" because some of them belong to me, too. I have rights, right? Right. (Daffy Duck reference. If you've seen the one with Elmer Fudd and Bugs Bunny in the hunting scene, you will know which one I'm talking about.)

In fact, don't steal any of them :P Well, I trust you guys. I do :)

Without further ado...do, dododo, dodooo *sings*...

1.

Old cover for a poem of mine.
Just font on a pic. Boring!
Title copyrighted.

And the remake version is...

Simple and Color-themed: Ravenous and Shellack

After looking at various "simple" covers, I tried my hand at them.

First, I chose a simple texture background instead of a scenery like I usually do.

Then, I chose a simple vector image (legal image) and made it my staple piece in the cover.

I wanted to go for a "middle glow" look so I added two white circles with one being just the outer line with the inner color as "transparent" (though transparent isn't a color...or is it?)

I then enhanced the reddish, brownish corner (the one on the bottom left in the textural picture above) using PicMonkey's Vampire-themed effect Nosferatu Dawn.

Here are the results.

The title "Ravenous" plays on "raven" and "us". What kind of story can you imagine with this?

As you can see, both crow (or raven) and the text are overlayed.


I wanted to make a sequel with this cool (legal) shell vector I had. Thank you, Pixabay.

So, I went on Google to look up some kind of terrible or dramatic word that started with "shell" and found a slang word "shellack" which means to strike severely and you can find it here.

I did the same glow circle thing in the middle and used the same font (with overlaying effect) for the title. The shell is overlayed twice with the first layer faded just a tad so it's not too dark and matches with the raven in the first cover.

I chose a different simple textual background.

The only thing I did was add some red edges using "Dark Edges" effect in PicMonkey and add "scratches" which I found in Pixabay as "dirty" vector image. The scratches were to emphasize the beating or striking and possible abuse or fighting.

And here is the result.

From Ravenous to Shellack...I wonder what kind of story this is? Perhaps some kind of dystopian story?

Here are the covers side by side.

Ravenous comes first and then Shellack.

What do you think? Would you buy books with these covers? And, what do you think the story would be? Tell me your thoughts :)

See ya later, alligators! :D


P.S.
The pictures and vectors used are all from Pixabay. The font is vtks classicuda 3 and for personal use meaning that I cannot sell without buying a commercial license from the creator of the font. Well, don't worry, I don't plan on selling anything. This is solely for my personal enjoyment :)

Book Cover Designing: Advice from a Designer on Canva

I just read through this article and it was certainly helpful and inspirational. I often tend to make my covers really fancy because I like fantasy-esque images. But then I realized the best covers with the most impact do not have to be OMG SO FANTASY! all the time.

This article that I will link HERE gives good advice on how to make an eye-catching cover with great balance in everything.

For me in my personal covermaking experience, I found that a cover is not just about the image but also about the font, the placement of the font, how accurately the cover matches the story and/or it's message, and even font size. I suppose if I was an art student I'd learn all these things but I'm not so it took me years to really realize what covermaking actually was.

I think some of my premade legal covers follow some of the suggestions from the article, what do you think?

But anyway, if any of you amateur cover designers out there are taking a look at my blog, hopefully the link will help you out and inspire you, too :)

Now off to some covermaking!

See ya later, alligators! :D

IMPORTANT: About Copyright Stuffs (Pixabay and other)

This is an important notice. I have been reading up on various copyright rules of Pixabay (where I get most of my legal pics) and decided to make this post.

Unless I explicitly state that the photo is my own original photo, you can assume that the other photos are not original. Typically what I do when making a photo-edit (is what I call them), is gather a bunch of good-looking legal photos from Pixabay or from Google Image ("insert random word here" wallpaper) and put them on top of each other.

Basically what I do is carve the photos and mash them into each other using cut-out, overlay, and collage techniques. In a sense, you can say that the editing is owned by me. I made the wonderful pic look epic. Get it? Epic? :P  And...the pun has been lost.

Some photo-edits I did and posted in my main blog "World Problems and Randomness" are not legal, meaning that I am messing with pics that other people have a rights to claim.  These I cannot sell and will not sell, don't worry :)

From now on I will make sure to let you know what exactly my photos are made of just so that I don't get fined. Of course you can say that lots of people are messing around with other people's photos without their consent and posting them on their blogs without their consent so what's the biggy deal?

But the thing is, it's always good to be kind to others by not claiming an entire photo as your own if the original was someone else's. I wouldn't want someone doing that to my photos so why would I do it to them?

Statements for Each Case

In the cases where I have used an original photo to make a photo-edit, these are copyrighted by me.

In the cases where I have used an original photo AND a photo that is not my own from some random person, I will post the original photo of mine so you can see what parts are of my photo.

In the cases where I have used some random person's photo, not under creative commons, don't worry, I won't sell these or even claim them as my own.

In the cases where I have used some landscape photos or photos of objects from Pixabay, and I am not selling them, I will not say anything because Pixabay says it is okay.

In the cases where I have used some landscape photos or photos of objects from Pixabay, and I AM SELLING THEM, I will say something, of course, and also ask the owner of the photo if they will mind it or not.

Finally, of course, if I'm selling any photo-edits using pics from Pixabay, I will ask the owner if it is okay or not.

End of Statements for Each Case


Pixabay has this thing about identifiable people and buildings may be protected so it might not be good to claim anything about them without asking the original owners. This gets tricky because who are these "identifiable people"? What if I don't know them?

With this case, I'll just have to ask the original owner IF I am selling them.

If not, I'll just say
it's from Pixabay.

That rhymed :)

My shop logo which I use for covers posted to this blog.
This is made by an amazing Figgy a.k.a The One and Only (Tony).

Seven Gardens not Seven Seas

When you think about pirates, you might think about the Seven Seas. This cover plays on that idea of the Seven Seas but this one is the Seven Gardens. The background is a mash up of four different parts. Can you tell? They are...