Here is how I made a custom cover for author Norm Davies book, "Jonathan's Pocket Full of Truths".
1. Norm wanted his book's cover to be a portrait he has on his living room wall. Was it possible for me to make a book cover from that?
2. I live a couple of hours drive from Norm, so I went to his home and took photos of the painting
3. Then, I went to work in my studio using Abode Photoshop to begin the process of changing the painting into a book cover. The first steps were changing the center of interest to focus on the Captain's face without the ship's rigging and wheel competing for the eye's attention.
4. Then came the process of adding the necessary highlights and color changes to make the years of wisdom in the captain's eyes be the center of interest for the cover. After that, the components to make the image into a full-size book cover were added and the image was ready for type.
5. I added type to complete the front cover.
6. Then, I designed the back cover and added the back cover copy.
7. Moving from Adobe Photoshop to Abode InDesign, the cover was completed, sized for the book's spline, and made printer ready.
Copyright 2012 Freedom Road Publishing. All rights reserved.
