How Canva helped me create story covers for my stories

Because I'm changing how A Creative's Nook will be, I decided to dump several Story Covers I made for mystories at FanFiction,

Last week, my officemate, Shayla, introduced my to Canva. 

and. I. was. hooked!

People buy book titles, not the content. This is an idea I'm trying to comprehend after reading one of my favorite books, Think and Grow Rich. 

I couldn't change the titles, but I can change how the story covers are. The covers I've selected for my fanfics are, well, crap. 

I have nothing to lose if I create simple covers, yes?

This is my first story cover for my third story. 

Plain. Safe. Decent. 

Not to mention it's boring. 

I uploaded and temporarily set it as the story cover. 

Several hours later, I created another one for my second story. 

This was totally giving me a chick-lit vibe. It's decent and waaaaaay better than what the original cover was. 

Simple and clean. 

Because I was in the realm of Final Fantasy VIII, I decided to create an advance story cover for a future project, Raine and Laguna's love story. 

Oh, gee. I see the same red dot as above!

It was unintentional, really. I suppose this isn't the final cover. 

Then I remembered the very first story I wrote in the site, it was Julia, Laguna and Caraway's love story. 

The cover was horrendous! It was just an in-game screenshot of Laguna and Julia talking in her suite. 

Since I couldn't find a Tetsuya Nomura-drawn image of Julia and Fury, I decided to settle with a neutral image. 

The characters met because Julia played the Piano, so I settled with this one. 

Simple and clean, right?

Something tells me I have a fascination with texts encased in circular objects, but then, it could be just a coincidence. 

I was having so much fun that I ended up changing the plain cover I initially made for The Flower from Midgar. 

WHOA!

Me gusta!

It's far from perfect, but I think it captures the story's mood. 

***

 I'm reaaaaaaaally happy I discovered Canva. It's reviving my love for the visual arts. It's easy that I feel like I'm cheating. At this point, I don't really care. I've lost my mojo that I'm willing to do activities to revive my patience for dabbling photoshop or any graphics design.  

If you're interested to have a cover for your story, feel free and drop me a message!

Four Color Challenge: Chair

From this palette.

I created this simple lovely piece!

Yeah, I'm still sticking with inanimate objects. 

Four Color Challenge: Tree

From this palette

I created this simple lovely thing. 

:This is... supposed to be a tree. 

Four Colors Art Challenge Manifesto

The path to growth is to continuously push and challenge yourself. 

Today, I decided to do something different. 

Lineart is my God, and working with colors is my Achilles Heel. 

So I decided break my routine and do something different. 

For the next days, I will be creating 10 pieces of work using the following color

Daily Illustration: Pen Designs

Sketched a bunch of pen designs. I've seen some of them in the market. Yeah. Yeah.

It's not original :P

Daily illustration: Hairstyles I can do with Braids

 In my other blog, I started a series of posts called "The 10 Daily illustrations".

The theme was simple: each day, I would pick one object and draw 10 variations of it.

Regardless whether it sucked or not.

It's an idea I derived from James Altucher's "10 ideas a day" practice.

Since this blog is dedicated to my visual arts, I've decided to start my 10 daily illustrations here, with the aim to improve my visual library.

Today's theme is all about Braids

FF8 fanfic cover sketch

Goodness! I haven't updated this blog for almost a month now.

I've written two Final Fantasy 8 fanfictions, and none of them have personalized covers.

I sketched the one on a pad of paper from Marco Polo Hotel and temporarily uplaoded it as the cover for my Quistis-Seifer story.

It still needs to be polished, but hey.... i like how I sketched Quistis' hair!

Free Webcomic for you!

Yes, this is absolutely free!

I made this four years ago. I was very much into Wild Arms 2 back then. 

I still am, right now. 

If you have a couple of minutes to spare, feel free to read the comic I made. It's not the best webcomic, but I tried what my skills could back in 2012. 

While I long to finish this comic, I know my skills have become rusty. 

REAAAAAAAALLY RUSTY. 

I decided to focus on finishing the damn story. 

UDPATE: I FINALLY FINISHED IT!

What I need to do now is to polish the script...

of course... I have a lot or projects going on. 

This free copy isn't the best version. 

I tried to see if I could make a PDF using Microsoft Powerpoint. Unfortunately, the quality was killed. 

You can find it the better version hosted at Smackjeeves.

One day, I yearn to draw webcomics again. 

One day, I yearn to share what I know about creating webcomics. 

Till that day comes.

Thanks for reading!

Sketching Caps and Bandannas

Elc from Arc the Lad II and Jack from Harvest Moon are my favorite subjects for this matter. 

Today's sketch was inspired by an Art resource Blog in Tumblr.

One of the lessons that inspired me was how to place items on/around the head.

To be honest, after decades of sketching, one of my weaknesses are drawing bandannas and caps on figures.

I think I've had such difficulty because, my usual style involves:

1. Draw head

2. Draw the side of the bandanna/cap

3. Draw hair

4. Realize head looks hideous

5. Add bangs. 

I bypass this weakness by creating "bangs" for such characters. After reading the resource blog, I decided to play around:

1. Draw head 

2. Draw the coverage of the bandanna/cap

3. Draw the hair (imagine how the hair would compress/move due to the object's presence)

4. Be satisfied.

5. Identify what needs to be improved. 

Becoming a beginner in Art again

It's strange how the universe, or God, conspires to deliver to you what you want. 

For several days, I have been toying with the idea of going back to drawing again. 

One of my fears is that "It's too late". 

I've wasted 4 years of not drawing anything decent. 

It's a struggle to be a perfectionist and be a creative at the same time. 

Today, I became a resource speaker on how to draw. 

She was the single examinee, and I worked with her. 

What happened was that... it becane an interactive discussion! 

I drew something for them. Taught them a bit about conceptualization. How to draw hair. (Even if I'm not the best). 

Honestly, I acknowlesge I'm not the best. 

I know. 

And this burning desire to learn more. To be humble to start from the very beginning made me take my pen and sketchbook. 

It doesn't matter of it's too late. 

What matters is I tried again. 

I'm simply a vessel that a higher power used to allow the lines to flow through my hands. 

My only choice is to act. 

About this blog

This is one of my many blogger blogs.

A Creative's had no sense of direction, until I decided it would be an avenue to post my writings.

The Oath is an unfinished story.

Nurjean's Sketchblog?

It's the place where I get to showcase my drafts--- the good, the bad and the ugly.

It's my tiny corner in the world wide web where I get the chance to becomr a beginner once more and learn the ropes of creating visual art.

I look forward to post more sketches (black & white, or colored), works in progress, and possible share my own insights as I attempt to school myself again.

Thanks for reading!