Cosmic Creations Edition 9 [Book Cover] | Alien Art Hive Contest

Hello Alien Art Hive Community members. I'm happy to participate and bring my version of "a book cover". My approach to this Contest #9 was that of a full spread front, binder, and back cover for my short fiction story titled "By The Light Of The Moon" not yet published.

This month's theme: Book Cover

• Create art related to the above theme
• Make a post about it in Alien Art Hive
• Include the words Cosmic Creations in the title so they are easy to identify in the feed
• Please try to include some process images and discuss the techniques used in your creation
• Drop a link to your entry post the comments below
• The deadline is December 4 Midnight EST
• To participate, visit the contest post: Cosmic Creations Edition #9 is LIVE: Theme: Book Cover

I created this book cover for my future short story, By The Light Of The Moon. The year is 2199. My protagonist will be male. His ability to comprehend and solve complex scientific problems bewilders as well as irritates him as his family is merely one of numerous Commoners, a class of citizens residing in a distinct sector on his planet. Left with little resources, little room for advancement, only his will to survive in that harsh environment drives him to set right the factors inhibiting him and his only love from a union agreed to, then mysteriously broken.

Dark, suspenseful and gripping! Immerse yourself into a world of mystery, intrigue, and horror as one man sets out to rescue his soulmate. Will the mysterious light that beckons off planet lead him to his future or his past?

Below are the procedures I used to create the book cover for my story.

As a book lover, my inspiration for this project bloomed after viewing various covers in my book collection. I utilized a traditional three-part book cover template with the assistance of Canva, my design program. This site offers pro features for its upgraded members.

With the help of my pure fractals, a free-sourced mysterious red-ringed landscape image, and a stable diffusion image from StarryAI, I was able to produce this cover in an exotic and suspenseful photo. I share with you how I accomplished this 3-part imaging.

Front Cover

The front cover is by far the most important feature of a book cover. It must be visually appealing or arouse a sense of "must read" by the images portrayed. I desired a mysterious approach to my image. First created the Light of the Moon project in Canva with the following images. I downloaded the project, then re-loaded it for use in the right hand-side part of the cover. Adding text in white for readability created the title of my short story.

Spine Cover

For the spine, I chose a simple approach so that it wouldn't be crowded and unable to read. The inspiration for this part was a white brush stroke that would complement the female's outfit. I also wanted the image to be transparent enough to highlight the words on the spine. Once I created the image, I grouped the elements, then flipped the image vertical to fit in the space where the spine of the book would be located.

For the wording, I chose a red color to match the color in the front and back cover.

Back Cover

The final piece of the cover. The back I feel is as important part of a book cover; as important as the front. Whenever I grab a book, I flip it over to read the summary.

The back cover should possess the following elements: a summary of the book, any critical analyses and recommendation, author's name, and name of the book. Since I didn't cover a book already published, my text includes a summary of my to-be-written short story.

I didn't want to deviate from the front image, so used a portion of it as I've seen on numerous other book covers. Enlarging the alien landscape image with the red circles, I was able to retrieve a portion of the image. Perfect for my needs. Other images I used were merely for decoration of the back.

Below is the completed book cover.

Thanks for your visit. I hope you liked my mixed media art project entry for Alien Art Hive's Contest No. 9 - Book Cover.