Charlie bowater’s “forest of souls” cover somehow manages the combo of both mildly intriguing and absolutely lacking in personality. it’s almost impressive actually.
I actually like the forest of souls cover, tbh. The shadows across her face does a lot for interest and the Eye Glow, which might easily look silly, is Nice Actually. I mean, you’re not wrong: it definitely commits the sin of being a static facing-forward, utterly blank-faced portrait with nothing in the way of other compositional elements to rescue it with a sense of energy, but the text is actually attractive unto itself and the whole cover has sort of a soft moody quality that I dig.
I said in my last post spurred by her covers that any illustrator, Charlie included, is beholden to their art director on a cover, and that I don’t blame her for barbie doll character portrait art when that’s what she’s being hired to do. I didn’t give examples, because I was trying to segue into a larger point about Character ArtTM, but not all Charlie covers are created equal.
Since I’ve made my broader point now, let’s play a ranking game, and let this be The Final Word On This Blog On Bowater Covers Forever And Ever Amen.
CATEGORY 1: HEY THIS IS GOOD ACTUALLY
I’ve praised the cover of ENCHANTMENT OF RAVENS (and would second that for SORCERY OF THORNS) for the interesting crop, evocative colors, and sense of motion.
From my old review: Her outward-facing pose, the unexpected crop and the suggestion of a swarm of ravens just outside the frame, hair and feathers flying messily, gives the cover motion and life that invites us to fill in the gaps; the warm bounce lighting that’s reflected on her outline provides visual interest and a sense of magic.
I would extend much of the same praise for SORCERY OF THORNS, though I would put it second in a hierarchy of effectiveness only because I think the depth lent by the ravens and floating feathers is something that’s missing from SOT (and could easily have been done with thorns, I would think?)
But while the EOR text mostly just gets out of the way, the SOT title treatment is handled a little more lovingly. The dreamy quality of the transparency and varied, overlapping flourishes are really lovely and interesting, and set a whimsical tone far more effectively than a Cinzel-adjacent fullbodied Fantasy Serif or generic Desire typeface use would have.
This is kind of a dark horse into this category, but I actually love this cover for EAST. (really! wish! the type didn’t have a bevel on it, but I can’t have everything I want). I could go for a little something more happening here, maybe a hand raised to the bear’s opposite cheek or something, but I think the simplicity works in a mythic, iconic sort of way, given that this is obviously a retelling of East of the Sun, West of the Moon. It also works because Charlie’s natural tendency towards lovely soft coloring and warm, ethereal lighting are really allowed to shine, and, combined with the ice and fur textures, give the illustration a personality and sense of wonder.
CATEGORY 2: I MEAN. OKAY.
Get ready for WOMEN FACING FORWARD.
This is where FOREST OF SOULS would go, FTR; alternate category title “has redeeming qualities.” Let’s whip through these.
- I love the LEAGUE OF ARCHERS illustration, no caveats. The angle and foreshortening are visually exciting, there’s a sense of depth and motion and setting, and this would be a really charming middle-grade-ish ADVENTURE vibes cover if that title treatment wasn’t just. Massively overbearing and garish against the illustration. Ouch. Look how nice it is without it:
- STAR DAUGHTER is redeemed by the celestial design elements. While the figure is definitely Not Doing Anything, what organic flow there is to her is a nice contrast to the symmetrical, geometric shapes that give us a purposefully centered composition. The title treatment could be..... more refined, and probably cede hierarchal dominance to the figure more, but the cultural analogue elements give it an extra boost of visual interest.
- The DAUGHTERS OF RUIN cover is a weird one, but the choice to put the dress in color and everything else in black and white with gold accents is interesting, and I even don’t hate that goofy piratey text. I would appreciate if she was brandishing that sword or something just to give us a strong angle within the composition and something else to look at, but I kind of dig the dark swashbuckley vibes (although I’m not sure they’re? accurate? I haven’t read the book).
- VOICES is the most “character portrait facing forward blankly” cover ever, but I would argue that it works, because it’s intentionally evoking religious iconographic art and this specific 1879 painting of Joan of Arc by Jules Bastien-Lepage:
I do wish there was more going on-- the raised/ bent arms of the inspiration painting, for example, do a lot for dynamism that GIRL LOOK FORWARD does not, and I REALLY REALLY REALLY want some texture on that flat blue background, but I’m a sucker for some faux gold foil, and the strong central lighting does have sort of a divine quality to it that adds some interest.
Worth noting, actually, that all of these besides LOA feature a circular element of about the same size behind the heroine’s head-- it’s a simple but effective compositional element for framing a central figure.
CATEGORY 3: THANKS, I HATE THEM
Now arriving at the bottom of the barrel.
I could have made an argument for the SHADES OF MAGIC covers being higher than this, but man, I just hate them. (Only talking about the first one for simplicity’s sake.) There’s the vague suggestion that Lila might be looking at Kell, but really, there isn’t any more character interaction here than on the, at this point, much-maligned THE PRINCESS WILL SAVE YOU and CAST IN FIRELIGHT covers, which we’ve already talked about (and which would also go in this category).
That arms-crossed pose is the dullest and stiffest iteration of that stance I can imagine, Kell’s coat looks like he’s a sophomore high school edgelord one bad day away from a fedora, and the lighting is random as all hell. And if those are stock photos run though a filter in the background like I think they are, jail for one thousand years.
SKYWARD is.... mostly just a victim of ugly typefaces and weird placement/ sizing, an uncomfortable marriage of trendy-but-meaningless illustration and the standard text proportions of a mainstream bestselling author’s name and book title plastered on thick paperbacks found in the books aisle of a Krogers grocery store:
My distaste for AURORA RISING’s cover is a little more subjective. The constellation elements and slick lighting are pulling their weight, here, and I appreciate the sort of unusual title treatment, but it’s an unappealingly tight crop with no sense that any of these elements could extend beyond the border, leaving us feeling a little trapped. There’s a highly-rendered unreality to the portrait that I don’t think works-- the ENCHANTMENT OF RAVENS close-cropped portrait was messier, with stylistic brush strokes left in that added a sense of artistry and looseness, but AURORA is so cleanly, tightly rendered and so in our faces that we’re left with almost an uncanny valley version of Charlie’s facial stylization. A lot of people love this cover, but I don’t find “SPACE” unto itself a redeemingly meaningful visual element given that there’s little else going on.
But BONE CRIER’S MOON, with its baffling and near-illegible text placement, small, stiff characters, stupid little rim lights, and uncomfortably bottom-heavy layout, is far and away my least favorite. If NOTHING else, the PRINCESS characters fill the space-- the BCM characters are so small in such aimless negative space that it seems like they don’t want to be here. At least the FIRELIGHT characters are clearly brandishing their magic-- these two appear to be competing for Most Halfhearted Weapon Hold of all time. And even AURORA can claim some interesting lighting effects-- the lighting here is simultaneously harsh and ambient, intended to shadow supermodel cheekbones and nothing else.
There’s no depth. There’s no motion or emotion. There’s not even a coherent tone except maybe boredom. The only other element here besides the text and characters is the aimless foliage and this thing--
Which I’m sure looked great as a sketch, but barely reads here, and things that are subtle enough to work as easter eggs don’t work as foundational compositional elements. Scooting the characters up and the text down would have been the band-aid solution, but we didn’t even do that, so the heroine is literally up to her neck in the poor design choices.
- END RANKING. WE DID IT, KIDS. -
The thing is that Charlie is more than capable of rendering interesting compositions, dynamic poses, dramatic lighting, meaningful character interaction, and emotional expressions:
It would just seem that nobody pays her for that. For what it’s worth, I actually think her style is more suited to middle grade than YA or adult. These pieces of cover art she did for the MG series SEVEN SORCERERS easily trounce any of the ~ pretty ~ character art portraits in this list for sheer drama and magical interest:
The takeaways here are mostly things I’ve talked about or touched on before, but worth reiterating:
- I am very tired of thinking about Charlie Bowater now.
- Illustrators are at the whim of ADs (art directors) who are ultimately responsible for how a cover comes together.
- YA (and, increasingly, adult SFF) has a massive boner for PrettyTM character art at the expense of everything else.
- Relatively simple edits-- cropping, color balance, a framing element-- can make or break an illustrated cover.
- For the love of god, your text and your illustration need to NOT BLATANTLY CLASH at the BARE MINIMUM. One doesn’t necessarily need to cede all the work of stylization to the other, but they do need to be visually and communicatively complimentary, and the weight, placement and interaction between them should be thoughtful, intentional, and compositionally sound.
- CHARACTER LOOK FORWARD illustration can, but doesn’t have to, make for a boring cover. It all depends on what else is Going On. One final (non-bowater, to Cleanse) example:
The cover of BURN OUR BODIES DOWN is GIRL LOOK FORWARD NO EXPRESSION, but the design isn’t precious about the details of the girl, and the disconnect between lack of expression on her face and what’s going on is intentional. The emphasis is on a cohesive composition with layered, dynamic elements by way of the corn and fire and stylistic use of color. The cumulative sense is one of alarm, claustrophobia, detachment and metaphorically losing oneself-- which says far more about a story than “GIRL PRETTY” does, although the character portrait and its thoughtful rendering provides an important grounding focal point. The understatedness of the lowercase text is a visually interesting against the illustration, and the burn effects add a nice textural contrast without degrading readability.
Also, BOBD is out today!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO THE CORN
I feel another fanon debunk session coming over me, and this one’s a BIG one.
Let’s talk about the DickKory breakup, and why it happened.
Yup, we’re going there.
Before we get going though, I want to make one thing abundantly clear: this is NOT an invitation to bash on Kory. There will be no bashing of Kory on this post if I have anything to say about it, and its my post, so I do. So nyah nyah. But seriously like, don’t get my reasons for making this post wrong. I LOVE Kory. I SHIP Dick/Kory. And I don’t actually blame Kory for any of this, no matter how the page I’m about to show makes it appear, for reasons that I will get into later in this post, but like. I really truly don’t. I don’t think the Dick/Kory breakup ultimately was either of their fault. I think it was the painful end result of them both hitting rock bottom due to endless external fuckery with their lives and their minds during the tail end of their relationship, making it all but impossible for them to be there for each other the way they truly needed and WANTED to be….ultimately forcing them to break off and BOTH try and reorder their lives on their own. But IMO, this NEVER actually marked a dissolution of their feelings for each other, no matter what either (particularly Dick) eventually claimed in order to rationalize things to themselves.
I do however think some of the other Titans bear some culpability for not seeing things as they truly were here. I can understand given what they all went through during this time period like, how maybe it became easier to just blame Dick especially as he has a tendency to be so willing to accept blame? And so I think a lot of conclusions were jumped to that at other times they WOULD have spent more time thinking through. But here and now they didn’t simply because they were so relieved to HAVE an easy, simple explanation for things going wrong and someone to blame, someone who ACCEPTED blame. And thus more easily allowing them to speed through to the portion of events where they worked on ‘forgiving him’ for what he’d done so they could all move past it.
Okay, so let me stop talking in code for those of you who have only the faintest idea of what I’m talking about.
Traditional fanon states - and most wiki summaries I’ve seen actually CORROBORATE this, which drives me COMPLETELY up the wall because I would like to have WORDS with whomever wrote each of these wiki summaries - that ultimately, Dick and Kory broke up because they rushed into things with the wedding and both realized they weren’t actually ready to get married.
Let me be clear: this is totally and completely 100% true.
Fanon and wikis go ON however, to conclude that the ‘fault’ lies with Dick, because he was the one who jumped the gun in proposing, and that he only DID so, because he thought getting married would ‘help him finally grow up’ and ‘hit one of the milestones he thought he was missing while everyone else his age that he’d known in high school and stuff were graduating college and getting married and having kids right about now.’ And also that he eventually concluded that he didn’t actually love Kory the way he thought he did and needed to let her go for her sake.
Now let me also be clear: this is also MOSTLY true in the sense that he did eventually THINK these thoughts, some ten or fifteen issues after their crashed wedding, when he was off on his own and thinking through everything that was going on in his life and trying to make sense of the decisions he’d been making lately, most of which he was unhappy with.
The one part that ISN’T true is that last bit, which a lot of people extrapolate from and use as their basis for saying Dick ‘fell out of love with Kory’ and ‘realized that he no longer loved her the way he once had,’ with this leading into why they never got back together after Kory returned to Earth in the Titans revival series in the late 90s.
HOWEVER.
There’s a tiiiiiiiiiny little correction I must make to that last part, which might seem insignificant, but becomes ABUNDANTLY important when added to some other much needed - and much ignored overlooked - context:
Dick never ACTUALLY said or thought that he didn’t love Kory anymore, full stop. What he actually said, in its entirety, was that he realized “he never really loved Kory the way she deserved to be loved.”
Why is this distinction so important? Hang on just a sec, we’re almost there.
Now I would like to share with you, for those who have never seen this page or those who perhaps have forgotten it or its significance, the EXACT page where Dick proposes to Kory, from The New Titans #99, one issue before their wedding special in issue #100. (What’s that? You’re surprised that they got married the very issue after the proposal? You thought that they were engaged for a lengthier period of time? Ohhhh don’t worry, fair readers. We’ll get there. Ohhhh we’ll get there).
But first, those of you who have never actually read this page before, I would like you to take a look at it, and see if you can Where’s Waldo what it is about this page that makes my blood reach a boiling point in excess of 2000 degrees Fahrenheit every time someone utters the words “Dick rushed into marriage because he thought it would make him grow up or hit some important life milestone.”
i like suffering so i wrote percy’s pov of this drabble which i’d recommended reading first! im sorry percy!
—
he’d never once seen annabeth space out, but he would rather believe that then daydream about the alternative. it had certainly seemed like she was checking him out, but he doubted it. it was much easier to move on.
“okay,” he said, turning back towards the textbook, “well i found the answer to 43.”
with no regard for personal space, she leaned closer to him to look where he was pointing. percy froze slightly because she was right there. he could smell her perfume, something citrusy and sweet, and he was sure he wasn’t breathing anymore. his eyes flicked to her head of curls, a shimmery golden color and hastily tucked behind her ear in an adorable way.
“oh, that makes sense,” she said before turning her head, and then they were looking at each other. she was still very much in his bubble.
it had been a long time ago when percy decided he would stop denying his feelings for annabeth, and instead just hide them. bury them deep so they’d never be found out. because even if they weren’t friends, they were something close and he liked it. he didn’t want to jeopardize any sort of connection with her, platonic or less, just because of some feelings he couldn’t act on.
but now, those feelings resurfaced in an instant. all he could think about was her, and how nice she smelled, and is that a fleck of blue in her eyes?
“yeah, simple mistake,” he whispered, vaguely remembering that they were supposed to be doing something.
“exactly,” she replied, her voice just as quiet.
percy wondered if she wanted to kiss him even half as badly as he wanted to kiss her. he honestly doubted it. aside from a few moments he could count on his fingers, annabeth had only ever shown annoyance and irritation towards him. “we should… work,” he heard himself say. he knew it was what they needed to do, what they should do, but he was having a hard time looking away from her.
annabeth didn’t reply, only studying his face and percy thought that maybe, hopefully, she did want to kiss him. this moment may have been the only chance he ever had to find out, so he said a silent fuck it and leaned forward.
and by some otherworldly miracle, she kissed him back. her lips moved against his in a way that made him giddy because oh my god, he was kissing annabeth chase. his hand came up to rest on her cheek, unable to resist the urge to touch her.
it was only a moment later when she pulled back. percy’s eyes opened to find her familiar gray ones closer than ever. she was so ridiculously pretty.
“that was-“ he started at the same time she said, “we should-“
they both chuckled and a weight lifted off his chest at her quiet laughter. she pulled back now, making his hand drop back down to his lap. her smile melted away as her eyes flicked to anywhere but his face.
“that was probably a bad idea…”
percy blinked. then he blinked again, and then a couple more times.
oh. oh.
“right, yeah,” he said, still processing her words and the way it felt like something had just broken a little inside him. “bad idea. sorry.”
annabeth was quiet for only a second before she shook her head. “no, it’s okay,” she said.
okay, he thought. as if that moment wasn’t going to be burned into his memory forever, along with the pain that followed it.
“we should…” annabeth nodded towards their papers and textbooks and percy jumped at the opportunity to do anything but think about that kiss.
“yeah. yeah, definitely,” he said, turning back to his notebook and scribbling down the answer to 43. annabeth hesitated for a few short seconds before turning away from him and doing the same. the rest of their study session was stupidly formal, no more teasing comments or jokes being made. as hard as percy tried, he was fairly certain it was going to be impossible to ever forget the feeling of her lips against his.
could you write some academic rivals to lovers prompts?
Any variety of enemies to lovers / rivals to lovers is my bread and butter.
Academic Rivals to Lovers Prompts
Prompts
A starts falling behind on one of their classes and it stresses them out beyond belief. They turn to the only person smart enough to tutor them: B, who takes immense pleasure in having an academic hold over A.
A and B are paired together on a project and stay for hours after school to work on it. B isn’t pulling their weight and A gets mad at them to discover that B is sick, overworked, and physically too tired to work any harder. A takes it upon themself to take care of them— for the sake of the project of course.
A and B haven’t seen each other since school, where they parted ways in mutual hatred. They reunite as adults, both waiting to be interviewed for the same prestigious job.
(Alternate for 3) A starts a new prestigious job only to be trained by B.
A and B are competing against each other in a competition. As they get further in the competition / as their deadline approaches, A starts to work less and intentionally loses because B needs the win way more and, wow, B is gorgeous when they’re happy.
Oneliners
“Did you just admit that I’m smart? Wow, you really must be in love with me”
“I’ve always been compared to you. Why can’t you be as smart as A? A could do this easy peasy. Why can’t you just be A?”
“The only reason I study so hard is so you don’t think I’m stupid.” “I never thought you were stupid”
“No matter how much I work, it will never be enough— I will never be enough”
