Not Every Cover Is Art, Kids

 I just wanted a chance to post some of the unacceptable images I've created for covers over the past two months.  Many suck, indeed, over half, but usually in a boring way.  Those I just ignore and forget about.  But every once in a while (let's say, 20% of the time*), the image is so awful or ghastly, that I save it, so that I never forget.

Take this, for example:

I've started small.  There's not REALLY anything horrible or wrong here.  Except for the shadows.  And, uh, what is that on the right?  That's a specter, isn't it?  And the little girl doesn't seem right--like, is there something covering her face?  Hmmm.

For my story "Troubled Child," I wanted a baby reaching for an old woman in a wheelchair.  It absolutely refused to do that, no matter how nicely I asked, so I told it to just create me a baby reaching out.  Simple, right?

The baby looks great, really . . . except for . . . oh my Lord.

This is actually a good image for a cover...

...except I told it I wanted an old witch reaching out her hand in a forest.

This was a cover I tried to do for my story "The Scottish Scene" (which still needs a new cover).  I asked for a witch standing in a high school hallway.  And it gave me . . . well, yeah.

I quite like this one, actually.  I told it I wanted an image of the Grim Reaper holding a baby (oh crap, it did so many terrible ones, with a baby Grim Reaper or a Reaper holding a mutant baby with two heads.  Do I still have those?  Hmm.  Remind me to look for them and post another one of these in a month or so), and finally, I just said, "Okay, forget that, give me the Grim Reaper standing in a mirror."  I thought it would give me Death reflected before a dude in a bathroom or something, but it created a side-view mirror instead.  And that didn't fit for my story, as cool as it turned out.

This one wasn't even A.I., but just met trying to create two hands reaching for a piece of pizza (for my story "Pizza Triangle," which I would've released this month, if I weren't so lazy*).

No, it's not very good, but you don't know these things until you try them.

I love this one.  No notes.

This one is endlessly upsetting to me.  Man.

I've really been struggling to get an image (for my tale "Roll with the Changes") of a young woman raking leaves.

This isn't bad, except . . . is that a giant spatula?

It really struggles with the concept of rakes.

Is that a hose, or what?

Maybe she's just gluing leaves to the end of a stick or something.

My dog, that's a lot of leaves.

I don't hate it . . . except the mini-rake seems to be growing OUT of her hand.

This one is almost alright, except for . . . those aren't rakes--what are they??

I just included this one as a jump-scare.

This one is closer . . . except for the rake and something is off with
her face (couldn't she just be looking a tiny bit more away
from the camera, so you couldn't see her CG-deformity?).

The rake is fine--but she's wearing jeans and a skirt . . . and her face is even more WRONG than the last.

This one is as close to perfect as I've gotten.  The girl is both pretty
and yet concerned, she has the correct number of fingers . . .
but what is she doing with her hands?  I really should just let this one slide.

What the hell, man?

I still haven't found an image for "Roll with the Changes" that satisfies me.  But it costs me nothing to keep on trying.

You, however, have already paid too high a price.

*Which is too much, but this technology is still very new, and still amazing for what it is.

**I keep telling myself, "Tonight I'm going to sit down and record that story."  And then I don't.  Rinse and repeat.