Beauty in the Eye

In order to release her inner apoplexy at the horrendous book cover art that surrounds her at her job as a public librarian, Maughta over at Judge a Book by its Cover has a pantheon of examples of weirdly proportioned humanoids, bad air brushing and photoshopping techniques and just plain horrendous artwork. My bookseller vision honed by such bloggery, I was recently astounded by the bizarro qualities of this little number at the bookstore:



There is much that is heinous and puzzling about this cover. First, the subject (the author?) has an unnatural tilt of her left hand and this, coupled with the array of red-tipped finger-like lipsticks gives the impression of a many-tentacled amphibious creature.

Second, why are her hair and shoulders that wet AFTER she has applied her makeup, or as the creepy title refers to it, "put on her face". Is this some water-based space alien wearing someone else's face a la cheesy 80s TV show "V" or worse, maybe Hannibal Lecter? People generally put on their makeup after they towel off and get dressed. This cover just weirds me out all around. It's certainly not the glamorous cover you'd expect for a beauty book, unless you are an amphibian.