Book Cover Concept sketches: fantasy romance, fantasy science fiction, and fiction.
I asked three different friends: "If you were a fantasy author and composed a novel, what would be the story? Tell me about the protagonist, their adventures, and their conflict."
Goddess Fortuna is about the journey of a man during a time long passed who pines for the attentions of a mythical spirit and finds that he can connect to his other-wordly lover only through speaking directly to his own reflection in the still tidepools located on the other side of the mountains. The death of the main character happens when he becomes too obsessed with his own reflection in a real mirror. I used images from Adobe Stock to combine in order to generate this composite. Finishing it would require cleaning of the edges around the mirror frame, adding shadow to position the mirror weight in the sand, generate some shadows behind the figure so that she is standing on the sand more convincingly, and add edging to the clouds near the top of the composition. The 'F' needs to be enlarged; all the text could use a white glint to emphasize the height of the lettering.
Mismatched is a tale of a clan leader, 'Star,' who comes across a mysterious blob of gelatinous flesh on a hunting trail, only to discover that it is a reptilian creature from another planet. I used Dall-E to render the figures and background, then extended the sky to transition from sunny day to hints of thunderclouds and also added the foreshadowing scene of her burning village in the foreground. I lightened the initial 'MIS' letters to hint at the nature of their relationship. Finishing this design would require fixing Star's fingers and intensifying the magenta glow behind the typography to be more prominent for print on paper.
This cover illustrates the story of a young woman whose lonely days are occupied by daydreaming in multiple coffee shops around her busy, crowded city. She amuses herself by reading and interpreting her own imaginings, only to find that whatever outcomes she makes up begin to manifest in strange ways. I used MidJourney to generate the figure in the café, and Illustrator to add the floral elements and text. To finish this concept, I would work on a better integration of the title descender with the subtitle text, and experiment with a different color palette, although the white text works well with the soft palette of the design. I would try some flourish to the orange pill container for more contrast, and perhaps add some shadowing to the floral element to see if that added depth.