Building a Cover

Okay.  Let's see if we can have this make sense.

I read Chris' book years ago.  I don't remember much about it.  Someone is reviewing a murder case.

While he did have Photoshop experience in the past, he hasn't worked with it in years.  And it wasn't on any of his computers at home.  Chris sent me this image he tinkered together with some program.

Wrong shape.  1000 pixels X 1500 pixels.  Start with the correct shape and configuration.

It's arty, good for a gallery show but you can't tell what any of this is.  Too much text for a novel.  

Then he sent me this.  Apparently the book has something to do with a doll but I'm not sure.  This did give me an idea. What are the lines over the image?  They're supposed to represent puzzle pieces, some are missing, that's the black parts.   I don't think it works.  It's cluttered, you can't tell.  Or at least I can't tell.

I did a quick image search and turned up this

Wrong shape.  But I specifically looked for something with high enough resolution that could be manipulated and I wouldn't lose clarity.  It was also way too dark.  So I tweaked it and configured it correctly.  (Come on, it's not that complicated!)  And I added a watermark just now but ignore it.

I was happy.  Now to the text.  I wanted something bilious.  You can get fonts that are distressed looking, but I did it myself.  You simply use a grunge brush on the text.  There are tutorials you can follow.  It's easy.

Didn't show up.

This didn't work either.

This was it.  I placed it on top of the image.  You know me, I like to echo colors that already exist in the image.  I used the blue of the eye for his name and I was done.

I'm sure I haven't convinced some how really easy this is.  I didn't convince Chris!

I'll let you know when he gets it published and I certainly encourage you to buy a copy because he has pushed the envelope of what is being done with graphics and images in a digital book.