portraits for a novel

by Marie Seltenrych
(Margate, Queensland, Australia)

This particular work is totally imagination created. The portraits depict the characters (some of them) in my book.

These were created using PhotoStudio 5.5 (ArcSoft) which came free with my Canon scanner, and I just love working with this programme; also transferred images to Photoshop Elements 7, where I used other features, including the text for the book, and the circles.

I also used my new Wacom tablet: how can I describe this electronic pen - magic, amazing, fabulous. It just does what you say and mistakes can be removed quickly... or covered with another image using layers.

It took about four days, working on and off (maybe longer). I get so engrossed in my work that time stands still.

Knowing the characters in the book was a big help, forming my ideas as to how they looked as challenging as when I wrote this book five years ago, and had to re-visit. Originally I had a professional cover created and I still like that cover, but it had very little bearing on the story inside.

I believe it is important to give the readers an impacting image of the folk they will find inside the pages of a book. This was my first attempt at doing a whole cover electronically.

I mostly work for the love of it, fortunately we have other income at present, so I am very blessed.

Find Five Golden Rings and a Diamond on Lulu.