#cover tutorial

1. Go to file and hit "New" to start a new canvas. My preferred dimensions are 512x800 because that's the Wattpad size, but you can change it to whatever you like!

2. Load your background and FC image you want to use. I shop around for good background stock packs and the one I used for Manic is from a fantasy pack I found on deviant art. The image of Danna Paola I just found on google. I prefer to use transparent PNGs cause I don't have to erase around them, but regular photos work too!

3. The next thing you want to do is hit "Free Transform" and adjust the background and PNG to the position you want. You should see an outline like in the above picture. Now that I have the images where I want them, I'm gonna erase the excess background around Danna so that the clock shows behind her. Load the brush tool and set it anywhere from 40% - 70%. That way the edges aren't too harsh. I add a raster mask and use the black paint tool to erase it. It should look like this when you are done.

4. Now come the fun part, TEXTURES!! Seriously these changed my life. For this one I added some green smoke that I found on google and an image of a green snake that I also found on google.

Because I didn't like how the border of Danna's pic was showing through the smoke, I erased the bottom of her picture so it looked more blended in. Then, after adding the snake pic, I went over to the little bar above the layers that says "Normal" and switched it to "Lighten" so it blends in more. Then I took the brush and continued to erase parts of the pic until it looked like how I wanted it!

5. Now if I want to get that shiny sort of waxy look for my OCs, I have four very simple steps. The first is to click on "Image" and go to "Shadow and Highlights" It should look something like this:

From there I just adjust the top part to my liking. I tend to lower Amount and increase Radius but it differs from picture to picture. When I'm satisfied, I go to "Layer" and hit "Convert to Smart Object" so you should have a tiny little square that indicates it's been converted. Then I just play with the filters Photopea gives me.

I personally like to use Diffuse, but there are tons of different options you can use. After that, I click Smart Sharpen three times and that's how you get that waxy sort of look. With the Diffuse filter especially the face and hands of your FC can get all wavy and stretchy, so I just take the brush tool and brush it over the wavy and stretchy areas.

Your cover should look like this now!

6. To achieve the sort of highlight and green look, I take a Hue/Saturation layer, hit colorize, and adjust it to my liking like this

I wanted it to match the green smoke, so I made the layer green. I then hit CTRL + I to invert the raster mask and take the brush layer and just highlight the areas to make it look like it's hitting her naturally. USE WHITE FOR THIS STEP. Also make sure your brush is at 0% otherwise it won't look as good. It should look like this when you're done!

7. Now add your PSDs and text and you're done! If you want something a little extra fun, go to filters and hit "Distort" while on the text layer and play with the different options until you find something you like!

And now you have a cover!!

so i’m not going to make this cover again from scratch, so i wont have screenshots of everything, but ill do my best to explain.

i dont have the links to the psd’s that i use, and i dont want to repost them without credit, sorry about that -- but it works better if you have your own psd’s honestly!!

i make my covers using photoshop cc 2019 -- if you’re having trouble finding certain tools/etc on your program you should be able to find the answer on google!!! or ask me if you’re super unsure.

you’ll need basic knowledge of photoshop/editing software to follow this, it would be a huge tutorial if i were to explain absolutely everything haha

good luck!!!!!!

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bring up ur canvas and create your first layer! the first layer is just a plain white background, use the paint bucket tool for this.

so ur just going to bring up ur photo in another window, preferably something with a high resolution, something this size or even bigger (so around 1000 x 1000 pixels - just to make it easier for you)

then using the polygonal lasso tool you’ll want to cut around the person in your picture, making sure that all of the background is gone (you may have to change pictures if there’s stuff in the background overlapping the subject). after that’s done just delete the background.

then you transfer the picture of the subject onto the canvas with the white background. move the subject around until it looks nice! maybe resize it so theres a decent amount of white space in the background, but keep the subject in the middle.

then that leaves you with something that looks like the picture below!! (ignore the squiggly shapes!!! we’ll get to those later!!).

you then want to duplicate the layer of the person, which you can do by right clicking on the layer and selecting ‘duplicate layer’.

next click the little eye icon next to ONE of the layers of the person. this will make it temporarily disappear (you can bring it back by clicking that eye icon again lol).

then u want to click on the visible layer of the person and then find the gradient map adjustment and click on it - this will bring up another tab > click on the bar > gradient editor comes up > create a gradient with two colours of your choice (i used #c56d9c and #459097 in the cover) > make sure the colours look good together cause they’re not gonna change much from now.

then u want to delete the gradient map from everything but the person layer - on mac you can press command and click on the little preview of the layer in your layer tab (shown below) (idk what the windows equivalent is oops) (also if you need to switch the selection you can right click on the cover while its selected and click ‘select inverse’).

that selects the outside of that layer for you > click the gradient map layer and then delete the outside. then ur left with something like this (colours are different cause i’m redoing parts of cover to demonstrate) (still ignore the shapes lol, we’re getting there).

after this you want to select ‘gradient map’ and the layer you’ve been using and then right click and ‘merge layers’ - giving you two layers! one unselected with the original cut out image and the other has the gradient map on top of it.

now we click that eye button again!!!

next click on your equivalent of ‘layer 11 copy 2′ > go to filters > noise > add noise > and have your settings like this

repeat this exact step with your equivalent of ‘gradient map 1′. this gives you a grainy look!

NOW FOR THE SHAPES!!!

what you want to do is make sure your layers are ordered like mine are in the ones above. the gradient map one below the other.

then select the lasso tool!!! and basically draw little shapes on the top layer, deleting what’s inside them to reveal the gradient map version!!! do this until u think it looks nice... i tried to avoid doing too big shapes or putting in weird spots.

what i also did was click on the gradient map layer > go to filters > go to liquify > copy these settings (adjust them if u dont like them tbh)

and then do some dragging. it just means that the layer underneath is distorted from the one on top and u can sort of see it through the shapes!

and thats that for the actual picture editing.

next we’re doing text. (u can click those little eye buttons next to the picture layers so u dont have to worry about them rn)

for that you want to use arial, bolded. and just repeat your text in the whole background. i kept it one word per line and just increased the font size to make it fit. (you can even create a new text layer and manually place it underneath each other one to make it look the best - i probably did that lol). (you want to be doing this in black for now so you can see what ur doing).

next select the text > click on the text icon > then the little ‘warp text’ icon below > and then you get a pop up > click dropdown menu > twist > adjust settings to your liking (the settings below arent the ones i used).

make sure this is repeated on every word and it looks something like this

then you cant go ahead and select the text layers > rasterize layers > merge layers (if you need to) > then duplicate that twice > meaning you then have three seperate text layers all on top of each other.

double click on one of the layers > colour overlay > select colour of your choice.

repeat the above step with one of the other layers

with your last layer you want to do the same thing but keep it white.

label them like this.

keep the white layer on top!!

then you want to select ‘colour one’ on your thingo that shows you all your layers stacked lol. and then you nudge that (using your arrow keys only) down ONE time and left three times (more if you need it).

then do the same thing with your colour two, except now we’re nudging it ONE down and three right.

we then pretty much end up with this,,,

then just click the eye buttons on the picture layers.

ending up with this

then i just added these psd’s that i’ve had for ages and i use for pretty much most of my covers

(idk i cant really explain what these ones do specifically, but i recommend looking for some of your own and learning how to make your own) (cause they really make the cover look better)

and basically yeah!!!

we end up with that ^^^!!!!

unless i’ve missed anything lol

hopefully that wasn’t too hard. let me know if there’s anything you need help with!!! and show me if you follow the tutorial