Because this is a black and white line drawing version of something intended for full color, there is occasionally important stuff that isn’t clear without the colors there. I have tried to go through and make notes whenever I was aware of this happening.
Because this is a cover, I feel it ought to reflect the best you can do. Her movement is a bit awkward. I would definately move her left (the one outstretched) foot in. Likewise, with the position she’s sitting, there’s no way her right hand would be so flat. Either move the arm in or tweak the hand so that it’s not resting flat on the well. Depends on how much work you want to do. ^_^
I think you can do a much better job on the logo. It’s a decent font but not one made to be arched.
Looks a bit like the perspective on the bottom of the well is off, compared to the top… I suggest obscuring it with grass to make it less clear where it ends.
Overall, the biggest thing I’d change on this cover is the logo, to make it more eyecatching and to really draw the eye in. Otherwise, I think when colored, the details in the background will make it quite appealing, as long as you make sure she remains the focus. The problem with the wide arched logo is not just that the font looks bad stretched like that, but that it draws the eye right off the page, and will be difficult to use in advertising banners.
This will be the first thing people see, and your logo is probably going to be on everything you use to get people to see it.
If this is going to be the final site design, I would definately kill the Comic Sans and whatever the other fancy font in the logo at the top is (I don’t know if we see the same thing there, but whatever it is on my computer, looks nice)… stick to websafe fonts in the Verdana/Arial, Times New Roman/Courier lineup. But I imagine as you’re not going to be launching for quite some time this is more of a placeholder. The color art used in the site looks really nice, though. I definately like seeing use of your actual art style in the buttons and everything else–just not the Comic Sans. ^_^ But we’ve been there already…
Otherwise… nice level of detail for a cover and it should look good colored.
There should be no comic sans anywhere on this page, and I don’t see any myself, so I’m not quite sure what to fix.
I’m sort of guessing that your computer isn’t downloading the custom fancy font I’m using for headers, and is showing comic sans *instead*. That would explain why you are seeing a lot of it.
Do you have it set as one of your defaults? I certainly didn’t list in in the css.
Clearly I need to set up my font-family declaration so that it degrades to something else. I’ll try get to that soon.
The tagline is just set to one of the default types. I see Zapf Chancery. I don’t know what you see. The entire title area is, as you assumed, a place holder. My first attempt at real logo is penciled but not yet colored. (But, hey, I finished my book!)
I would like to see something similar to the designs around the page outlining the cover image. I really like that Liang is on the cover, since the first few pages focus on Fahdu.
I wonder if she would look better in a more “lady-like” pose. Have her knees together and maybe a little more reserved. I know as far as the story goes, at the beginning she is very content and happy in her garden, but since the cover reflects the entire novel, if she was looking off to the side, eyes closed, hair blowing past her face, wearing the combs Fahdu gives her. Maybe include some hidden foreshadowing, like a row of potted flowers, but two of them are empty…
I think she could stand to take up a little more of the cover as well.
Because this is a black and white line drawing version of something intended for full color, there is occasionally important stuff that isn’t clear without the colors there. I have tried to go through and make notes whenever I was aware of this happening.
Because this is a cover, I feel it ought to reflect the best you can do. Her movement is a bit awkward. I would definately move her left (the one outstretched) foot in. Likewise, with the position she’s sitting, there’s no way her right hand would be so flat. Either move the arm in or tweak the hand so that it’s not resting flat on the well. Depends on how much work you want to do. ^_^
I think you can do a much better job on the logo. It’s a decent font but not one made to be arched.
Looks a bit like the perspective on the bottom of the well is off, compared to the top… I suggest obscuring it with grass to make it less clear where it ends.
Overall, the biggest thing I’d change on this cover is the logo, to make it more eyecatching and to really draw the eye in. Otherwise, I think when colored, the details in the background will make it quite appealing, as long as you make sure she remains the focus. The problem with the wide arched logo is not just that the font looks bad stretched like that, but that it draws the eye right off the page, and will be difficult to use in advertising banners.
This will be the first thing people see, and your logo is probably going to be on everything you use to get people to see it.
If this is going to be the final site design, I would definately kill the Comic Sans and whatever the other fancy font in the logo at the top is (I don’t know if we see the same thing there, but whatever it is on my computer, looks nice)… stick to websafe fonts in the Verdana/Arial, Times New Roman/Courier lineup. But I imagine as you’re not going to be launching for quite some time this is more of a placeholder. The color art used in the site looks really nice, though. I definately like seeing use of your actual art style in the buttons and everything else–just not the Comic Sans. ^_^ But we’ve been there already…
Otherwise… nice level of detail for a cover and it should look good colored.
There should be no comic sans anywhere on this page, and I don’t see any myself, so I’m not quite sure what to fix.
I’m sort of guessing that your computer isn’t downloading the custom fancy font I’m using for headers, and is showing comic sans *instead*. That would explain why you are seeing a lot of it.
Do you have it set as one of your defaults? I certainly didn’t list in in the css.
Clearly I need to set up my font-family declaration so that it degrades to something else. I’ll try get to that soon.
The tagline is just set to one of the default types. I see Zapf Chancery. I don’t know what you see. The entire title area is, as you assumed, a place holder. My first attempt at real logo is penciled but not yet colored. (But, hey, I finished my book!)
I would like to see something similar to the designs around the page outlining the cover image. I really like that Liang is on the cover, since the first few pages focus on Fahdu.
I wonder if she would look better in a more “lady-like” pose. Have her knees together and maybe a little more reserved. I know as far as the story goes, at the beginning she is very content and happy in her garden, but since the cover reflects the entire novel, if she was looking off to the side, eyes closed, hair blowing past her face, wearing the combs Fahdu gives her. Maybe include some hidden foreshadowing, like a row of potted flowers, but two of them are empty…
I think she could stand to take up a little more of the cover as well.