Tickety Boo Covers Feedback Forum...

[Nerds_feather]

Hi Gary,

Okay, my two cents/pence: the art on these covers is generally good, and has improved greatly since the earlier releases. The cover for Jo's latest is excellent. However, I'm not a fan of the explosion on Uncommon Purpose, which creates some "layering" issues for my eyes (i.e. it looks like it's from a different layer and then makes the close-by ship look like its been layered in). In general, though, my main issue is with the text fonts, which still look a bit too "homemade" for my tastes. I think this would be a great area to concentrate efforts.

 

[Ray McCarthy]

I love the comic style font as well

At least it's not Comic Sans, even though it's a sans font.
Gary is rather amazing at this style.

 

[Gary Compton]

I need to revisit the font so it would seem.

I can see your point on the explosion. I will attend to that. Thanks for the input though and the compliments.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

What does PJ Strebor have to say about the cover?

 

[Gary Compton]

He loved it!

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

I really like it, too, and it could even be a scene from the book (actually, there are a couple of scenes it could be).

 

[Gary Compton]

But the comments are all valid so let's see if we can make it better.

 

[Nerds_feather]

Oh yeah--another minor photoshop issue: the laser that's coming from the big ship and destroying the foregrounded ship looks like it's a straight line rather than striking across a significant distance. If you widen the beam progressively it would give a 3d impression. Also might help to blur the backgrounded ship a bit in order to convey distance. These suggestions might not work in the end, but are things to try out while you tinker, at least!

 

[Droflet]

Okay here's my twenty cents worth (inflation, right?). Although I think this is one of your better efforts the ship in the foreground, the little one, would benefit from loosing the wings. Don't need wings in space, right?

Second, the big dish under the hull firing the laser, or whatever. Perhaps, like the good ship Enterprise, if you had the beam coming from the forward edge of the dorsal it might look less comic-like. From a hidden port in the hull, not a dish.

The font issue appears to have been dealt with.

Usual caveat: Take what suggestions work and ditch the rest.

 

[Stephen Palmer]

The image and composition are very nice, but the font is definitely wrong. It looks cheap. (Sorry Gary.) Needs much more class. I had a girlfriend a few years back who was a graphic designer, her speciality was font design, a specialism which alone shows the importance of this art!

 

[Boneman]

It's looking good. That's a wrap-around isn't it? ie the scene on the right is the front cover, and the remainder is the spine and back cover? Not sure about the PJ Strebor being in avocado green - but I have a slight red-green colour blindness, so do tell me if I'm wrong. Don't like the contrast between the title and his name. But that's what you did with Ralph's and it works well there. It may be that the dark background around his name is making it look as though the letters are edged in black. I wonder if the two bodies hurled from the breached spaceship wouldn't be better closer together - minor detail, but it looks as though the one on the right is wearing a spacesuit... 6d worth...

 

[Ray McCarthy]

Don't need wings in space, right?

Unless its a Flitter (word invented about 1945 for craft able to work in space and atmosphere). Shuttle had wings, but only a glider. The similar looking USSR Buran in contrast had powered atmospheric flight after re-entry, though unlike SF Flitters it needed a big rocket to get into space, just like Shuttle.

 

[Gary Compton]

That any better?

 

[tinkerdan]

I like that one much better.
Though I can see shadowing around the explosion I'm not sure if you can transparent that down a bit to blend.
The beam is more in the center of the explosion; which makes sense though the feature above the E on the title looks like a drifting space suit and I've no idea if that's what it's supposed to be.

I'm baffled why the title needs to be so strangely artistic and my brain keeps trying to turn the words into un-words; if that makes any sense.

 

[Ray McCarthy]

Title maybe still not 100%, otherwise very good. Maybe I'm too fussy.

 

[HareBrain]

Sorry, I'm not keen on the new lettering. The title, to me, is too dominant and detracts from, or jars against, the image.

 

[Droflet]

I'm not that fussy either. But I'd loose the body, put the shuttle, or whatever it is, back in and reverse the order of titles. Fonts are much, much better. Apart from that it looks great. Except for the big dish of course.

 

[Gary Compton]

The big dish is in the story.

 

[Gary Compton]

 

[Stephen Palmer]

I'm not sure two such divergent fonts work together. My advice would be - find a really classy non-sans font, and do the title and author's name… Roberts, presumably… both in that font. Also I think the pure white isn't 100% working, though this is a minor point. Perhaps the faintest hint of a colour, with a black stroke of a few pixels around it…?