READ THIS FIRST: Rules, how-tos, Cover Art, Signature, LIMITS FOR SIGNATURES

Welcome to NaNo Artisans! This is a place to share your artistic goodness, discuss techniques, and make and share nano-related stuff like banners, covers, calendars, and wallpapers. Not sure how to make a signature banner, or need help finding good, free stock photos? This is the place to ask!

Just a couple of rules:

• Please do not link for-sale stuff or commissions for pay. If you'd like to hawk your goods and services, check out the Marketing and Stuff for Sale, where you can do just that!
  


• Please do not make signature test posts; that can fill up a forum in a hurry. Just look at a previous post you've made, and it'll update with your current signature. Sig test posts will be removed.
  


• If an image is over 500 pixels wide by 400 pixels high, please just link to it rather than posting it on the forums, or use a thumbnail image instead. Some users have dialup, and overlarge images throw off our formatting.
  


• If you're looking for site technical help, please check the Tech Help & Site Bug Reports
  


You probably have noticed the brand shiny forums? We have yet to implement signatures on the forums so hang on tight! We are working on it!


If you want to lock a thread you have started, please, send me a NaNoMail or drop a comment at the end of the thread so I can lock it :)

A Word About Copyright

One of the biggest problems on the internet is intellectual theft; it's very tempting to do a google image search, and swipe the nearest awesome picture that suits your needs. It's important to remember that this may be a copyright violation and is theft. There are a number of places to get free stock art on DeviantArt, and often if you ask an artist politely, they don't mind you using their stuff, provided you give credit.

Please remember to respect the hard work of the artists whose art you enjoy and admire, and don't steal it without permission. Most are quite friendly people, and often will work with you if you just ask. (and if they say no, please respect that and ask someone else.) Take without asking, and it's no different than swiping a piece of art from an art gallery without paying.

Book Cover Art

First, I would recommend creating your book cover in a standard and reasonable 6x9 inch format in Photoshop, or your editing software of choice. If you don't have Photoshop skills or fancy software for making your own banners or cover art, here are some free resources that let you do just that!

In-browser editors:

My Banner Maker is free and easy for working with basic text and colors, although it puts a tag over anything you create. 

Picnik allows you to edit up to 5 photos for free, and provides greater control over editing.

Free, downloadable photo editing software:

GIMP. It has a lot of similarities to Photoshop, but is much simpler for many users. 

Picassa is another great free program from Google for editing and organizing photos for Windows users.

If you plan on printing your cover art and want nice quality, I would go with 300dpi. Otherwise if you're just going to upload it online, computer screen resolution is at 72dpi (and is a much smaller file size).

How to use your artwork on this site

To upload your Book Cover Art go to "My NaNoWriMo > Edit Novel Info" and it's at the bottom. Now, for your cover art to be uploaded to your Novel Info page, it re-sizes it to 230x300 pixels for you. But the original file must be under 50kb.
We are still working on tech issues do to the migration of the old website to the new, so you may find bugs and errors while exploring the new website. Please, report them to the Tech Help & Site Bug Reports Signatures are not implemented yet so hang on with me! Once I have the green light, I will post the procedure in the stickie, well in sight :)

Thanks for understanding folks, now get out there and MAKE SOME MAGIC!

Many thanks to yoha_ahoy and dragonchilde, who provided much of the information and how-tos in this thread.

...copyright violation and is theft.

Copyright violation = Ethically wrong.

Copyright violation != Theft.

Just thought I would mention that.

Thank you for mentioning copyright issues. Art theft is a huge problem. It's very painful for an artist to see something they've put their heart and soul into being used by some random person without permission.

The program Artweaver at artweaver.de is a good program for those who like more traditional art as well as photoediting, and it's free.

I'd also add to this by saving, just because someone makes you a cover, doesn't mean they give you the right to use it outside of the NaNo website. Generally it is for promoting your NaNo endeavor and not the sale of the novel post-NaNo. Obviously, there are some people who have posted that their art can be used commercially.

It's a lot easier to get art/fonts that are non-commercial only. Even in my own personal covers, I do not use the art outside of NaNo unless the elements used to create it are commercial-friendly.

If you're looking for something to edit with, try picnik.com, you can transform pictures that are just...wel,l snapshots, into lovely photographs with a few simple clicks! I went premium and absolutely love it! I took a bunch of typical shots while on vacation of the ocean and such and transformed them into sweet photos using different filters and effects. There's also a free version. =)

Also try pixlr.com (free online editor that has much of the simple photoshop stuff.)

and sxc.hu (which was listed last year as a free stock place.)

This might be stupid to say, but you never know--Make sure you look at deviant art photos are marked clearly stock before taking. Not everything on there is stock.

^^;; A light note, but I noticed that some people abused the art requests last year, so some notes about that might also be a good idea, otherwise it might turn uglier...

Basically people asked in several threads for cover art (which are free) and then basically pitted the artists against each other. Which in the real world happens, but in such cases, that person *pays* a few thousand bucks for the design for the time and effort put in.

Thus, I'd like to request a *suggestion* on requests.

That is:
1. Request one person at a time. If they take too long, remove your request before going to the next artist. Do not put multiple requests in.
2. Be sure to thank the artist for the time and effort put in. A good piece of art takes *time* and you are getting it for free.
3. Remember that a pro will be paid at least a few thousand dollars for their work on a cover.

'cause when a person puts in 10 requests for the same cover... it is kinda demeaning to the person doing it for no pay... the price for that should be patience yes? If you don't like the cover, then try to work it out, and if it doesn't work out, THEN make a new request to another artist.

Or at least when putting in multiple requests, notify the artist when doing so... though I think that should make you aware that people who put in a singular request will likely have an advantage...

When you submit a manuscript there are similar rules.

Alternatively, if people agree, then use a "submission" policy in the first post. "No multiple or simultaneous submissions."

This is more ethical ground though...

As an addition to DeviantART stock - read their rules (they all set their own rules) closely. Some do not allow use outside of DeviantART or in signatures.

what other places than deviantart provide images we can use if we ask the artist and all. I only know deviantart and I cannot find anything there that I can use

i found an interesting art program, i downloaded the free version and its pretty good. it works more like the traditional painting. its called the twisted brush.

I can't upload my novel cover, the option isn't there...is that not available yet?

I might be missing this somewhere, but what is the size limit for signature banners? Thanks!

And we can have a siggy when? :)

I have a question. If I were to offer to do covers but charge a 10 dollar total fee if the author wants a front and back for publishing purposes, would I still need to go to Marketing?