First Original Concept Cover Art

Mar 26

Hey everyone, good morning! I know it's been a little while. I'm trying out a weekday-only posting schedule to avoid computer burnout. Plus, I'm super excited to share that I just finished my first paid cover design! It was a brand new design, not a redesign, and I got to work with the author's ideas, likes, and dislikes, along with the book synopsis. In today's post, I'll walk you through the design process and show you the final cover. I'll definitely share the Amazon ebook link when it's available!

Cover Brief

Illustrated Cozy Mystery Cover

Inclusion of a dog named “Gatsby” based off of reference photo
A mudslide and a “cottage style” inn should be represented
Title
- “Mud, Murder, and Mayhem”
- Placed at the top of the design
Subtitle
- “A Rebecca Hartwell Cozy Mystery”
- Placed at the bottom of the cover above pen name in smaller type
Pen Name
- “Dee Dee Edwards”
- Placed at the bottom of the design

First Round Designs

These were preliminary designs, created to elicit specific feedback. I presented a range of font combinations and cover options, and from these, she selected key elements: the 'inn' from option two, the offset placement from option one, and the standing dog, which she requested be positioned to face the viewer but up close like the dog in option two.

To refine the design, particularly the mudslide, I proceeded with a full background iteration, excluding the dog. This allowed me to concentrate on the overall composition, as I planned to design and integrate the dog separately. With the background established, I finalized the cover by adding her pup back in.

Design without the dog

For the cover's artwork, I primarily used Adobe Firefly AI for the landscape elements. However, Midjourney proved superior for rendering the dog, offering a level of realism that Firefly couldn't achieve for animal subjects. The final cover is a complex composition, built from approximately 75 layers. These layers involved a variety of techniques, including seamless blending of multiple AI-generated images, subtle texture overlays for depth and realism, carefully placed shadows and highlights for dimension, atmospheric mist effects, and gradient adjustments for color and tone. Specifically, the base image is a blend of two distinct Firefly outputs, onto which I then integrated the Midjourney-generated dog, ensuring a cohesive and natural look.

Final Cover Design

The final adjustments involved enhancing the dog’s visibility to create a striking focal point and then using Photoshop I made her collar more vibrant and added black fur to the inside of her ears to reduce the pink appearance. AI can do a lot of things but some things you just have to handle yourself the old fashioned way. Something I think is easily overlooked by people that don’t use or understand the tool.

This project proved to be a highly successful collaboration, and I'm eager to apply my design skills to future cover projects and continuing to build strong partnerships with authors!