When I was thinking about redoing the cover of Blink of an I (which wasn't an easy thing to decide, having put so much effort into the original cover and all), I began by trying to find a cover image that sparked me. I scanned through hundreds of photos and what I finally decided to do was use a woman's face. I downloaded about a dozen. Tried some different things and finally settled on this one:
But it wasn't quite right, so I flipped it and cropped it and played with the brightness/contrast until I had this:
Added text and tweaked the image some more to get this:
but it still wasn't right. It looked too 'women's fiction'. I needed something more. So I started playing with the image using the 'effects' available in my photo manipulation program. I hit on an effect called Bas Relief and used a background color as close to indigo as I could. (If you're read the book, you know why I went with indigo.) And I came up with this:
Cool, but still not quite right, so I found a stairwell...
...did the bas relief thing to it, too, and then added it into the other image. And voila!
Anyway, that's how it's done over here in 'self-published author making her own covers' land. It takes time and patience, but on the upside, it doesn't cost me any money.
And you came out with an interesting cover!
ReplyDeleteI love designing my covers. They might not attract readers as well as I'd like, but they mean something to me. Besides, it's fun. :-D
There are days when I think I should learn Photoshop. Especially when Only is busy and I need a cover ASAP. Then I look at it (and GIMP) and even Paint 3D and I freak right the hell out. I'm still trying to figure out Crello and Canva. *headdesk* Still, always interesting to know about your process. :)
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