C&C wanted for Game Poster Artwork

[Dervish]

I am currently working on a quasi sequel  to the old Sierra game Colonel's Bequest.
I was just wanting yalls input about how to make the poster better.
The layout seems kinda heavy on the left side but I will let yall decide and not try to influence.

[Gilbert]

I can't comment on the layout (don't have the sense), but one major problem in it, IMO, is that different elements of the poster blend with each other so it is a bit difficult to make them stand out (some of it might be caused by the JPEG compression artifacts or the small size of the poster image though).

I'll just illustrate it with the quick and crappy "paintover" below, most of the changes were just playing around with brightness and constrast on different components. Hope you won't mind.

1. Brightened the title to make it stand out more and easier to read. If the poster is to be presented in a larger size, I think thickening the outlines may also help.
2. Brightened the woman's dress a bit to make it more recognisable. (I know it's supposed to be under a dark environment, but if everything is dark including the background and the characters it is quite difficult to see the shapes, especially when the woman and the girl are supposed to be on the foremost layer. I also brightened the illumination on the woman's hair a bit to make it more distinguishable from the background.
3. As the skintones of the woman and the girl are supposed to be dark, it is difficult to make out the details (again, it may help if the poster is in a higher resolution), especially their facial features. I added a bit highlighting on the woman's nose and the girl's face, hopefully make them more recognisable.

[Snarky]

Looks intriguing. I think you have a solid basis here, and that with a few pretty simple changes, you can really take this up several levels.

• The back of the guy's head seems to be missing.
• And his eyes pop too much. Tone down the colors a bit.
• The woman and girl seem pretty flat. You should use the light and shadows to define their shape more. (Actually, the girl is not bad, but the woman has only a minimum of shading, and the light cast by the sunglasses-wearing skull-on-a-string is very flat.) Be more bold in adding shadows and highlights.
• Also, her head seems a little off in its facial proportions. Try looking at a photo reference and make sure the different widths, heights and positions are about right.
• That floaty ghost head in the background doesn't seem to be as well drawn as the rest of it. I think you should redraw it. Don't use line-art, focus on defining different parts of the face as being in light or in shadow. (You've done this pretty well for the lips.)
• There's some kind of fringe between the guy's head and the ghost head, and the edge is pretty blurry. Get rid of those artifacts, and make sure you draw the two on separate layers.
• Also, I think you should move/scale the ghost head so that the mouth/jaw doesn't overlap the mansion in the background.
• Try something different with the title font. The red outline looks a bit crappy.
• The roof of the mansion wouldn't look bright red at night.
• There are three different blue glows in the poster (the ghost head, the other ghosts or whatever, and the skull.) Either make them the same hue, or give them more distinct tones.

The best part is how natural the woman and the girl look, the way they're holding each other.

The whole thing reminds me a bit of Ben Jordan, and I think that just like Grundislav, you're going to improve a great deal with more practice. This is totally serviceable, but I wouldn't be surprised if a year from now, your work was amazing.

[GarageGothic]

First of all - a Colonel's Bequest sequel in current times (judging by the clothes) is a great idea. I'd be very interested to see what undiscovered secrets that old plantation yet holds. Good luck with the game!

As for the poster, I think you've already managed to convey a lot of atmosphere and plot elements. But I would rework the composition a bit (assuming you did it with layers).  You think it's heavy on the left side? I find it quite the opposite - there's way too much going on to the right as the characters on the left are all spectral. I'd move the black lady and the kid over to the left side and increase their size a bit, and move the guy's face to the far right (letting the edge crop off the back of his head so you don't even need to rework that). Let the skull also cast some blue light on the guy's face.
Then I'd move the ghost lady (the cemetary ghost?) to the middle along with the murder victims/ghosts right beneath it. You may also consider making the plantation house itself more prominent, adding some detail and moving it slightly upwards and only display the ghost lady on the sky instead of overlaying the house.

Also, I agree with Snarky that the title font needs some work. I'd suggest finding one similar to that on the original game box and displaying it either with a plain color or a simple gradient - the current silvery texture within red outline just looks messy.

[Dervish]

Ok well i was kinda busy it being Thanksgiving here in the states but thanks for the comments hopefully I fixed some of the problems but I also have a different layout  let me know which you like better either the first one I posted or this new one also feel free to give me other advice...




There are several things I like about this one ( the house is more prominently displayed, The title is clearer and resembles the orginal cover art (thanks Snarky and Garage Goth you were both right)  I guess sometimes you lose perspective and thus is the reason for posting on the critic's board.

Anyway back on topic there are some things I don't like (seems more empty, I liked including the other ghosts, and for some reason the lady with the skull looks wonky flipped backwards) anyway I might be crazy but let me know.

[Trent R]

Got a psd file so that we can play composition and such with the layers?

And definite improvement on the Title, before was just hideous to my eyes.

~Trent

[Dervish]

Well not sure if this is a good sign or a bad sign... either the poster is near perfect so no comment is needed or (well I will just hope that it is that close to perfect instead the other option.

[Snarky]

You haven't implemented a number of the suggestions from the last round. Like Trent says, a PSD file to play with for composition paintovers would get you some more feedback.