Chapter 8 finally introduced us to the Queen and King of Hearts, played by Jessie and James respectively. I toyed with the idea of just having Jessie feature in her own cover, and thus booted up Novel to see how she would turn out.
It was a mixed bag in each of these tries. I didn't have a set idea of how her gown should look, and the same went with the castle, as that would only be mentioned in passing. I pitched the idea to the AI that she would be holding a croquet mallet, as that was a key part of the chapter itself. However, it only generated it decently in the middle image, while the other two seemed to combine that idea with a scepter of sorts.
Lastly, I wanted to include at least one Togedemaru, as they also featured heavily in that same scene. Unfortunately, it seemed there weren't enough reference images for it on danbooru, and thus they didn't come out that well. The ones in the left image are hilarious, though.
In the end, I decided to go with a hybrid approach like I did with the Chapter 7 cover, generating separate images for Jessie, James, and Lillie, so as to have them all sharing the spotlight. It took a lot of attempts to get a James that was passable, but overall I think the final product came out okay.
Which of these alt covers is your favorite? Would you have used either of them instead of the final? (
https://www.deviantart.com/mario72486/art/Lillie-in-Wonderland-Chapter-8-See-Description-1034579548)
