Cover Construction

Firstly, I opened an A4 Photoshop document.

Next, I placed my front cover image into the document. I chose this image because I thought it represented my target audience because of the mise-en-scene and choice of model.

After perfecting the skin with the Spot Healing Tool, I began perfecting my photograph (airbrushing, touching up make up, ect) by using my Art Master III graphics board with the airbrush-style, opacity and size pressure enabled to create a more natural look when I airbrushed the face. Using the brush tool, I selected colours from the face and with a low opacity and flow, I drew over the face. 

I then did the same with the eye make up and lips making it more visible including the eye lashes with a very small brush and a higher opacity and flow. This represents my target audience because they will want to look like my model in terms of make up.

Next, I added the masthead. To make it appear that it is in between the model and the background, I duplicated the image and drew around the top of my models head. I then inversed the selected area (ctrl+shift+I/cmd+shift+I) and deleted the selected area. I moved the duplicated layer so it was on top of the masthead.

I then added a 'sun ray' shape over my model by creating a new layer, drawing it with the Polygonal Lasso Tool and filling the selected area with black. Using the Eraser Tool with a low opacity, I took out areas of the shape where I didn't want it to be a block colour. I then added text onto the shape: 'Zoe Truran' is written in the font Capitals with a drop shadow effect, and 'The start of' and 'Newcomer takes her talent further' is written in Britannic Bold with a drop shadow effect. This made the words stand out more against the background. This makes the main story more visible to the reader.

Next, I added three circles in the top left corner of different opacities to create a background for the text making it stand out to the reader.

I added a bar code in the bottom right corner and extended the white area by drawing a white rectangle behind it. I then added the date, website and price above the bar code. I put the price on this part of the magazine in a small font so the reader can take in the cover of my magazine which will make them want to read further before realising the price.

I added the text for the magazine stories on the left side with the headings in Britannic Bold with grey rectangles behind it making the white text stand out, and red text in Ariel Bold underneath giving some information about each story.

Lastly, I overlaid a grunge lens flare texture over the top with 50% opacity which made the background look more interesting.

After taking some more creative and interesting photography and redesigning my masthead, I created a new front cover that I thought represented my target audience better because of these redesigned aspects. I kept a similar layout to my cover, but added an ink splatter effect in the background on the right. I also made the text on the right smaller, and added a 'poster edition' section at the bottom. I think this design works better with the genre of my magazine and looks more interesting as a whole.