Yay! I'm back -sort of. I'm procrastinating, actually. Ok, so I'm going to be talking about front covers and random bitches in the front cover club. First thing, why the hell do people hate on websites such as picmonkey, ribbet, fotoflexer, ippicy and other free photo editing websites I haven't heard about.
Why?
Yesterday, I discovered a thread that was basically talking about how people who use picmonkey, ribbet, fotoflexer, ipiccy and blah blah blah don't make good covers, and bleh. Honestly I was so offended. I was like, bitch, just because not everyone can afford photoshop don't mean we people who use free websites can't make good covers!!
Personally I believe everyone has a starting point in front cover making. It's just the same as when you begin writing. It's basically taking baby steps. Whenever I look back at my writing, I just want to fall into a hole because it's bad. Like, really bad.
I can't even go on to explaining how bad my first works of literature were, else you'd lose whatever amount of respect you have for me. I mean it. See, when I first started making covers, I began using photobucket, and I thought my covers were cray! I thought they were so good, and I loved experimenting with different texts and effects.
Then I moved onto picmonkey. I also loved the effects on there, and the wide range of texts... I thought it was brilliant and I still think it is! Whilst using picmonkey, I discovered ribbet, fotoflexer and ipiccy and I was also able to experiment with it and make covers. Mind you, they weren't the best, but I was happy and proud of my work.
Using FREE websites helped me get to where I am today. It was through ribbet, I discovered photoscape, which by the way is also free! Using photoscape broadened what I could do with covers and I was free to try new edits and backgrounds and film effects.
I still use photoscape!
Also, through the help of my sister, and her wide knowledge of the digital age, she taught me how to download fonts from dafont.com. It's an amazing website where you can download fonts for free. If you're sick of using the same old boring fonts, check out the website. It's amazing! There's also fonts2u, which is also amazing. I just recently discovered pixlr, which is basically a simple and free version of photoshop.
Because I'm stupid when it comes to complex designs, I've found it a tad bit tricky coming to terms with how to use it, and it has involved a lot of sacrificing my study time to watch youtube tutorials and reading up on the website, to semi-understand what I'm doing. It's a pretty slow process, but I'm getting there. So back onto the people dissing free editing sites.
Can I just say that just because you have the newest version of photoshop doesn't mean your cover will be the most amazing thing that landed on the fucking planet. Yeah, it's a fact.
There are people who spend hundreds of dollars buying complex software and at the end of the day; they still cough up bad covers. Hey, I'm being blunt here. Making a good cover doesn't come from buying the most expensive software. Yeah, it does help in making a great cover, but if you don't know what the heck you're doing, you might as well return to picmonkey. In order to make a good cover, you have to understand the software/website you're using. You have to know what you're doing and be prepared to shut up and learn for once. Learning how to use a website or software can be as easy as ABC or as hard as understanding why the hell crocodiles are so fat and ugly.
I hate crocodiles. They're so scary. Have you seen their teeth?!
Anyway, in order to understand what you're doing on the website/software be ready to watch tutorials on how to use the site, be ready to almost bash your head in at the bad quality youtube video and hideous song someone on crack decided to upload with the tutorial. Be ready to experiment, make mistakes and pick yourself up again.
Oh and one more thing, leave your pride at the door. Making great covers comes with a lot of practice and mistakes. No one starts of perfect, and there are people who are just better at making covers than other people. Don't hate.
I don't think picmonkey, photobucket, pixlr, ribbet and similar websites like that are bad, I think they're a great starting point for people. So quite frankly, shut up and stop hating on people who use websites like that.
Can I also say that no one is professional?
Professionals get paid to make covers and design stuff, and no one on here gets paid a cent. Are we cool cos I've gotta get back to studying?
Geez this is such a bad rant. It's not even really a rant. AAHHHHH!!!!
Toodles.
P.S. Websites to get great images: Deviantart, Weheartit.com, tumblr, favim
Websites to get great fonts: Dafont.com Font2u.com
Great websites for editing pictures {just a few} Picmonkey Fotoflexer Photobucket Ribbet Great software to use: photoscape, gimp