Magazine cover

I started with the masthead. This was simply overlapping identical text in different colour, the red over the black, and then erasing the red layer into a blood-like pattern, and using inner glow, drop shadow, colour overlay and satin in blending options.

I removed the black background and added some coverlines.

I found a tutorial on the internet and followed that to try and achieve a half-zombified effect. This is the screen grabs from my first attempt- unfortunately it was lopsided and had to be redone and I forgot to re-screen grab the new one, but it’s exactly the same method.

Copy-paste the left half of the picture onto itself, setting the layer to soft light.

Sponge out some of the colour from the left side.

Paint out the eye area in black

Copy-paste the iris of the right eye onto itself. Because my eyes are dark, I chose a lighter colour so it contrasted more. In the version I used, I chose blue.

Changed the saturation to blue and darkened the hue.

Sponged out more colour.

Added veins, bruises and scruffs to the left side using brushes I’d downloaded online. Lightened the saturation of the entire picture, added sparkle effects by adjusting one of the brushes and using the inner glow blending option.

For the background I chose this picture of the woods

Cut out the section most useful to me, inverting the colours to make it look more likenight.

By putting this layer over one with a brown gradient, I got this multi-coloured effect.

Added the background to the masthead and coverlines, adding a few more.

Having cut my main image from its original background, I pasted it onto the background.

Contents page

I bought a pumpkin, hollowed it and carved a face, then took photos from different angles. This was the best because of the light from behind and the angle.

I used the plastic wrap artistic filter and changed the angle slightly. I also manipulated the lighting effects option to centre the light on the lower right side of the image.

Added the text outlining the features of the magazine. Later I changed the font of the word ‘contents’ and added the ‘main feature’ and ‘regulars’ texts.

On a new layer I used the marquee tool to create the horizontal stripe, setting it to a low opacity. I used the same technique to create the white boxed beneath some of the features coverlines. Finally I used a brus to create the drip effect on the word ‘contents’.