New Covers: Silent Harmony and Desert Sapphire

[annarti.livejournal.com]

WOO my yrae feathers get used for something <3 So SH:Rust gets a goose feather for Yamin, a probably-magpie-but-potentially-crow feather for Nimay and Yan's yrae feather, because he's the arsehole who started this whole thing.



THOSE BITS OF CASUARINA HAD BETTER STAY GREEN FOR A LONG TIME. My fingers CANE after segmenting all those bits. It was always a fun passtime of many a camping trip to the Flinders Ranges and beyond to pull apart the little segments in sheoak... leaf/needle/things when you were bored. Doing that for three hours (I had a movie and a half to watch while doing it) has seriously caned my fingers. But at least now I have a Kazinian thing. It's no pretty soft sand but whatever. Also, Nimay's yrae feather this time because of the three yrae-feather-holders, Kazin is pretty much her domain.



Back to sand again. Using Yamin's feather because I feel like this is going to be Her Book. It just feels that way.



First use of the beach sand for the final book which has nothing much planned yet but damnit I wanted to make the cover.



And the four lined up together, cos I can <3



The struggle here was to make it not look like it was part of Silent Harmony because it's using effectively the same things: sand, parchment, feather and yrae feather. So I've stuck it on the right instead and... really that's it. Obviously a different bird feather but I'm not sure that's enough to distinguish it. Eh. It's a crappy old story anyway. Also I really don't like that feather. I had to Photoshop the hell out of it to get it that blue. But I hate the original feather I used, too, scrappy little unnatural looking thing. I'm going to continue looking for something better but honestly I can't see anything coming up. Pretty blue feathers don't seem to be a thing that exists for sale.



Also Vermilion take two, because it needed it. Hopefully this is good now.

Dragon Boy is the only one left, because I'm STILL waiting for autumn. The birch side of things is fine, the odd twig has yellow leaves all over that I can grab whenever, but the sodding maple >< Midway through autumn and the garden's still looking like this:



The big Japanese maple in the middle-right-ish is the one I'm really waiting for, but there's the little one bottom left as well and another back behind the big dark green thing on the right (which is a rhododendron, just btw) and NONE OF THEM ARE AUTUMN. Not the vaguest hint of yellow or red on any of them. Once the damn things finally go, then I'll be able to get Dragon Boy done, yay! Might make something up for the shorts, too, just because that's in the line-up on bloogum.

Comments

[drazzi.livejournal.com]

I love the book covers <3 So prof - and I love your little so-Narti descriptions on the back that are less professional XD

[annarti.livejournal.com]

Blurbs, man. Blurbs are hard. So stuff it :D When I submit for publishing on any of these things they'll get something more professional but for now? Stuff it XD

[little-lynnet.livejournal.com]

OMG! I LOVE THESE COVERS. They're SO pretty, 'narti!

<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3

[annarti.livejournal.com]

So much an improvement from the old fuzzy feathers and over-saturated Photoshopping on the sand XD

One more to goooo~

[silvanime.livejournal.com]

I'm glad the casuarina needles worked out so well. They do look good.

The carved feathers look a little lost on some of the covers--more on Rust than the others. Overall, I think you're doing a great job, though.

What a lovely garden!

[annarti.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the suggestion on those, they're the perfect choice :D Hopefully they'll stay green until the next time I make a Kazinian cover X3

If I find a smaller black feather I reckon take the photos again. I didn't realise how oversized the feathers I had were until I set them next to the yrae feathers. I've got some seagull feathers, which are much smaller, but I've been ignoring any smaller magpie/crow feathers I've come across because the bigger ones are just more dramatic. BUT they do overwhelm the yrae feathers a bit, yes.

Lovely garden which is STILL GREEN.

[silvanime.livejournal.com]

Glad I was able to help :)

Trying again with smaller feathers sounds like a good idea. If it doesn't work out, you'll still have these bigger ones. I'm sure you'll likely come across a suitable candidate for a smaller black feather but I shall keep my eyes open around here anyway.

Has it been cold out your way? I'm told that the cold and frosts are what contribute to bright autumn colours (which is why Canberra rocks Autumn).

[annarti.livejournal.com]

We had the shortest, crappiest summer ever so that autumn weather pretty much started in early February, and the Hills tend to be 4-ish degrees cooler than the city anyway, but I'm certainly not about to go comparing us to Canberra XD Normally SOMETHING has happened by now. Literally the only thing that's gone in our garden is the crabapple and a few twigs of the birches. Oak, aspens, willow, ginkgo, the nectarine tree, and of course the sodding Japanese maples, all still green all over. It'll happen some day! They can't stay green all through winter.

In the meantime I'll just keep my eyes on the ground for a smaller crow/magpie feather X3

[silvanime.livejournal.com]

Weirdly, although the pin oaks, ash, liquidambar and all manner of others are looking fabulous, our Japanese maple has been mostly green so far, too.