Where do you get your art for book covers?

NiQuinn

ฅ/ᐠ ̳ .ᆺ. ̳ ᐟ\ฅ ~~ᴺʸᵃᵃ
Joined
Jan 15, 2019
Messages
395
Points
133
When I'm talking about art, I mean free stuff. Not owned by someone else. Open-sourced art. Stuff you can use as a background to your book covers? Does anybody here have sources for that?
 

UnknownSaint171

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 1, 2019
Messages
83
Points
58
Just use google but then again I guess it depends on your story but a lot use google/pininterest
 

NiQuinn

ฅ/ᐠ ̳ .ᆺ. ̳ ᐟ\ฅ ~~ᴺʸᵃᵃ
Joined
Jan 15, 2019
Messages
395
Points
133
Just use google but then again I guess it depends on your story but a lot use google/pininterest
I do use both but I'm not about to just grab interesting pics I see. A lot of those pics have been grabbed from somewhere else (talking about Pinterest here) and I don't think it's just right to use artwork or photograph that isn't mine. True you can ask permission but sometimes that takes too long.
 

tak

Active member
Joined
Feb 4, 2019
Messages
130
Points
43
Dress up / create your avatar + photoshop gradient.
Mine is a comedy so it works lol

Edit: there's some apps for creating bookcover but i don't remember the name will update later
 
Last edited:

yansusustories

Matchmaker of Handsome Men
Joined
Mar 13, 2019
Messages
622
Points
133
If you want free stuff under creative commons, then I guess Unsplash or something similar would be the place to go. Personally, I buy a commercial license for my covers though.
 

ChronicleCrawler

♠ItCrawls♠
Joined
Mar 30, 2019
Messages
325
Points
103
Photoshop some images. Just be sure that the images you are under creative commons. Or you could simply message or email the owner to ask for permission if you could use their work. Your choice XD. I hope this helps even a little. :blob_sir:
 

jinxs2011

Spud Cannon
Joined
Dec 23, 2018
Messages
150
Points
83
Cover art? What do you mean, cover art? I don't have any cover art...
:blob_teary::blob_teary::blob_teary:
 

tak

Active member
Joined
Feb 4, 2019
Messages
130
Points
43
Found it! Adobe Spark, it's free!
Edit: reviewer said canva is better. Spark add watermarks 2 days ago
Screenshot_20190503-154539_1.jpg
 

Ai-chan

Queen of Yuri Devourer of Traps
Joined
Dec 23, 2018
Messages
1,413
Points
153
Made them myself using canva.

As for the actual graphics, some were Ai-chan's own art. Some others are taken from googling. Ai-chan try to use only images that are either free, free for non-commercial use, its purpose of usage has expired or has been shared so many times the artist likely wouldn't care what it's used for anymore.
 

TLCsDestiny

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 2, 2019
Messages
249
Points
83
Some i did myself (like Duplicate!! And Compelled substitution) Some i photoshoped...i like to state if I had just in case.
 

ars

trash bin
Joined
Jan 29, 2019
Messages
105
Points
83
Dang! You guys are so responsible :sweating_profusely: (shamelessly trawls pinterest for stuff all the time)

I guess if you want to make sure you own the rights to your cover, it's important to find stuff you can license, huh... I'll drop a few links to places that have free-for-use image resources and such then~

  • Deviantart has a Resources and Stock Images section. Good for finding all sorts of stuff including characters, environments, effects, etc.
  • Pexels is my new favorite place to find 100% free for commercial use photos. They're all high quality/artistic/polished photos, unlike the normal stock photo sites. Excellent place to find objects and environments (and photos of real people if you're into that I guess).
  • Niche game-making websites tend to gather a LOT of free-for-use art resources and artists who create art packs that anyone can use. For example, Lemmasoft (the forum for the Ren'Py Visual Novel Engine) has a forum section dedicated to sharing Creative Commons artwork. You can find visual novel-quality character and environment art here.
  • If you want to typeset your novel title/author credit, you can grab amazing and free-for-use fonts from FontSquirrel and Dafont. Fontsquirrel is great if you're going commercial because all of their pages directly display the font's license.
 
D

Deleted member 5560

Guest
If you want to typeset your novel title/author credit, you can grab amazing and free-for-use fonts from FontSquirrel and Dafont.
I'll add a note here, because I too used to be a huge fan of Dafont - but as it turns out, many of the fonts uploaded onto it and marked as "free for personal/commercial use" are actually stolen, and many of the fonts that are allegedly free are actually paid for, licensed fonts. While Dafont is a great database for fonts, be aware that many of the fonts are actually stolen. Cross reference the names of the fonts with google searches to see where they are hosted elsewhere, and check who the original creator is and if they really are free to use. FontSquirrel AFAIK is more legit but I would still be cautious in cross referencing any fonts you see on there just to be safe.

Lost Type is pretty good and FontBundles is another site I use, and from my research they're more reliable and safe, but I also almost always research every font I download these days. You can also make your own fonts using your handwriting if you have a tablet or a scanner with Calligraphr, but the free version has a limited amount of characters you can make with your font. It's fine if you're just looking to do book titles and don't need to use the full range of punctuation (: and ' and sometimes , ! ? is basically the most you need for titles). I used Calligraphr and a program called FontForge to make a full font set of my own.
 
  • Like
Reactions: ars

ars

trash bin
Joined
Jan 29, 2019
Messages
105
Points
83
I'll add a note here, because I too used to be a huge fan of Dafont - but as it turns out, many of the fonts uploaded onto it and marked as "free for personal/commercial use" are actually stolen, and many of the fonts that are allegedly free are actually paid for, licensed fonts. While Dafont is a great database for fonts, be aware that many of the fonts are actually stolen. Cross reference the names of the fonts with google searches to see where they are hosted elsewhere, and check who the original creator is and if they really are free to use. FontSquirrel AFAIK is more legit but I would still be cautious in cross referencing any fonts you see on there just to be safe.

Lost Type is pretty good and FontBundles is another site I use, and from my research they're more reliable and safe, but I also almost always research every font I download these days. You can also make your own fonts using your handwriting if you have a tablet or a scanner with Calligraphr, but the free version has a limited amount of characters you can make with your font. It's fine if you're just looking to do book titles and don't need to use the full range of punctuation (: and ' and sometimes , ! ? is basically the most you need for titles). I used Calligraphr and a program called FontForge to make a full font set of my own.
oh dang!!!! I didn't know that...
.... :sweating_profusely::sweating_profusely: so scary... just thinking about accidental licensing issues...
gonna bookmark those sites!! And making your own font is such a pro move :blobrofl:
 

UnknownSaint171

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 1, 2019
Messages
83
Points
58
I do use both but I'm not about to just grab interesting pics I see. A lot of those pics have been grabbed from somewhere else (talking about Pinterest here) and I don't think it's just right to use artwork or photograph that isn't mine. True you can ask permission but sometimes that takes too long.
Yeah me either but I meant as a temporary alternative, always see Authors on WN eventually replace. A good 10-15$ for a Fiverr artist to make a cover.
 

taesijr123

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 3, 2019
Messages
46
Points
58
I used a meme pic as a cover.
Somehow it works o.o
[Note: it get shared alot anyways.]
 

XianPiete

Bad Fiction Author
Joined
Apr 16, 2019
Messages
154
Points
83
When I'm talking about art, I mean free stuff. Not owned by someone else. Open-sourced art. Stuff you can use as a background to your book covers? Does anybody here have sources for that?

My embarrassing cover was made by me using MS Paint and a piece of clip art. I really need to make a real cover for my book. The worst part is that I even went to college for art. I can draw, I can paint, I just keep writing and never think to go back and address the cover.
 

Phantomheart

Cliff Hanger Player
Joined
Feb 13, 2019
Messages
260
Points
103
When I'm talking about art, I mean free stuff. Not owned by someone else. Open-sourced art. Stuff you can use as a background to your book covers? Does anybody here have sources for that?
I usually make my own art, but back when I used to make fanfiction covers I would just go outside and take pictures of flowers or of my neighborhood parks, just general area that fit the theme of my novels and then would use free photoshop apps or websites, (which you can look up online, some are even google extensions, like Samurai Paint) to add a title with. You'd be surprised with how pretty somethings can turn out. You can always also wait for an artist to open up for requests, you may just get a sketch instead of a full piece, but even so, they can be very pretty! I usually avoid "copyright free" image sites since most of the time you need a paid membership to get actually free images, and google isn't reliable with all of us sinners on the internet (me included lol). The guilt still pains me to this day :sweating_profusely:
 
Top