Create a Young Adult Book Cover with Beautiful Underground City and Supernatural Elements

Winter's Edge (Book 1)

Winter's Edge is the first novel in a young adult (and new adult) urban fantasy series. Target audience is 13-18, but it will likely appeal to college age new adults as well since the characters are on the brink of new adult age limits. The story is about people with supernatural powers (no superhero costumes) who are hunted by the government in order to keep them secret from the world and wipe them out. It's also about the relationship between Ian Sharp and Abby Pierce. And primarily, it's about Ian's struggle to figure out how to cope with his powers and protect those he loves.

REVISION
(Sketches and Photos Attached)

FIRST IDEA
I have an idea of what I want now, so I've added a sketch of it, and I'll add photos of what the characters look like (just good guidelines to use--you probably can't use the photos I give you since they're of actros).

The cover has a lot of black, but there's an archway at the top of a cliff where water comes from and pours down the cliff face at the center of the book cover. On the one side is a female's profile, looking downward, her head backed up to the waterfall, her hair maybe blending with it (though I know that's difficult). On the other side is a male's profile looking downward, his head backed up to the waterfall, maybe blending into it slightly (but again, not a necessity). Their chests and shoulders/tops of arms fade into black. You'll see in the sketch.

They should look like they're contemplating something serious--no smiles or anything like that. It's like they're making a serious decision.

The waterfall pours to the bottom of the page. The cliff face at the top of the page is grey, and it quickly fades into black. The sketch will show it better.

SECOND IDEA
A teenage boy is in the foreground with his hand in front of him like he's showing you something in his hand. There's light coming from it--not a beam, but more of a bright, round light. He could be looking forward or looking at the light.

Behind him, maybe standing at an angle, is a teenage girl (18 yrs old).

You can do whatever you want with the background on that, but something dark or black would probably work well since there's a light sourcing from his hand.

CHARACTER LIKENESSES (Photos Attached)
The actress's photo I've attached is Teresa Palmer, and she's a very close likeness to the character Abby. For the boy, I've added pictures of Dylan O'Brien. In that picture, he's a close likeness to the character Ian. Some of his pictures don't fit Ian that well, but whatever. Maybe looking up pictures of those actors will give you some ideas.

REVISION:
I added an Ophan Black image of a mirror image of a girl looking down kind of the way I'm wanting my characters to look down in the waterfall version of the cover. That's where I got the idea.

ANOTHER REVISION: This story has a good amount of action in it. These people with powers are in an underground city because they are hunted by shadow government mercenaries who seek to keep them a secret from the world. There's a bit of a mystery with some murders in the city, too, but this isn't a mystery, so putting a dead body on the cover would give the wrong impression.

UNDERGROUND CITY
(in the floor plan of the city I've attached, the waterfall and cliff face are on the right side of the drawing)
I lost my description of the underground city, so I'll describe it again here, though I don't know if that'll help much. The city center is a football stadium sized domed area with a hole in the ceiling where sunlight shows through. The ceiling is a nearly lifelike painted sky, kind of like the Venetian Casino in Vegas, which means the hole in the center of the ceiling is supposed to be kind of like a sun. It beams in and hits roman numerals on the northern stone walkway that surrounds the park (the northern edge is kind of like a partial sundial with about eight roman numerals).

There's a circular center that takes up most of the area, which is a grassy park with a few trees, a gazebo, two Japanese wood bridges and one stone bridge at the eastern edge on the stone walkway surrounding the park. The bridges cross over a meandering river that goes through the center of the park. It's source is a waterfall coming from a cliff face that makes up a good portion of the western wall. The waterfall comes from a small opening at the top of the cliff, which is at the edge of the domed ceiling. There's a ridge at the edge of the domed ceiling all the way around from which light emanates upward, illuminating the painted sky ceiling. The little ridge makes it so you can't see the light source.

The outside circular wall of the area is flat stone with giant passageways (archways) that go into giant halls. The city was carved out by ancient giants. The rim of each archway has Ancient Paleo-Hebrew symbols (not old Biblical Hebrew, but the predecessor to that, the Paleo Hebrew).

There's a stone aqueduct about four feet above the ground that crosses from north to south. It comes out of the north wall and disappears into the south wall. The stone aqueduct is hoisted in the air by stone-carved tree trunks. It crosses over the river running through the city.

The outer rim surrounding the park is a stone walkway. There are equidistant spaced lights on the wall beside the walkway. The northern edge looks a little different than the rest of the park's walkway. You'll see that in the overhead floorplan of the central part of the city.

I only describe the city in case someone wants to take a crazy chance at making a really interesting illustration of the city. It could turn out good, I don't know.

REVISION: After seeing different designs, I realize that I do need a teen male and a teen female on the cover. The male should be a little more toward the front since he's the main character.

In a couple of days, I'll try to sketch out a little of the underground city, but you don't necessarily need to wait for that, especially if your design doesn't have anything to do with it. I need a full book cover, and I'll use the front cover portion for the e-book.