Cover Reveal – The Light of Day

Today we have another cover for Melange Books. This one was fun to do, largely in part because of playing with expression to achieve the mood I wanted to convey. For example, take a look at this stock photo: (http://www.dreamstime.com/royalty-free-stock-image-female-health-care-worker-image22294246) and compare her expression to the final cover. Liquefy filter and puppet warp tool in Photoshop– extremely useful. I made it so she no longer had as wide of a smile (based on the description of the book, I didn’t think a super cheerful tone would be in the cover’s best interest). Once I eliminated the teeth, I raised the chin, tweaked the corners of her eyes and lips, and even changed the nose and wrinkles of the cheeks just slightly to achieve the desired effect.

The other big edit that came for this one was using multiple pictures for the guy in front. Since he was supposed to be in a hospital gown, I had to add that in, which meant I needed to show more of his back. As a result, I merged three different images together to create the final picture.

And, on a final note: When you need a certain angle but the stock photo cuts off too soon on the person, the strategic placement of colorful title bars can prove useful. 🙂