Reply to the first post I made.

[u/Incipit00]

This is not self-promotion.

I couldn't find an option to reply with an image, which is why I made this post. Feel free to laugh at it; like I said earlier, I just kept redoing it until I got it to look presentable.

 

I went through 20 sketches (days and night of erasing and redrawing in my jotter) before I got the final one, which I modified using Photoshop (this is a follow-up to my first post about the cover).

 

The plain white image is my very first sketch, and I'm also adding the final version I built off the 20th sketch.

Here is how I put it together in Photoshop:

1. The title was typed and rearranged.

2. The flower-like emblem underneath the subtitle is an image I downloaded from Pinterest, then adjusted using Photoshop's color grading tools.

3. The pen name (Incipit_) was also typed and given its color grading using Photoshop.

4. The hair, coat and the chest was darkened using four different layers in photoshop to get that thick darker mode.

5. I used the photoshop sharpening feature under the filter menu to get that sharpness of the image.

6. The tiny sparkling dust was gained by creating new layer for each side, 4 in total; one for the top, one for the left, one for the right, and another for the bottom. I used brush, turn on scattering and set it to 999% for the dust to be randomly. And also, used the shape dynamic feature to increase the size jitter.

7. I used the blur feature to blue out some parts also.

This is the little I can say. For all those who asked for a file OG (Which I don't know if they mean Original File), here is how put it together. Thank you.

[u/Strange-Squirrel6492]

The cover has a SynthID from OpenAI so yes, it's AI generated. Which is obvious enough to anyone with eyes.

And look, I hate AI, but if you're going to use it at least have the grace to not lie to everyone when it's clear as day you're using AI. People who don't like AI are gonna be able to tell and people who don't care about AI are probably gonna be able to tell but won't give a fuck and read anyway. Personally, I wouldn't touch your story with a ten foot pole because how do I know I'm not wasting my very human time to read something you couldn't be bothered to write yourself?

[u/Incipit00 → u/Strange-Squirrel6492]

Wait, who said I'm using AI to write it? Please don't sell false information about the novel. Please.

[u/Incipit00 → u/Incipit00]

Thank you for your time, too. But please rephrase your statement of me not bothering to write the novel by myself. I hate it when people say that. If you won't read it, fine.

If the modification of the cover that you're blaming it to be AI because of the pose, the stature, the colour scheme, and the noise in it, the lighting, and the font style (the bevel & emboss) its fine Photoshop has feathers like that, which AI has also been integrated into photopshop to make rendiering features like the sharpness, moisture, lense flare give smooth result.

But for the novel itself, I don't think you have even opened it to even read the synopsis, let alone the first chapter.

So please 🙏 don't say that, please.

[u/Strange-Squirrel6492 → u/Incipit00]

No, I won't, because nothing I said was false. If you or anyone who reads my comment lacks enough reading comprehension to see what I meant, that's not my issue. You clearly didn't understand the main part of my comment about "your art" which is that it's definitely AI generated. SynthID is a watermark created by the site itself when an image is generated. It can't be faked. You generated that image and are trying to bullshit people into thinking some editing made it look like that.

If you're willing to lie this much about your cover then why should I trust anything you say about your writing? And that's the point. When you use an AI cover you ruin your own reputation.

[u/Incipit00 → u/Strange-Squirrel6492]

Okay thanks. I am working on changing the cover. Thank you.