YWLJ Cover. :)

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So yeah. That's basically it. Any ideas or help

Here to Bamboozle you ^_^

so, uh, I've seen a few of these, and this one seems pretty good I love the picture (blowing paint with a straw?) because it's colourful and crazy, and doesn't make us seem boring, which is great.

Nitpicks:

1) Where it says 'edited by Nathaniel Caldwell' did you copy it from Jenthura? Because I haven't seen it on other entries...

2) Sometimes (and this really annoys me) when you use textish stuff in a box, you can see the outline of it, here is an example, if you look carefully, all around the title it's sort of fuzzy/staticy with little black dots. Meh, I'm not really an artist, so I wouldn't know how to fix it

3) This is just a little thing but all the paint seems to curve to the right, except the purple part at the top, which goes the other way, for me, it's really distracting.

4) I think you should make the title a bit bigger and bolder, so it stands out more, because the picture is quite a big thing, I look at that first, and not the actual title, maybe even use a different font, (like broadway, or balloonist) but the one you've got looks pretty good.

All in all, I really liked it, It would definetly catch my eye in a shop XD

good luck in the contest,

~Tinkem

Jas, this is lovely! Really, it caught my eye right away and kept it. The paint splatters are beautiful--the shapes and colors are really fun to look at. You did a nice job of having colors that were different enough to look festive, but similar enough to not get muddy. Really nice. Are they all one picture, or did you do a bunch of different paint splatters and put them together on the computer?

I also really like the font that you used for the lettering (sorry, tinkem). I'm partial to serif fonts, and this one looks sophisticated and playful at the same time. I do have to wonder, though: is "Edited by Nathan Caldwell" more bold than "The Young Writers Literary Journal"? Maybe its's just an optical illusion, but it looks bolder to me.

I also think the alignment of the words is a little weird. It just looks a bit haphazard. The text on the top is center-justified, but the text on the bottom isn't, and that looks odd to me. I think you really just need to play around with it a little more. Maybe make the "The" smaller and off to the left? Maybe do the same with "Edited by", making it smaller than "Nathan Caldwell"? Play with it. Right now it looks a bit like you put a lot of effort into making the paint splatters beautiful and then just slapped text on top of them in any which way.

Oh, and one last thing. I really love that pink/purple splatter that's going up to the top of the page, but I would love to see the top of it rather than have it get cut off. It feels incomplete.

All in all, nice job. This is probably my favorite entry I've seen yet. Good luck!

a

Whoah! Hey there, Jasmine! Here to slap the panda stamp on you!

So I want to start off by saying that I love this cover a lot! It has a wonderful impact and the power of the vibrant colors against the white really says “look at me!” which is awesome and very attention grabbing. It also has a very different appeal to it than the other two covers but it is still very eye catching.
Really, I just have two little nitpicks and they aren’t even very massive.

The first is that their feels to be too much white space off to the right hand side of the cover. It’s a bit distracting and my eye gets dragged over to it easily. The other is the font. I know Azila said she liked it but it just doesn’t seem to fit right with the paint splats which are all crazy while the text here is very straight and focused. Even altering the alignment of the font would make a huge difference I think though a different font may have more power still.

Otherwise I adore this and I wish you the best of luck with the contest!

Jasmine!

Okay, so this is a very colorful picture and I love the blend of colors, plus the plant-like structure there is. Plus, the fonts that you used are very stylish, which definitely helps. The only thing is (and maybe I just noticed this because I suck at art, lol) was I looked at it and wondered, "How does this have anything to do with the literary journal?" Well... maybe it's just because it is extra artsy? I think I might be missing something here and taking my frustration on abstract art. XD

Anyway, it's beautiful! It's just, there are so many abstract covers out there already that I wonder if you would be better doing something less abstract. Just my thoughts!

Good luck!

Oooh ah! I've looked at quite a few of these now and I think this one is my second favourite, though it's quite a close call. Very cool choice of fonts! I would like the words 'The Young Writers Literary Journal' to go all the way across the page though or at least be bigger and centred. They get lost a little when they're just snagged into that one corner and that empty white space to the right is really distracting. So it would be killing two birds with one stone so to speak ^^

I'm loving the spray of colours and they look very effective against the white, though the white itself I'm a little less sure of but I think that's just because the journal has been blue both the previous times. But anyway! I really like it. Part of me does sort of wish the paint came in from the side and went down instead of up though since paint doesn't go up, though of course it does, but it look more natural when it's going down.

But that's only a silly little part of me that you probbaly shouldn't listen to!

Well best of luck in the contest, I don't envy the people who are going to be judging this.

Heather xxx

Well, very nice I must say, I like it! You've really set the bar for me as I was thinking of entering! So good luck and may the best artist win huh?

This is excellent. It's colorful, but not in the try-to-be-bright-and-pretty-but-fail type way. This is vivid because the layout is thought-out, the colors are carefully chosen, etc., etc. Honestly, I could go on and on about what I love about this, but I'll just focus on the more noticeable aspects of your submission.

The colors stand out brilliantly against the white. I absolutely love the color choice, both of said background and of the design: They contrast perfectly. I do, however, believe that the bit of yellow on the right looks a bit awkward next to the darker colors dominating the rest of the image - I would suggest darkening it somewhat. Also, that big red/purple/black limb (It does look like a tree, yes? Something from Dr. Seuss?) should end further away from the top, because its length is odd among its, shall we say, brethren.

The font could be better. The black color holds too much of a disparity in comparison with the rest of the submission, and the placement seems a bit sporadic as well. This, and the fact that the "Edited by Nathaniel Caldwell" is darker than the "Young Writers Literary Journal" (Shouldn't you say "Young Writers Society?") causes me to believe that the writing really was not at all well thought out.

All in all, though, this is perhaps the best I've seen yet. Good luck!

-Kafka

Hey Jas!

I've seen a few covers, and I must say I really love this. Wonderful job indeed! Classy!
Instead of me gushing, a couple of quick pointers on helping you improve this already gorgeous submission.

I don't like that the 'Edited By' is bolder than the actual title. Put more emphasis on the title, because that's what will catch a buyers' attention.
Love the font you've used.
Title: Well, I do think you should make it larger, but making it 'bold' will probably ruin the effect of the font. That's your call, though. But I'm against centering the title, as I don't think it will work well when imposed on top of the splattery lines.
Like Zila, I like the white space. Is it possible for you to add a wee bit more of splatterlines on the bottom-righ white space, just below the splattery divider? And maybe reduce the amount of lines that reach up to the top nearing the title? That way you'll have more space to make the title larger.

Good luck dear!
(Also; did you make the splattery lines on paper?)

~Lava

This is amazing, Jas! I actually think it stands a better chance at winning than mine do. XD
My only nitpicks would be about the font, and Azi has already mentioned it: the YWS part needs to be bigger and bolder than the 'Edited by Nate' part.

Oh, also, shouldn't it be "The Young Writers' Society Literary Journal"?

Good luck!

Dude! I love this! I actually saw lily's comment before (that's where I got my current avvie, which may not be current all that much longer, acshully) but for some reason I didn't really pay attention to the photo--not sure why.

MY BAD. This is awesome, seriously.

.....aaannnd I really don't have any critiques. XD So, um..... yay! (O.o)

Wow, the response to this was waaaay more than I'd ever expect. Thanks guys!

Locked for plagiarism. The image is a popular one found throughout the internet.