Creating Stunning Aesthetics

I’m a writer. Which means I’m an artist. Which means I create. And one of my favourite things to create — other than new worlds, of course! — is aesthetics.

Aesthetics are an artistic way of presenting your novel using various images that depict a theme or concept. Think of the word “fear” — what kinds of images come to mind? Chewing fingernails? A person screaming in a locked room? Creepy, watching eyes? Maybe it’s a specific fear, like spiders or heights or — shudder — wasps. Those kinds of images can go into a mood board (or aesthetic) about fear.

But how do you find those images? Where do you look? How do you put them together to create an aesthetic?

The first step is to find a program that works for you. I favour Canva. Their free version offers hundreds of grids, pictures, and text options, but there are plenty of other choices to create awesome collages.

Next, you need to find pictures. This is where it gets a bit tricky and, at times, controversial. You might have heard that artists can sue you for using their creations without permission. This isn’t exactly true, because you aren’t trying to make money off of someone else’s work (and if you are, then this post is not for you, and you should get off the internet). It’s common practice when creating aesthetics using someone’s artwork to give proper credit. I’ll admit — in the past, I was guilty of not giving credit. Since then, I have avoided using digital artwork and instead use pictures of nature or people without deliberately showing their faces. That’s not to say this is a workaround to avoid giving credit where credit is due — artists work hard on their hard, and I don’t work very hard on my aesthetics. It’s not fair to use their work and get likes without giving them some traction. I just don’t like using digital artwork in my aesthetics.

That being said, there are many places where you can source images for your aesthetics. I’m partial to Pinterest, since you can use it to create individual boards for books, scenes, and characters. Seeing all the images gathered in one place can give you a better sense of the theme(s) of your work. Plus, sometimes you’ll notice a particular colour scheme comes into play (for example, Nova is all blues and purple while Sol is understandably gold). Unsplash is also a great source for free stock images. I’d recommend saving the pictures to a specific folder on your computer for easy access.

Now that you have a program to use and as many pictures as your heart desires, what next? This is where you let your creativity run wild. Many aesthetics follow a simple grid pattern. Try 6 or 9 images to see what works for you. (The great thing about Canva is that it offers different variations of different grid patterns. I tend to use 9 equally sized squares, but it’s up to you! Plus, the images snap into place, so they’re all the same size from the start.)

Two things to consider when putting your aesthetics together are colour and balance.

Colour

If you take a look through my past aesthetics, you’ll notice I tend to use desaturated and green tones. For the most part, my novel takes place in forests. The green colour scheme makes sense. But I also like editing my images so they don’t have too much contrast or heavy saturation. Canva gives you the option to use their preset filters or adjust as you see fit. My favourite is Nordic, because it gives me that desaturated look I like.

But colour is more than just editing the individual images. Colour schemes themselves are important to consider in the overall aesthetic. If most of my images have a lot of green, I’ll balance them out (more on that later) with browns or creams. Think back to “fear” — what colour might that be to you? I see it as red. So I’d probably make an aesthetic with splashes of red on black or white — bloody fingernails; red eyes; a black widow spider. But — don’t have too much of one colour (unless, of course, the theme is monochromatic)! One colour can become dull if there isn’t something else to balance it out.

Balance

I’m very particular about how I organize images on my 9-square grid, and I’ll often spend many minutes playing around with different orders to see what is most visually appealing to me. Usually that means four images (whether the corners or the centres) are different from the other five, with the very middle image pulling it all together. If I want splashes of red on black and white, then I will do a checker pattern. I won’t have two white images next to each other when everything else is dark — that throws the overall image off balance. Similarly, I won’t have a single image with text off to one side. I will either put it in the very middle, or the top centre square. If there are two images with text, then they will probably go on the left and right of the middle square.

Even in an image like this, there is a lot going on, with many tones fighting to draw the eye. I made sure not to have all the reds or creams together, so the top half isn’t overshadowing the bottom half, or vice versa. Additionally, when you have a lot of close-ups, like in this image, you’ll want to balance it out with some faraway shots. Eye-catching aesthetics tend to have clear colour schemes and nice balance, but remember this is meant to be fun. Don’t stress if the colours don’t exactly match or if you have too many dark images next to each other!

Aesthetics are a great and fun way to refill your creativity well. They get you thinking about your story in more than just words. Head on over to Twitter and search through the #WedWIPAesthetic tag — you might just find your next spark of inspiration! You can also take a look through my previous posts — all of them are aesthetics I have created in the last year! And let me know — what’s your favourite part of making aesthetics? Mine is seeing everyone’s stunning creations on Twitter! Aesthetic day is the best day of the week 😊