My husband came to my rescue and recreated for the omnibus cover the exact same look of the books in the Ginecean series. I merely played with the final product.
Roberto’s masterpiece in all its splendor:
My only contribution was to slightly change the effects on the two chosen images:
I think we have a winner.
Outside is foggy and grayer than usual. I’ve been waiting for a few sites to answer me back so I can plan my next book promotion, and so I had a few hours of idle time and started working on a possible cover for an omnibus. This is the first attempt.
I am still trying to scratch the surface of the behemoth that is Expression Design 4, but one day at a time I am getting closer to it. Today, inspired by one of the paintings I created with Artrage a few years ago, I invented a title, added several textures to match the mood of the title, then worked with 8 layers to manage text and image. A professional would have found an easier way to achieve the same result, without drowning under a sea of layers. Because of the typeface I used, this cover doesn’t work well when scaled to thumbnail size, but I like its overall feeling. The image conveys a sense of playfulness with just a hint of dark memories lurking under the title. At least, that is what I wished to achieve with this project. And now, I want to write this story.
In my attempt to create new covers for my stories, I have been hard at work and must confess I am having fun. Below, is an example of what I have done for the past three days. I have yet to master Expression Design and Gimp, but I feel I am making progress toward the right direction. I had a few images left over from earlier projects and I used them to create a series of mock book covers. Maybe I’ll write this story one day.
My cover artist and dear friend Alessandro Fiorini has started a new exciting career, and I know it is going to be hard to replace him. Therefore, in case I won’t find his replacement soon enough, in the last two months, I have tried to learn how to use Expression Design 4 and Gimp to create book covers. Not an easy task, but I have been busy working on it every day. As I wrote in a different post, I wasn’t happy with Elios’s cover. I didn’t like the model’s face and the overall palette. I worked on the cover Alessandro had created for me, using Painter to tinker with the image, but the result wasn’t of my satisfaction. At that point, I was ready to publish the book, but Alessandro was in the middle of his transition to the new job, so I couldn’t ask him to remake the cover and I uploaded the image anyway. Meanwhile, I started a new cover from scratch, using Gimp, Expression design 4, Paint.NET, and Painter. Yesterday, helped by my patient husband, I finally reached a level I could be happy with. And if only Amazon would upload the new covers, I would be happier still.
Those below are the old covers—which, much to my chagrin, at the moment are still displayed on the Amazon page. Among other changes, I had to decide on a different typeface because Trajan Pro, the one Alessandro originally used on Photoshop, didn’t look the same on Expression Design 4. Also, I worked with a different Etruscan alphabet for Gaia’s cover because I couldn’t find the one Alessandro used.
In the process of posting my Friday Snippet, I got sidetracked. Not that it takes me great effort achieving distraction… it isn’t a coincidence my furry baby is a beagle. Anyway, looking for a pic to accompany my latest excerpt, I remembered just recently I asked my dear hubbie to shoot some pics of me and Nero. Applied some Paint.NET to the original and then I thought about an apt title. I think I nailed it.
*Behind me, there’s part of Roberto’s and mine comic collection. Some of the magazines are still wrapped in their original bags. We collected double issues of the X-Men until we we got married, then we decided our relationship was serious enough to switch to one subscription. That’s love and commitment for you.
The oil version of yesterday’s drawing is prettier than the original, but it was more difficult to find the right words for it. I wrote several texts for this image, but all of them were too serious for a fairytale script. I finally settled for this one. See you in a month or so (Nanowrimo starts in two days.)
And this is what you eventually make with lemons and lemonades. Or, at least, this is what I made with yesterday’s drawing.
I had a busy morning which transitioned into a busy afternoon without stopping for lunch. Thankfully, I have friends with renewed cooking skills. None of what I just mentioned has anything to do with the image I’m going to post below. I just like writing. That’s all.
Happy Birthday, my love.
Monica La Porta 