CREATING THE COVER - NORTHERN ROULETTE

September 2021

Without giving too much away about the plot, I have a scene in my next novel which takes place on Holy Island. Holy Island, also know as Lindisfarne, is a tidal island off the coast of Northumberland, known for it's castle and priory.

One bright and sunny August day, I headed north along with my parents and Woolly Bear. The island was very busy with tourists so I had to be patient to try and capture the scene with as few people as possible. Once back home, I used Affinity Photo to remove a handful of people from the background and change the dimentions to match the book cover. I used the clone stamp tool to extend the rocks into the foreground and then set about playing with the colours. I added a dark gradient to the foreground to make the castle stand out, used colour dodge and colour burn to give the castle and sky more vibrancy and added an orange gradient to the sky to give the effect of a sunrise. The sun was drawn by hand.

Next up, I needed a shady character who looked like they were up to no good. Cue snapping a picture of my unsuspecting boyfriend as he walked our dog throught Kielder forest. First, I removed the background (and the dog). I wanted some white space between his body and right arm so removed the right arm and made a copy of the left one. I flipped it and altered the angle to make it look natural. Next I altered the brightness and contrast to create a sillouette and used the liquify tool to widen his shoulders. Once satisfied, I pasted him into the background image.

Finally, It was time to add the text. I hope you like what I came up with.

B x