I would appreciate some help on this... I've never done a book cover before, and I'm not sure of the format required. I downloaded a template from somewhere for book jackets--I'm wondering if it's better to do the whole jacket or just the front cover? It occurred to me that "wrap around imagery" would be more effectively displayed if one can see the front and the back, but I'm wondering if that's just overkill...

Secondly, I'm wondering which image is the most effective. I'd really like to keep a simple black cover, maybe with some gold metallic foil lettering. The seven different looks below are just mockups with some stand-in imagery and rough sketching.

I don't know if folks are familiar with this classic novel, but for those who are I'm hoping they can comment on the composition that best fits. For those who haven't I'm hoping they can comment on what's the most dramatic.

This book is about lost love, personal transformation, insanely intricate manipulative machinations, remorseless revenge, and finally the nature of forgiveness (or lack thereof) and what it can do to a person. Ultimately, the "hero" doesn't win as much as he reaches the limit of tolerance for his own actions and decides to move on. He doesn't get his lost life and love back. It is, in some ways, a highly melodramatic serialized novel with a lot of romanticism.

In short, it's Dallas and Dynasty all wrapped up into one. In period costumes. With swords and suicides.

I would appreciate any advice and constructive criticism offered. Thanks so much!!

Welcome, fellow Californian!!

Lovely work!! Your website is great--I love the essence of shape in your pieces and the gentle "sprayed" form and texture! Very elegant! Welcome to the forums!

@Sas Well said!

I haven't signed up for the SVS courses yet, as I'm still dredging through the courses on Schoolism. But I've been in your position, @hoppershaun, and kudos for finding this site. It's what I was looking for before I knew I was actually looking for it... The 3-Point Perspective Podcast led me here as well.

Many of the online self-guided education course offerings by various companies (like Udemy, Skillshare, or LinkedinLearning) are very broad and general and aren't really curated beyond user ratings--there's some good but lots of bad. Other sites are centered around a particular facet of illustration or art (Schoolism, Gnomon, Ctrl+Paint, and CGMA are about game and concept art; SVSLearn clearly leans toward illustration and children's lit; New Master's Academy, Vilppu Academy, PencilKings, & Watt's Atelier obviously bend toward studio fine art) but there is course content one can lift out of the particular focus of the courses available on each and apply to anything you want.

That being said, it took me a while to actually figure out what it was that I sought. And even longer to assess my own success or failure in any of the particular fields the schools served. I went through exactly what you mentioned ("3D modeling!! I gotta learn ZBrush!! I gotta!! Why? Because everyone is learning it!! I dunno what I'll do with it but I guess I gotta learn it!!" Note--I never learned it.) I made the wrong choice with Schoolism, as I've learned concept/game art just isn't a field for my inclinations, but most of the basics that are taught in some of their classes are still relevant regardless.

But with SVSLearn you have a BUNCH of courses from a wider variety of teachers. For example, Proko--who was taught through a Fine Art lens--has figure construction classes available here. And other teachers with their own courses available on Gumroad (Marco Bucci, for example) also make some of their courses available here. So for the price of a monthly/yearly subscription you actually have a much wider variety of curated and relevant illustration courses available from instructors from a wider swath of the industry than you might have from other services, but not so wide that half the courses are irrelevant. It seems ALL the courses are relevant here, just by looking at their titles. The price can't be beat. Individually, the cost of those courses from each individual creator add up to FAR more than you pay here.

The one thing that Schoolism has that SVSLearn doesn't have (at least, I THINK it doesn't, as I haven't signed up yet) is recorded video response from the instructor to the uploaded homework of the previous students who have taken the course. The classes at Schoolism are taught "live" at specific times of the year for a much higher price than the norm, and the weekly feedback generated from each assignment is saved and put in a bank for self-guided subscription students taking the course to watch on their own. So you get the course itself plus 25 15-30 minute feedback vids of other students homework for each weekly lesson so you can see how it's critiqued.

Taking a course live is, consequently, somewhat expensive ($800-1500) as the instructors themselves have 15-25 students each week for 8-15 weeks, and you pay for their time. Think about it--20 students with 25 minutes of feedback each each week means almost a full 8-hour day of video recorded response, paint overs, and processing every week. Plus making the video itself. And answering all their email questions and such.

Schoolism also has a Facebook group specifically for uploading homework from the courses for the self-guided students. But this forum for SVSLearn seems far far more effectively applicable in a much broader sense for students and non-students alike for a wider variety of illustration disciplines. Schoolism seems very much "all-concept-art-all-the-time". To me, anyway.

Just an FYI. If I had my druthers, I'd have signed up for SVSLearn over Schoolism. But I didn't know enough about myself back then. And just because their course instructors are successful in that industry doesn't make them good teachers... hehe... I've taught higher education for 20 years. A LOT of the critique vids made my skin crawl and infuriated me... hehe... But I paid for a year and have to make the best of it.

Lovely! Really clean and easy to navigate, puts all your work clearly out there without being overwhelming--seriously, Whitney, good choice!! Congrats!!

I finished my 4th set of 9 in my collection of 100 Hands of Friends and Family. Woot!!

I had an epiphany the other day that it's possible to tell a story with the pose of the hand itself as well as allude to the personality of the person whose hand it actually is... And that's been a good thing. Not that you can notice much, but some of these are very rich in iconography and detail, and others are more about texture. I'm still using these to explore.

Onward!

Welcome, Dan!! Over and over again I find this forum to be helpful just by reading the different posts and seeing how people offer advice. It's a gold mine. Glad you found it!

Second, third, and fourth attempts at things are always harder than the first. Because the first happens almost by accident. How to keep replicating what you've done--repeating the process--is what you're figuring out with every one that comes after.

After the first, the subsequent ones will always be more challenging and feel to you like they're not as strong. That's natural. That's actually growth. That's a good thing. You have to keep plowing forward to make the process your own internally, in your heart and mind. That plowing and trudging and working and making of mistakes is actually where the magic happens. You can't skip that or make it easier--it has to be hard and disappointing for it to do what it's supposed to: come out the other end with a better idea of how to do things.

Don't worry too much. Just bravely keep going. It'll evolve. And you're early in your challenge. Just keep swimming!!

Third posting in this thread--I'm trying to repeat what I'm working on each month on the 2nd. It's quite a random bunch of stuff...Hehe... I just completed this piece as an experiment with some new Procreate brushes I got from Uproot.shop made by an Australian woman named who goes by Abbie Nurse, and who makes THE best Procreate brushes I've ever EVER worked with. I am a HUGE fan of all her stuff, and when I need a brush of my own I just adjust the settings and maybe pop in a new brush tip or texture and it's completely different!! She's amazing.

But here's my project made by experimenting with her new Nostalgic Illustration brushes and I. am. in. love. with them. This is based an old stuffed toy I have that I grew up with. It has seen better days, but I love it so. I still have it (it has to be around 40 years old now).