Okay, so this is my latest attempt for the cover of book one. I purchased the background photo and the photo of the men off dreamstime. The girl posing in the foreground is my friend, Adrienne. And I purchased the font off of some site that I can't remember the name of, but I still have the receipt, so it's cool. Everything is legally legit.
Every book in the series is going to have a color motif. I figured that it would help my books stick out more since people are naturally attracted to bright colors.
So, what do you think? Is it too dark? To hard to see? Be brutally honest. I can handle it. I'll be pissed if you aren't.
Here's the cover for book two (or possibly book three since it's likely I'll be splitting the second book, which is peaking at around 180,000 words, into two books). I bought the background and the tiny eagle off dreamstime. I used the same font. And the hand belongs to the same friend posing in the first picture. She literally washed her hands in dirt before we took this picture and let me paint fake blood on her knuckles. Unfortunately, it's not as noticeable in the cover after being manipulated and softened. That's the one thing I was truly disappointed with after finishing. I wanted more blood and grime.
What do you think? Too bright? Too in-your-face? This is probably my favorite of the two covers because I'm a sucker for the color orange.
This may or may not be the cover for the second book. It all depends on whether I split book two into two books or not. It's not completely done either. The end product would hopefully have two people walking off the left hand side of the page. So it would actually look something like this:
Okay, maybe not exactly like this, but you get the idea. I'm also not sure why it looks a little fuzzy on here. I probably didn't save it to the correct specifications for the web or something... It's always an ongoing battle.
It's also interesting to note that I made these using Photoshop.... elements. Yup, that's right. I used one of the most basic photoshops you can get your hands on. I spent two weeks watching video tutorials on how to use the program and then spent another week messing around with the different features until my wrist hurt. I wish I could get Photoshop CS3, but I just can't afford it. That being said, if I can't afford CS3 then I can't afford to pay an artist to do my cover. I'm going to have to do the best with what I've got.
So please let me know what you think--the good, the bad and the ugly.
Oh, and here's a little something to make you smile. I originally used putty on Adrienne's knuckles so as too make actual cuts on them, but as you can see, it just ended up making her hand look like something out of a zombie movie. Note to self: You are not a make-up artist.
