Covers, Both Inside and Out · 8:44pm Jun 9th, 2023
I received the second proof of my printing of the Fleeting Light series, and besides some brightness issues that I'm getting tips on correcting, it turned out incredibly.
So, I think it's time to show off a commission I'm beyond ecstatic and pleased with how it turned out. Say goodbye to the old blandness:
Not to say I didn't enjoy the old covers, but there was no way I was making a book with this on the front.
And welcome to the new hotness:
Done by Gotika (@RottenGotika), this artwork turned out better than I could have hoped. This was meant to show off the same location twice: Twilight after Ponyville is plunged into darkness on the front cover (with a surprise guest), and Lantern and company discovering the scene on the back. Not shown is a synopsis in the inner flap, which has the candle framed perfectly at the bottom. I'm still debating if there should be any text on the back cover or flap, because I think it looks wonderful as is. Gotika should post a far better resolution one on Twitter soon.
However, those original covers aren't going away entirely. I wanted some way to use them, but the stark black backgrounds don't work too well on the thickness of paper I ended up with (I couldn't part with cream for glossy white pages). However, I was able to find a friend who I commissioned to make some simpler black and white artwork that pays homage to those covers. I only have the first at the moment, but I'll update this with the rest when they're finished.
UPDATE: they are all finished.
These were done by rice (@riceflowers_art), and they get so creepy as the story progresses.
I'm so excited to be able to sell these at Everfree Northwest and on Lulu shortly afterward. You can expect a blog post about it as soon as they're up.
I am loving the attention to detail! Especially, the candle!
Ps. Loving the cover it looks spiffy!
Now for the others.
Thank you for preview!!! ^^
What can I say:
- I absolutely love full version of the art! Tell Gotika my huge gratitude! :)
- I like how cover consists both versions of thge same key location, under the light of the day and darkness of the void. Cool idea.
- Aww... Why cover title doesn't have the same famous style, "A FLEet|ng LIght |n thE DArknEsS"? :( Kinda sad, I just loved it.
- Also kinda sad title cover won't consist famous black background with candle on front or back, but it's perfectly understandable why it couldn't be included on the front (though, in my head, in the past, when I imagined how book could look, I had one interesting variant), and beautiful second part of the Gotika's artwork fits perfectly to be on the back.
- Thank you for adding some additional art, like black-white candle, referencing to original covers. I would like to see them, especially if there's more! :) Can't wait to see them.
WE ARE WAITING TOO
- Interesting fact: a reason why I love original cover and title so much: they are first two reasons why I found and read this story in the first place. When I read through Fimfiction, in right section, in the corner of my eye, I caught original cover, absolute darkness with the candle at the center, then I noticed unusual eerie title, then "horror" tag. That's what made me open the story's main page immediately, and after reading its short description, I bookmarked it, and waited for the night to finally read it...
WAITING
TO RETURN
- I vote for description being on inner side of the book. :D
RETURN HOME
- I wonder, will book be divided on subbooks somehow (Glimmer of Hope in the Black, etc), or there will be no any sign, no "seam", that it was originally four different stories?
----
And here's single critique if I may.
Sorry, that's just my personal opinion, but I have to say this: this artwork, in terms of being cover for horror book, consists one serious flaw: we can see monstoruous antagonist TOO clearly, too detailed. And with this, cover ruins one of the big instruments of any horror, something that majority of people fear, something that I feared when I read this story for the first time: The Fear of the Unknown. I didn't know what happened, I didn't know how enemy looked (or even if there WAS any enemy at all!), and even when some descriptions of mosnters started to appear, they were vague, and for the longest time, story made our imagination to picture all possible and impossible variants how monster could look. This feeling... That's one of main reasons I loved and still love this story. But here, we can see it right at the start, even before story starts... So, those who DIDN'T read this story, who wants to feel its horror atmosphere at full power... They, in my opinion, won't feel it like fimfiction readers did.
But that's just my opinion.
Again: can't wait to see the book!
Show us the way, Flashgen
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I will say that the removal of the weird capitalization was purely for the front cover, to use the title of the first story as the book title and really as the series title. It's always been "the Fleeting Light series" to me.
The portion of the book with the first story still has the weird capitalization for its title page, the table of contents, and even the headers.
edit: The synopsis includes mention that the book holds four stories, the table of contents lists them all separately (with mostly Pray, Hope and Wander and They're Never Coming Back having "chapters"), and each one will have their own title page, a full page with the title and this chapter art before the story proper begins.
I am happy you liked the cover, as well as honoured to be able to take part in this! Thank you everyone for your kind words
So so cool, thank you for sharing these separately, wonderful work by both artists!!