Time to make up chapter-start images, a real title page, and the cover. Time to open up the GIMP.
Leaning on previous posts (INTRO TO IMAGES, CHAPTER-START IMAGES, COVER DESIGN) means we can proceed quickly.
Start by creating a New canvas: 500 x 400 at 300 dpi.
I had previously created a chapter-start design that had small italic text of the chapter number sitting on top of a blurred out version of the same word—bigger and with another font. I liked the way the smaller, red font seemed to jump up off the screen.
This time I decided to place the name of the chapter on top of the word CHAPTER, again in blurred-out gray letters. I positioned the end of the number up against the left edge of the R, and a little down from center. I added a space between letters of the number so the smaller numbers wouldn't look so lost way over at the end.
Save this image in an xcf file and you can create chapter after chapter: Type in the new number, Save As a jpg, select the number layer again and type in the next number. Repeat as necessary.
Here's a sample:
Since I wanted the word CHAPTER to fade a bit into the background, I selected its layer and dialed the opacity down to about 25 %.
I had a leg up in producing a cover, since I had already made one for the original book. You may recall I put the book up on Kindle, then took it down again, planning to re-release it in three beefed-up parts.
Because I wanted the covers of these three books to rhyme, I worked out a pattern: big title, big author name, one image.
That one image will be resized downward a bit, then moved to the upper fourth of the cover, leaving the rest for the other two elements.
The image is a rising Nike Hercules air defense missile, but seen in three slightly different environments. (And different versions.)
The original cover was meant to depict the final act of the book: Nike missile launching into a black night of fireworks. So I had that image to build on.
To make this one, I had found a good high-definition photo of the missile, taken in a Belgian air museum. It was complete, except for the bottom of the left-hand booster fin. The first thing I did was to isolate the right-side fin, then copy and paste it onto the left side of the missile—after using the Flip Tool. I also drew in the bottom of the fin that is coming right at the camera, which was also cut off by the wing of some aircraft in the museum.
Since at that point I wanted only the primer gray version, I first painted over the missile unit markings, then painted the booster tubes white to match. Later, reducing the brightness and adjusting the contract made the missile appear gray. (Colors, Brightness-Contrast Tool.)
In the process, I outlined the missile by hand with the Path Tool, so I could copy and paste it into a new background. Ultimately, the image of the missile was drastically reduced in scale (using the famous Scale Tool).
In an earlier version I had relied on a photo of a missile being launched, including the flame and smoke below the boosters. That flame got adjusted a lot, first by reducing it to 1-bit black and white (Image, Mode, Indexed, Use black and white palette), then by Bucket Fill to color the result.
The modified (and reshaped) flame was elongated to fit the new scheme, with the missile appearing nearer to the top of the cover. Also, I had to narrow it to fit the smaller scale of the final missile size. Extra flame was added with paint to create a bottom zone suitable for lettering. In the process, the flame became a lot more symbolic than realistic.
Ultimately, in order to standardize the flame for the three covers, I took an earlier version of the cover, painted out all the other elements (fireworks, missile), and isolated it with the Select by Color Tool.
In the first book, the launches occur during the day, with white clouds in the sky. I search the Internet for public domain photos of clouds, finally selecting one by Petr Kratochvil (publicdomainpictures.net). The sky was a nice dark blue, uniform throughout, and the cloud was nearly all there.
I downloaded the jpg and opened it in GIMP, resized it a little to match my canvas (1600 pixels wide), and pasted in onto a full size empty canvas. I anchored the layer near the top, sampled the color with the Color Picker Tool, and Bucket Filled the rest of the canvas with the same shade of blue.
I used the smudge tool to blend the painted background and the image, also extending the streaks downward to cover the fact the bottom of these clouds were cut off by the original framing of the photo.
After that I pasted the flame onto the canvas and moved it to the bottom. I then added the image of the missile, vastly resized, maneuvering it into position with its nosecone nearing the top of the cover.
To finish off, I add lettering with the Text Tool and a lens flare (Filters, Light and Shadow, Lens Flare). Here's the finished product:
Big title, big author name, single image: suitable for thumbnailing.
I need to convert the image to jpg for Kindling, but I'll keep a copy in GIMP's project version file (xcf), which preserves the layers containing each of the text elements, plus the background image.
This allows me to delete the background and paste in another one, for books 2 and 3 of the series. I need only select the layers with the title words, one at a time, to change them to the new title. The rest of the lettering is untouched (after bumping up the number in the series title at the bottom).
For the title page, I opened up a canvas 600 by 800, gave it a little Bucket Fill tint, and dropped in the missile image I prepared for the book one cover. I added a vertical line (you can use the Paint Tool to create a straight line by holding the shift key down) and lettering.
Hot Status (the book I'm working on here) is about a bunch of old Army vets putting together a private air defense site, using surplus military hardware. During my research I came across a lot of public domain photos (courtesy U.S. Army). (BTW, all photos taken by government employees are in the public domain; use it however you want, but acknowledge the name of the photographer if it's available.) I thought it would be good to place a dozen or so of the pix at the end of the book in a Photo Gallery.
I added a new anchor in the html code, just in front of the About the Author section, and amended the two Tables of Content accordingly. No start image this time, just header code. I massaged the photos through GIMP, resizing and adding captions where necessary, then added <img> code to set each one up in the book. I inserted page breaks so they'd each have a page to themselves. I also added a note to the Copyright & Acknowledgments page, alerting readers of the gallery's existence.
I dropped in the About the Author section from the original book—and I was finished.
Next time: techniques for final proofing, followed by the sacred act of Kindling.
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