Stop And Stare Contest Entry

This is my entry for the Stop and Stare contest hosted by Skins. Hope you like it!
Also, to view full size, just click on the picture =]
Also also, this photo isn't mine. I got it off the internet. So all rights goes to them!

Wow. This is impressive. How did you do it?

Whoa! Wish I could do that... How did you? don't worry though, "my secret" is a completely valid answer

Heya,

Sorry if this seems rude, but make sure to give credit if the photo isn't yours, even if you found it on a random website. I entered a cover contest and got banned for two weeks because I didn't give credit to the original owner.

Good luck in the contest!

@ Everyone, I used picnick, its a really cool site. And @ jasminebells, thats totally not rude! I meant to do that but completely forgot. Thanks for the reminder!=]

Overall there's just something I really like about this that I can't seem to quite put my finger on. It looks very raw. I haven't checked out Skin's contest, but I'm assuming it's for a novel cover. ^-^ This looks very cool, Ty. Despite this though, I feel like there could be some room for improvement.

I'm a big fan of the shocking effect black and white can tend to give off. Maybe that's where my whole feel for this being so raw stems from. But I think that with the exact picture you used here, with the whole cover just being an eye, I think that a splash of color mightv'e been nice. Or even if you would have merged two pictures together so that one is overlapping the other. This could have been more dynamic looking, like this huge eye you have here is spying at something.

Another thing you could have done was make this sort of like colorsplash photography, and have something show a spot of color amidst this flurry of black and white. Whether it's the iris or something else, it mightv'e been nice to see that deeper look to this. Even if color in the skin tone was smudged periodically throughout the image it might have been something cooler to look at for a cover.

The type of font you used here to pair with the cover image was what I found cool. But despite this, I don't this that the title stands out boldly enough. The writer's name is fine, and the placing is great and everything, I just don't think the title itself shows as much justice for the cover. Maybe bolden it up a bit or enlarge it? If I were you I'd probably experiment with making the space behind the words look a little rough and contrast more with the background. Maybe make it look a little distressed of something. It's difficult to explain. It all depends on what you're using to put together this cover. There's so many different programs that do so many different things.

Anyway, nice job I think. There could be a little be more done to this though so that it holds more of a punch when looked at. Good luck with the contest! Looks like fun. Keep up the great work.

-Smylin'

I really loved your choice of the photo and your editing is fantastic!! However, you might change the font color ( apart from white, grey & black - the background colors ) and use light colors, such as light pink, yellow or blue or even red, just to show some emphasis on the author and the name of the book. Other than that, the cover is really great. Good luck with the contest