So everyone has started doing this awesome thing where they show how they started out, in all its naked horror, and show how they slowly started getting better. I thought that sounded like tons of fun, so decided to do it myself!

Note: This will be long. Not because I'm self-obsessed, but because I have been making this stuff for two years. That's a lot of history. XD

~ My first edits were for an RP~

I wasn't sure I'd even kept this after all this time, but I remember exactly what it was. It was just this terribly terribly awful collage that I just... agh, it was terrible so bad but so much FUN!

Obviously I was obsessed with my roleplay ship. I promise I'm better now! (GenghisCon33 *grabs Jystal and hides my babies in a corner*)

But anyway, some other pretty terrible beginner stuff evolved from that. They started edging slowly toward something vaguely like actual covers.

(*insert gouging out eyes with a butterknife*)

~ My first photomanipulations were... also for that same RP. *hides in shame* ~

I was an obsessed roleplayer, okay?? Don't judge me.

Oh gods... I tried swapping faces and yep. I don't know what happened there.

~ My first "covers" ~

My first covers were made using one of those dumb online "Make your own cover" websites (I don't remember which. Voila. *note sarcasm*

Short evolution bit here. The last one was alright. I was extremely proud of it, and I used it for over a year for that story. Note that I had then decided to adopt the name Torissa Nikole! Yay! :D

~ My second covers were... horizontal?? ~

The site I was on before Wattpad required covers more like profile banners than actual covers. They were... well, just look.

Oh that terrifying phase where I discovered Paint. Hello, Papyrus my old frenemy. Ouch.

But anyway, It was while there that I discovered PHOTOSHOP. :D

~ My super short Photoshop phase ~

We downloaded a trial version and I used the HECK out of it. But I didn't have much time to get used to it before the trial was up, so I only managed to squeeze these out. ><

~ My first ACTUAL covers ~

Right before the trial expired, I managed these:

~ The first commissions - introduction to picmonkey.com~

You all think me so self-centered by now, I know. But I was super enthusiastic about this story (as you can tell since I'm still writing it), and that was what was motivating me to write: having a new "awesome" cover each week. But then, some friends started up a book on that site for making covers for OTHER people. That was a new concept for me. I hadn't known that was a thing people did. So, I asked to join, and here are my first commissions. This happened to be where I had discovered picmonkey.com, and that is what I still use today. Of course, it took a while to get the hang of... Lol

And now I will never touch that style again.

~ Introduction to Wattpad ~

I had a Wattpad account for maybe a year or so before I actually started using it. When I did, I had to have a cover! So, thus was born my FIRST Wattpad cover:

Minor improvement here. Not too horrific I suppose.

Up to this point, my main story (Crystalline Melodies, obviously) had been a fanfiction (a Percy Jackson fanfiction, to be honest. The site I had been on was percyjacksonfanfiction.com. *hides in corner*) But I was putting so much work into it, that knowing it could never be published was killing me. So, I decided to change the story so that it was no longer a fanfiction. It would have the same plot, but would be a different world. One of my own creation. And that's what I've got up now, in "The Seventh Chance". But my covers had yet to improve XD

But still, seeing all the awe-inspiring covers on the Hot List, I wasn't satisfied. So I found picmonkey.com and began improving.

My first decent covers:

Most of the rest is what I've gotten to now, but I'll put down the next few stages I had.

~ My super early commission stage ~

~ My middle commission stage ~

~ Me right now (now with PHOTOSHOP :D)~

And luckily, my own covers have improved as well:

So there ya go. I currently use picmonkey for the graphic and Photoshop CC for the text, but I'm slowly weaning myself off of picmonkey to use Photoshop entirely. It's been SO much fun getting this far, and I have infinitely further to go, but I'm gonna have more fun trying. XD

I shall now go hide under blankets in the corner and never return. Enjoy my humiliation! *wheeeeeeeeee skips off to read "Cinder" and sip my peach green tea from my lovely coke-can like container that makes me feel cool*

^ My true 16-year-old-ness showing, there.

UPDATE: 4/4/17

It's been quite a while since I made this, so thought I'd tack on some more recent progress! :D

~ Recent-ish ~

~ Now! ~