Author Topic: Official Gathering Storm Cover Impressions  (Read 12442 times)

Shard

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Re: Official Gathering Storm Cover Impressions
« Reply #30 on: May 16, 2009, 04:39:43 AM »
The simple answer is DKS just doesn't care, he apparently thinks Cover art is glorified billboards and not art.

In a manner of speaking, that's exactly what cover art IS. It's designed to grab your eye quickly and encourage you to pick up the book. It serves the same purpose as a billboard, which is to get your attention in a fraction of a second.

Which isn't to say that I think he's doing a good job of it here. But then again, I can only think of a handful of Sweet covers that I did like, and they're all old.

I can't bag on the man, he's doing a job and he's been doing it for decades. But I do feel like he just doing
"a job", and he dropped the ball on this one.

You got a good point, Billboards can be good art as well. As Bookstore guy pointed out DKS should take pride in his work if he wants to GRAB people's attention then why give such sub-standard work? Does he figure since this is book 12 and if your this far your going to buy it no matter what the cover is? Well he's right which is when you start having to call DKS some not very nice words.
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Renoard

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Re: Official Gathering Storm Cover Impressions
« Reply #31 on: May 16, 2009, 07:26:03 AM »
More likely he's just got too much on his plate at once, because he had to do other things while he was waiting for someone to call and tell him what they needed.  Probably can't get his head into the game.  It's been a long time since KoD.
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amnesiac236

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Re: Official Gathering Storm Cover Impressions
« Reply #32 on: May 18, 2009, 02:43:57 AM »
This is just laughably bad. It looks as though Sweet was heavily inebriated when he painted this, because he's capable of such greater work. Either he was drunk, or he didn't give two shits about how it looked. It seems like he couldn't decide how to make Rand's arm look without the hand so he hid it in the folds of the coat sleeve. Sweet's depiction of Rand isn't even consistent with the other covers, what with the incredibly buff Rand in aCoS, or the kingly Joaquin Pheonix-esque Rand of tPoD, or the cheesy romance-novel Rand on Lord of Chaos. I think he should take an art class to learn what proportion is.

Sweet must be on a binding contract, because everyone at Tor would have to be on crack for them to approve this cover art otherwise. There's no reason why a volume of a best-selling book series should be presented this shoddily. That being said, while I was initially really displeased, I'm sure eventually I'll come to love the cover art in its inexplicably cheap glory.

sporkify

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Re: Official Gathering Storm Cover Impressions
« Reply #33 on: May 18, 2009, 04:06:18 AM »
You guys are too worried about the cover.  Don't worry, it'll fall off soon after you open the book.  (Seriously, though, Tor should develop a better glue.)
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Renoard

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Re: Official Gathering Storm Cover Impressions
« Reply #34 on: May 18, 2009, 10:40:32 AM »
ew books bound with the dust jacket art non-removable?  That would seriously reduce the value of the book.
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Rrikor

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Re: Official Gathering Storm Cover Impressions
« Reply #35 on: May 18, 2009, 02:59:47 PM »
I am glad I remove the cover while I am reading the book. I would be depressed picking up this book everyday with that cover on it.   It should be much better.  I know they say not to judge a book by its cover but that is what most people do, myself included.  I go to the book store to pick out a new series or book.  The first thing I do is look at the covers and title.  If they catch my eye I will read the overview on the back.  If that sounds good I will go back and find the first book of the series.  Looking at this cover, I would not read the overview and just put it back on the shelf.  If not for the pre existing fan base this cover could ruin the book. Taking that into account it is still going to hurt by keeping some readers from picking up the series.

Renoard

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Re: Official Gathering Storm Cover Impressions
« Reply #36 on: May 18, 2009, 03:54:48 PM »
Judging a book by it's cover is a mixed art.  After all, a publisher is going to work hard to advertise a new book or series that he believes has commercial potential.  That means he puts the money into illustrations for the "good" books.  But Tor knows these books are going to sell even if they end up poorly done, they have an established fan base who need to know what happens next.

That and the fact that momentum was lost, means neither Sweets nor TOR are terribly motivated to reach for the best illustrations.  But come on that painting isn't as bad as some of the comments in this thread suggest.

Not everyone is a Vajello or Hildebrandt and the type and logos stand out better with a less dramatic painting.  If they used the very best art, they'd stand the risk of having the cover art be far too good for the book, case in point Elfstones of Shanarra.
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Ehran

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Re: Official Gathering Storm Cover Impressions
« Reply #37 on: May 18, 2009, 04:06:45 PM »

That and the fact that momentum was lost, means neither Sweets nor TOR are terribly motivated to reach for the best illustrations.  But come on that painting isn't as bad as some of the comments in this thread suggest.


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Bookstore Guy

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Re: Official Gathering Storm Cover Impressions
« Reply #38 on: May 18, 2009, 04:51:51 PM »
the thing that makes the art so bad here is the knowledge that Sweet actually does good work. as both Ink and I have mentioned, you can go to his website and see some very good work. you can look at the first books of the series and see art that is well done. What makes this art so bad is us knowing that he CAN DO and HAS DONE much better.

If this wasn't a Robert Jordan novel book stores wouldn't even face it out due to the terrible quality of the art. At bookstores you face-out the novels that have beautiful covers so people are drawn in. Cover art and Cover quotes sell a high percentage of novels. This cover is terribad, and may make new readers not want to pick up the series.
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Renoard

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Re: Official Gathering Storm Cover Impressions
« Reply #39 on: May 18, 2009, 05:50:56 PM »
Even so, the painting could be recropped and new plates shot.  Some airbrushing could fix the worst issues digitally.  Worse come to worse, Sweets could rework the original some.  But isn't this just a mockup?  Maybe what hits the street will be better.
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Shard

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Re: Official Gathering Storm Cover Impressions
« Reply #40 on: May 18, 2009, 06:11:59 PM »
Not everyone is a Vajello or Hildebrandt and the type and logos stand out better with a less dramatic painting.  If they used the very best art, they'd stand the risk of having the cover art be far too good for the book, case in point Elfstones of Shanarra.

I understand this in fact I would say that Marie Gran Pre who did the HP art is no where near as good as these artists. HOWEVER you can tell she puts care into the art by consistantly creating a "living" character that grows up with the books.

In Sweets we get a different looking Rand each and every time. We have to play a guessing game of "Who is that supposed to be?" Just look at the tGH cover, does that look like Loial, Lanfear/Selene and Rand? How about those trollocs? It's the accuracy that's horrible.

Then add in that apparently DKS really doesn't care about the art he does for the books where at the very least Marie DOES care. Now I think her last three covers were the best but even her worst is still better to look at and see then DKS's. She actually took the time to read the book and find something appropriate, Darrly just slapped something on that is barly passible as art.

For the tGS cover I have no idea who that woman is supposed to be, it's certainly doesn't match any characters I've read but it probably will be Avi even though I know she doesn't dress like that.
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Bookstore Guy

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Re: Official Gathering Storm Cover Impressions
« Reply #41 on: May 18, 2009, 07:14:55 PM »
I believe it is far too late to rework the art - this needs to be sent to the printers to make sure it is ready for distribution in the fall. And I don't think that it is a mock-up. It's the official cover as far as I know.

Like Shard said, I dont ask that every artist be a Boris Vallejo, Swanland, Martiniere, or Dos Santos. I just ask that they put real effort and passion into it. The cover is sub-par. There are hundreds of amateur artists who could have done better and who would have killed to do the cover for this novel. Now, to switch artists would have been a serious error, but that is no excuse to let this kind of sub-standard art go though.
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Re: Official Gathering Storm Cover Impressions
« Reply #42 on: May 20, 2009, 10:17:23 PM »
This is awful. I have actually liked some of the cover art for WoT (please don't shoot  :)), but this is just god-awful. (As was said on Dragonmount), the girl's shirt looks like it's about to fall off, which is really bugging me for some reason. [Who is that girl supposed to be, anyway? It's pretty hard to tell.]
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Bookstore Guy

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Re: Official Gathering Storm Cover Impressions
« Reply #43 on: May 20, 2009, 10:32:46 PM »
covers for books 1 and 3 are good, which makes this one even worse (if possible). Sweet hasn't done stuff this crappy for Modesitt or Farland either.
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Renoard

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Re: Official Gathering Storm Cover Impressions
« Reply #44 on: May 20, 2009, 10:43:46 PM »
Are you sure it isn't just that modsett's work is so bad he makes Sweets look better? :P
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