Scampy's Obsession with Over-the-Top Cover Arts · 10:34pm Aug 13th, 2019
See, I could have spent the afternoon actually writing something for this damn fic.
Or I could spend four hours in photoshop making an absolutely unnecessary cover art for a story that already had a perfectly serviceable one.
The reality of Fimfic, as with any content site, is that first impressions are horrendously important. You can have the best dang story in the friggin' world (I don't) but if no one clicks on it, that just sucks.
As such, I spend a lot of time on my cover arts. A lot of time. Like, way more than is necessary. Sometimes I even make cover arts for other people's stories, often completely unprompted and just cuz I'm feeling bored. By this point I like to think I'm getting pretty good at it, and I need an ego boost so I'm gonna show 'em off real quick. I'll be sticking to ones that I actually put some effort into, as opposed to ones where I just took an image off derpibooru and slapped it on a background with a fitting font.
Last Light and Passed On
These were the first covers I made after a looooong time away from anything art-related. Nothing too fancy, just taking images and applying gradients as necessary. The second cover is, obviously, a direct alteration of the first with Twilight thrown in and made entirely black-and-white to really give that sense of emptiness.
This story is really important to me, and as such I wanted to give it the best art I could. The creator of the Wally image I used, fantasygerard2000, draws the absolute best Wallflower art, better than anything else I've ever seen. And you'd better believe I've seen 'em all. The linked image in particular is far-and-away my favorite fanart of Wallflower, and with a few alterations it fit the story perfectly. The tricky thing was maintaining color on Wallflower and the memory she's holding while fading out everything else. To be entirely honest, I don't remember how I did it, but I'm sure it was the wrong and needlessly-difficult way. Chances are it'd take me hours to figure out if I were to try again.
This one is just so over the top. To be honest, when I started messing around in photoshop earlier today, it was for no other reason than practicing drawings of Wally. I'd like to say I'm some super talented artist, but the truth is I just jacked some fan-art from one of my new favorite games and used it as a base. After lots of patience with the line tool and experimenting with different effects, I finally got something that I think properly conveys the terrifying nature of Wally's plight in Hollow. Did I have a totally acceptable cover art before this? Yes, but shut up don't think about it.
Rise Again by Duck
Okay, real talk? Stop what you're doing and read Rise Again, right heckin' now. Whatever you're doing isn't as important as experiencing the absolute amazingness and dread and mystery and sadness and excitement you'll get from reading this story. Cool? Cool. You'd better friggin' do it.
This cover was an interesting case. At the time I made it, I'd never spoken to Duck before and Rise Again only had two chapters. Two? Might've been three. I dunno. Point is, I had no idea who I was making this for or what his story was really gonna wind up being. All I knew was it was amazing and it deserved a cover art to match.
The story opens with Sunny being... Let's call it confused. There's this constant underlying sense of emptiness and distraction as she tries to reassemble the fractured remnants of her thoughts. As such, I went with a sort of "broken glass" theme. The rest of it was just, like, I dunno. Silhouettes and spooky red colors. A cool unintended side effect is that while viewing this cover on a screen with low brightness, usually on a mobile device, Sunny's silhouette will be almost invisible. It's a nifty case of something extra for those who look for it. Unless you see it on a desktop, in which case it doesn't really matter.
These are all the covers I've put real time and thought into. Making them is pretty fun, much more fun than I'd expected it to be. Maybe one day I'll do commissions or some shit, I dunno. In related news, I spent another half hour putting this blog together instead of writing for any of my three incomplete stories. Rad.
Thanks for indulging this attempt at resuscitating my withering ego.
~Scampy
I've been there too. I draw all my cover art by hand, so it can take quite a while. Honestly, I think the effort is worth it.
Oh my gosh I don't know if I even deserve half the praise you're giving me ahhhhhhh
I love your cover arts. They all have a special way of capturing that feeling or key aspect of the story. Also, they look really heckin' good. They really do make that first impression, which is then further enhanced by your fantastic writing skills. So, uh, "No u," I think? Yes. No u.
I remember that day that you gave me the cover for Rise Again. I'd recently uploaded the third chapter I think? One morning, I decided to check FimFic before I started driving. I don't get many messages, so I was pretty happy to see the notification. After I read it, I spent the morning drive smiling like a goof and spent my coffee break fawning over it. That was nice. Actually, I smiled a lot about that after that.
This has gotten kinda long. Your awesome creativity and talents (and generosity thank you!!!) are greatly appreciated.
That new art for Hollow looks amazing!
They’re so amazing! I wish I could Graphic like that.
got to admit those are some awesome covers
That artwork is h0t
At the risk of sounding pretentious, I think your older covers are good in a minimalist way.