Susan Price's 'Nennius' Blog: Multiplying, Colour-Burn and Gaussian Blur

Monday, 3 September 2018

Multiplying, Colour-Burn and Gaussian Blur

I started with this, drawn on a sheet of scrap paper, copied from a photo of a stuffed fox. I scanned it into the computer. Before I adjusted the contrasts, you could see the type showing through from the other side.

Then I opened the ink sketch in Photoshop, took out the white background of the scrap paper and added a dark background layer. Coloured the drawing, added a title and a screamer.

This is only a try-out for the front cover. I can't do the complete one until I've finished laying out the interior and know how thick the spine will be.
   I used various photos for reference, sometimes using the 'eye-dropper' tool to get an idea of what the colouring should be.
   I was so pleased with the result that I hailed a passing brother. "Cop a butcher's at this," I said.

   He came, he looked. A long silence. Then, grudgingly, "That's pretty good. Come out of it."
   He took over my chair. He over-layered in violet and red. He lowered opacity, multiplied and colour-burned. Recklessly, he employed the polygonal lasso and the Gaussian blur...
   My good friend Karen Bush tells me that she likes it, but the nose of the fox is a bit wonky. It is, I know, but I don't care. The original stuffed fox in the photo may have had its nose put out of joint -- and in any case the 'bone dog' of the story is a sort of Frankenstein fox, created by witch-craft from an old fox-fur clumsily stitched together.

Here's the completed cover.

Amazon 'suppressed' it for a while because they weren't convinced I own the publishing rights. They seem to do this with every book published with Createspace now, which I suppose is a good thing. Frustrating, though. My friend, the above mentioned Karen Bush, a retired member of this blog, was all set to publish her book about how to deal with your dog's fear of fireworks and had arranged an article in Your Dog magazine to help publicise it. But because Amazon suppressed her book she now doubts whether she'll be able to get a proof copy and make any alterations before the article appears.

You can find out about Karen's books on dog-training here.

The Bone Dog is part of a project of mine -- to republish all my out of print books for the age-group 8--10. Since The Wolf's Footprint is my best-seller among my indie-books, it seems to make sense to publish more for that market.