Heart's FIre Cover Art Redo (WIP) by LyleAryn
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No AI - This artwork was created entirely by hand or with traditional digital tools.
Description
I'm redoing the cover of my novel "Heart's Fire!"
It's current cover is one of my oldest Daz Studio renders. I've gotten SOOO much better at the software since then, and the original is just... uninteresting.
Actually, I'll post it next (With comments disabled) just because I can.
Anyway, there's still a lot to do, and this is pretty low resolution. Full resolution will be over 4,000 pixels tall, to be suitable for printing.
Her outfit will be changing. This is just chasfh's Oversized T-shirt with one of LWPerkin's textures thrown on it. Just a placeholder, because it's just so easy to work with.
I've also got to learn how to use the iray decal system to add a black vine design winding around her legs. It's been on my to-do list for a long time now. Time to make it to-done!
Hair is Primavera Hair. I'm liking it better for her than Biscuit's "Jam" hair. (Thought that is also a really good hair set.) Again, i lament that it can't be lengthened further. Aryll has hair down to her knees. Her hair shifts between straight and curly, until she learns how to just straighten it herself. So I get to use both hairstyles on her, lol.
The idea was to portray a sense of loneliness, with just a touch of hope. I think the horizon beginning to lighten represents that hope. I also placed the horse well into the background, hoping to push that sense of loneliness. Finally, I gave her an expression of resolution. This is meant as more of a thematic representation, than rather an scene illustration. Scene illustrations rarely work for book covers, in my humble opinion.
Also, Her pose took a bit of work. It started as a preset, but for some reason they decided to break both legs. Her left leg was twisted below the knee a full quarter rotation, and the right had the toes bent 90 degrees UP.
And it's meant to be used on a character wearing boots! Yikes!
Every load up a pose that you liked, only to find something catastrophically wrong with it?
I run into the one where the person who made the pose breaks a parameter unecessarily, rather than posing the rest of the joints to put it into the position. It looks fine at first glance, but I've rendered a few now that made it pretty obvious that the person would have broken limbs to attain the pose.
I'm rambling.
Anyway, this is the current state of a new cover. What do you think of it so far?
P.S. Her pendant was made by my friend W. Hunter. It's been on the cover of every book of the series so far. I'm actually gearing up to do book four soon, so I expect you'll be seeing quite a bit more of Aryll in the coming months.

Comments (19)
Nicely done.
Thanks!
magical
Thanks, Brain!
excellent
Thank you very much!
Beautiful and excellent work! :-)
Thanks, G!
Very nice work, I really like it.
Thank you! Looking forward to getting it done, too!
Such atmosphere here. Lovely!
Thanks! Made my computer cry working on it. Dang Daz memory leak, lol.
Superb lighting to create a fascinating character!!👏👍🙋♂️
Thank you. I think I'll be doing a lot of renders of her once I start the book.
Wonderful image my friend :)
Thank you! Hope you are having a lovely day.
That's a beautiful image. I love the lighting on it.
Thank you. I think I spent about 7-8 hours to get it to this point, with some more work to go.
tis is most excellent mood and lighting Lyle. a brilliant image.
Thanks, friend!
Excellent fantasy image, wonderful mystical character, excellent done!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thank you very much, Mike.
Excellent work!
Thanks! Glad you like it.
I'm assuming this is a wrap cover? You may need to leave more room at the top or bottom for bleed and typography, but it looks super--I love the gigantic starry sky behind her and the sense of quiet.
Yep. I'll have some more camera adjusting to do to get it just right. I'd like to learn how to make the text on my covers look better, but for now I settle for legible. Since I end up doing everything 100% myself, and have to rely on the print standard I'm given through Amazon.
Still. I think the new cover is a step in the right direction. I've had some good feedback on this, too.
Thanks for commenting!
Super render!!! :-)
Thanks Nobby!
Great feeing and atmosphere!
Thank you. I think I'll call it "Down, but determined." Not that anyone will ever know the title of the art, lol. (except you guys.)
Looking really good!
Thank you, chasfh! I'm glad you think so.
It's looking really good. It's fun to go back and re-do stuff you've done years ago, just to see your progress. I can't believe some of the stuff from my early days - even the first couple chapters of TNA.
Anyway, this is very well done. The dark surroundings contrasted with the light of the fire really gives it an air of mystery. I like it!
Thank you. I've still got to do a B&W test to see how it will end up looking on Kindle devices, but I think I've got enough contrast for it to work. Progress is an amazing thing to see.
Nice work!
Thank you.
Great looking scene .
Thank you! I'm looking forward to completing it and getting the book updated.