DIY COVERS (TUTORIAL)

[AWhoopsieDaisy]

Medibang paint is a free application for PC, Mac, ios and Android. Download it, its legit I used it for years before eventually outgrowing its technical limitations. The video I made uses a mobile port, I'll make the desktop port tutorial just as soon as I get my computer fixed.

The little gray circle shows where I'm clicking so just try to follow along. There's no shame in having to pause or rewatch a section as I admittedly went kinda fast and probably forgot to point out a tool at least once.

If you have any questions or can't find a button, leave a comment here on the forum and I'll walk you through with a screenshot.

I think that covers the basics. Have fun!
Here's how the sample cover I made in the tutorial turned out. (Definitely not my best work but the video is there to teach tools not make a masterpiece.)

 

[AWhoopsieDaisy]

Forgive the aggressively American accent and the police sirens in the background. My college apartment isnt exactly in the nicest of neighborhoods.

 

[AWhoopsieDaisy]

These are LitEs rules for covers in terms of content for convenient reference.

 

[Northstar4695]

I’m actually not excited for covers. It’s a new thing to have to do/worry about if you want readers attention that has nothing to do with writing. I have no talent or interest in design, but now it’s something I’ll have to engage with or else be at a disadvantage. Just my two cents.

 

[AWhoopsieDaisy]

I’m actually not excited for covers. It’s a new thing to have to do/worry about if you want readers attention that has nothing to do with writing. I have no talent or interest in design, but now it’s something I’ll have to engage with or else be at a disadvantage. Just my two cents.

I don't make the rules or updates I just live here and happen to be an artist aswell as a writer.

If you need help with covers or have any queries about the tutorial let me know. Otherwise this isn't the right thread to be putting two cents.

 

[Richard_Hunter]

Do we know the best cover size to submit?

 

[AWhoopsieDaisy]

Do we know the best cover size to submit?

750 pixels wide
1000 pixels tall
72 dpi
JPGs will most easily fit within the file size limit

 

[Jackie.Hikaru]

Cool! Out of curiosity, what app you grow into when you grew out of this one?

 

[Winter_Fare]

Thanks so much for the tip, I'm having a play with it now, looks like fun x

 

[Winter_Fare]

Is there a fill function for colouring?

 

[AWhoopsieDaisy]

Cool! Out of curiosity, what app you grow into when you grew out of this one?

I moved on to a pirate copy of Paint Tool Sai 2. Which looking back feels incredibly dated. It's been at least 5 years since then. And I actually did something really weird, you see my very first art software was Autodesk Sketchbook back when it was a paid software that had a free version with severely limited features. So I ended up growing out of Autodesk and then when Autodesk became a complete free software I grew back into it and it made its way into my rotation of art applications until pretty recently.



I'm definitely am outlier in terms of the sheer number of softwares I've used over the years. If your looking to get into digital art in the year 2020 I have a list of recommendations:



Multiplatform: (All of these have both mobile and desktop ports, ios, android, PC and Mac)



Autodesk Sketchbook (Free!) - Really good for people who have never touched an art software in their lives and is surprisingly powerful for something so begginner friendly. The icons and functionality all have real life physical analogs. The only downside is that people who are already used to a more complex photoshop style program find the nuts and bolts of Autodesk to be counter intuitive.



Medibang Paint (Free!) - It's a great introduction to digital art for people who don't want to feel like their computer is pretending to be paper. It has the more complex layout and navigation you'd associate with photoshop. It also has the best lineart extraction of any free software.



CLIP STUDIO PAINT (EXPENSIVE)- this one is a bit of a cheat. You see the ios and Android ports are only available as part of a PC or Mac license. It has an open resource library of brushes and textures. It has linear extraction for people who just want to digitally color traditional line work. Also and this is a HUGE deal: THE BUCKET TOOL IS ACTUALLY USABLE!



CLIP STUDIO PAINT is what I use now for just about everything, the PC port that is. I've personally never tried the ios or android ports.



PC/MAC ONLY:



Krita (Free! But can be bought on windows for 10usd if you feel like supporting thr developers.)- It's a bit of a hefty software to run so people with less than 8 gigs of ram will struggle. Other than that it's an excellent open source ad free alternative to Medibang. It has more textures and brush options than Medibang. It's layout is almost exactly like an older version of photoshop.



IOS only:

Now I don't use apple products anymore. Nothing against them I just didn't feel the need to replace my I pad when it finally kicked the bucket.



Tayasui Sketches Pro (Cheap but not free)- It's one of the few paper simulation style art softwares that actually succeeds in its goal. This is best seen in its watercolor tools, which have a button to dry the paint (it's WILD to me that an ios app marketing itself as meditation art is somehow STILL the best watercolor simulation I've ever seen on any platform.)



Alright. I just Googled it, apparently there's android and Mac ports now! So that's neat! I'm not changing this post to reflect this, you get to go on this magical art journey with me in simulated real time.



anyway that's my recommendations!

 

[AWhoopsieDaisy]

Is there a fill function for colouring?

There is! However it is a massive pain in the ass. Heres how you do it!


Grab your bucket tool

Then go to expand. This step is important because without it you get a little white line between your colors and your lines.

Usually 3 pixels is enough bleed to prevent the white border. If it keeps giving you issues don't be scared to bump this setting up to 5


Then before you try to fill anything go to layers

And make sure you're not putting color on or above the layer that has your line work.

 

[Winter_Fare]

Is there a fill function for colouring

There is! However it is a massive pain in the ass. Heres how you do it!

View attachment 2186170
Grab your bucket tool
View attachment 2186172
Then go to expand. This step is important because without it you get a little white line between your colors and your lines.
View attachment 2186174
Usually 3 pixels is enough bleed to prevent the white border. If it keeps giving you issues don't be scared to bump this setting up to 5

View attachment 2186176
Then before you try to fill anything go to layers
View attachment 2186178
And make sure you're not putting color on or above the layer that has your line work.

Thank you x

 

[Winter_Fare]

My first attempt!

 

[AWhoopsieDaisy]

View attachment 2186192
My first attempt!

That's really good! My only word of advice is to put titles in all caps and make the text white for legibility reasons. Aesthetically this is awesome!

 

[Winter_Fare]

That's really good! My only word of advice is to put titles in all caps and make the text white for legibility reasons. Aesthetically this is awesome!

Thank you for this, it's a massive help x

 

[AWhoopsieDaisy]

VERY IMPORTANT!

here is a website that's got nothing but public domain/royalty free images

https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

 

[RejectReality]

Photoshop Elements is my go-to ever since I had a windfall years ago when I was poor and splurged on it. It doesn't have all the features of the big suite, but it's still a straight up purchase instead of the subscription model. It's so much more intuitive than any of the free programs I messed with over the years.

 

[AlinaX]

750 pixels wide
1000 pixels tall
72 dpi
JPGs will most easily fit within the file size limit

It said at some point the image should be 2:3, but then it asked me to crop and said the best size was 768x1200, and a revised cover that size submitted without any cropping necessary.

 

[Jackie.Hikaru]

anyway that's my recommendations!

Wow thanks for the rundown
I've used Krita in the past, but found it too sluggish on my laptop to use.

 

[AWhoopsieDaisy]

Here's a real cover with me actually trying

 

[Rustyoznail]

Nice. Very nice.