How to Make a Book Cover for Amazon's Kindle Part Four

Welcome back!  I'm really getting into the nitty gritty today. I'm going to show you how to install brushes and compose the images for your cover.

Let's get started.


Yesterday, we cut out our lady from the background.  You need to export the file and use the file extension PNG so that the background is transparent.  If you export it as a JPEG, the background will be white and that's no good!

Now go to your folder that you've exported your image to and click and drag your cut out lady over the black rose.  This creates a new layer over the black rose which is just what we want!

Position her like I've shown in the picture.  You'll notice there is a a harsh line cutting off the image.  We don't want that.  To fix it, we'll use the smudge tool again and soften it and make tendrils coming off the bottom of the dress.

Smudge tool!~

Use the smudge tool on the bottom part of the dress.

Use the smudge tool until the bottom of the dress looks like this.

Next, I need some smoke brushes.  I'm going to use red smoke like in the sample cover we're emulating.  I went to deviant art and found some great brushes which I downloaded.  The zip file is just the same as installing a font.  Extract to...Users--> Name ---> GIMP ---->brushes.  Then extract the files here.  You will need to close out GIMP and reopen it to get the brushes to load properly. 

Here is a link to the brushes I used:  http://www.deviantart.com/art/GIMP-Revnart-Smoke-Brushes-265220602

Now that I have my smoke brushes, I'm going to add them to the image.  I want to work on a new layer, so I hit Layer--> New and place the brushes accordingly.  Play around the with size, angle and placement until it 'feels' right.  These settings are on the tool's dialog box.  Hard to miss, but if you have trouble, message me.  

I also used a brush that is strands of hair. I found her hair blocky and unnatural looking.  I created a layer UNDER the lady layer and above the rose.  This is where I put the hair brushes.  You'll see what I mean on the picture.  Now, you can move a layer by clicking and dragging. 

Here's the link to the hair brushes.  You install them like you would fonts and other brushes.  Easy! http://www.deviantart.com/art/Hair-Brushes-Set-4-27031820

I also found the lady too bright and went to Colors and then Hue Saturation.  I took down the saturation by -22.  Much improved!  Now, I want her lips bright, more red.  So I made a new layer ABOVE our lady.  At the top of the layer dialog box you can see layer mode.  Usually, it's set to normal.  For this, I set it to 'Overlay'.  Then I chose a very dark red and painted over her lips with a soft, round brush.  This is what I came up with.

I'm pretty happy with this image here.  Now to pick the PERFECT font.  I want something similar to the example photo.  Let's see what I can find.  I'm going to post this, but I'm following it up directly with the end of the tutorial.  Stay tuned for part five, the last part, in about an hour.

Thanks so much and I hope these tutorials help.  As always, if you have a question, just ask!