Yes, I started with AI, (So, beat me with pejoratives) but I did two weeks of work on it, and changed so many things, AI just doesn't do it all.

To create a cover for my paperback book, I needed to use the eBook cover my son-in-law made for the front and find or create a picture with AI for the back cover and blend them together on the spine. I had a terrible time trying to match his blue Oregon forest with the rust and sunset colors and the completely different scene at the bottom. By the time I got things matching pretty well, the main characters faces on the front of the cover were blurred and grainy, and Brian looked like an old prospector. Super artifact-y!!!

I was so irritated after all that work and time! The AI asked me if I would like to have it re-do the entire cover and I figured, "what have I got to lose?" I wrote out a new prompt and waited. The cover it came up with was much better all 'round except Brian didn't look Jewish anymore, and he looked sixteen.

 I cut the head from another cover I made on a different site, where Brian's face was just what I wanted, and made it fit where Brian's head was on the new cover. I removed the background from the headshot so it looked more like it belonged there. Then I asked the AI to replace the man's head on the original book cover with this new one and blend it with the man's shoulders. I waited, twiddling my fingers and biting my cheeks. 

 Wow! It did a perfect job! I was so happy that the back and front covers were congruent! Now the workers were on the back cover, which I liked better. Brian's face was too red, Antonia's comparatively too pale and I didn't like the divider bar. It didn't match the other books. 

I erased the divider bar and repaired the forest that erasure messed up. Then I pasted in the one I wanted, and added more color to Antonia's face to match Brian's so they didn't look like they were in two separate dimensions! I also added highlights to her hand, refined it and used some shaders to give the whole thing a golden glow. A lot of work with paint in PixelmatorPro! I used a filter to tone down his face and make hers more rosy. I also worked on both their hands, again. It's getting better!

Finally, I added stars so it blended better with the other books in the series. I also worked on the lettering to make it pop and look more 3-D. A couple of weeks and a lot of work later, the final cover! 

 (A Note July 13, 2026 - Now I'm having cover regret. It's really pretty, but 1. It doesn't match the other covers, 2. This scene is too far into the story, when many things resolved. I think I need them to look as they were at the beginning of the story. When Antonia was confused about what to do with her life, and Brian decided to stop avoiding her and try to be the friend she needed. I'm working on it, stay tuned!)