First Night Design | #PhotoRehabCoverMakeover #21 The Conjuring

#photorehabcovermakeover Week 21 The Conjuring © Sarah Vernon

Week 21? Who’d ‘ave thunk.  I didn’t have a chance to take part in The Photo Rehab Cover Makeover last week. Run by Desley Jane of Musings of a Frequent Flying Scientist and Lucile of Lucile de Goday, the challenge this time is to re-imagine a cover for the horror film, The Conjuring. No, I’ve never heard of it either and probably won’t rush to see it as I’m not a particular fan of horror, unless it’s the subtle variety like The Turn of the Screw.

In 1971, Carolyn and Roger Perron move their family into a dilapidated Rhode Island farm house and soon strange things start happening around it with escalating nightmarish terror. In desperation, Carolyn contacts the noted paranormal investigators, Ed and Lorraine Warren, to examine the house. What the Warrens discover is a whole area steeped in a satanic haunting that is now targeting the Perron family wherever they go. To stop this evil, the Warrens will have to call upon all their skills and spiritual strength to defeat this spectral menace at its source that threatens to destroy everyone involved. IMdb

The main image (luminosity mode) is a bad iPhone photograph of a painting showing a house — somewhere in Herefordshire, I think — that used to belong to my mother’s family. If you ignore the dirty marks of the mobile’s screen, the residence looks rather grand. What I wouldn’t have done to inherit it!

The underlay (normal mode) is part of a texture by 2 Lil’ Owls.

2 Lil’ Owls Texture Artists 3

I sharpened edges and adjusted contrast on both images in Photoshop before adding the text.

‘From the director of Saw and Insidious’, ‘Based on the true case files of The Warrens’, the actors’ names and ‘directed by James Wan’ are all in Sukhumvit Set Semi Bold. The title font is Catharsis Requiem Bold, which seemed rather appropriate with its nod to the Gothic. I also gave the title and the actors a bevel and emboss, drop shadow and inner glow style.

#photorehabcovermakeover Week 21 The Conjuring © Sarah Vernon

Click here for instructions if you would like to take part in future challenges.

Take care and keep laughing!

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First Night Design | #PhotoRehabCoverMakeover #19 The Romantic Manifesto

#photorehabcovermakeover Week 19 The Romantic Manifesto © Sarah Vernon

Another week and another challenge. It’s week 19 of the Photo Rehab Cover Makeover run by Desley Jane of Musings of a Frequent Flying Scientist and Lucile of Lucile de Goday!

The Romantic Manifesto: In this collection, Ayn Rand explains the indispensable function of art in man’s life, the source of man’s deeply personal, emotional response to art, and how an artist’s fundamental, often unstated view of man and of the world shapes his creations. In a chapter that includes an extended discussion of music, Rand explores the valid forms of art.

Is this me cheating? You may well think so. I have used a detail from a painting by Eloise Harriet Stannard (1829–1915) called Christmas Still Life. So that was easy! The title font is my old favourite, Zapfino Regular, while the author and ‘centenary edition’ are in Skia Regular. This painting epitomizes the art of good conversation to my mind. Gather your guests, set the table with good food and excellent wine and you’re off!

Buy The Romantic Manifesto by Ayn Rand

I don’t know about you but I loathe the cover (above) for the 100th centenary edition! It looks like it’s been thrown together by the office boy or girl who has no idea about good design.

Click here for instructions if you would like to take part in future challenges.

Take care and keep laughing!

First Night Design | #PhotoRehabCoverMakeover #18 The Long Kiss Goodnight

#photorehabcovermakeover Week 18—The Long Kiss Goodnight © Sarah Vernon

Let’s hear it for Week 18 of the Photo Rehab Cover Makeover run by Desley Jane of Musings of a Frequent Flying Scientist and Lucile of Lucile de Goday! The instruction this time was to create a cover for the film The Long Kiss Goodnight.

I’ve taken a light approach to this cover since the film, while purporting to have ‘the most spectacular action scenes you’ve ever seen’ (debatable) is also reasonably amusing. The other reason for such an approach is that I was out of inspiration and this is all that came to mind!

The retro housewife is from The Graphics Fairy and the gun from Wikimedia. I’ve used Dali Handwriting for the title font and Catharsis Requiem Bold for the actors. I did add a rolling-pin to the mix to emphasise the contrast between the character’s home life and her assassin alter ego but I couldn’t make it work.

The Long Kiss Goodnight is a 1996 action film directed and produced by Renny Harlin, written and produced by Shane Black and starring Geena Davis and Samuel L. Jackson.

Samantha Caine, suburban homemaker, is the ideal mom to her 8-year-old daughter Caitlin. She lives in Honesdale, PA, has a job teaching school and makes the best Rice Krispie treats in town. But when she receives a bump on her head, she begins to remember small parts of her previous life as a lethal, top-secret agent. Her old chums in the Chapter are now out to kill her so she enlists the help of a cheap detective named Mitch. As Samantha remembers more and more of her previous life, she becomes deadlier and more resourceful. IMDb

Click here for instructions if you would like to take part in future challenges.

Take care and keep laughing!

First Night Design | #PhotoRehabCoverMakeover #17 On Golden Pond

#photorehabcovermakeover Week 17 On Golden Pond

Believe it or not, it’s Week 17 of the Photo Rehab Cover Makeover run by Desley Jane of Musings of a Frequent Flying Scientist and Lucile of Lucile de Goday. The 1981 film, On Golden Pond, was this week’s challenge. I thought: log house, loons and water. I did search for loons but found nothing that would meld comfortably into the whole.

I used a photograph from Unsplash that was taken by Vidar Kristiansen. I ‘mashed’ it up a little so that it was darker where I needed the typefaces to show clearly, and gave it a marginally sunnier glow.

I enjoyed the film and was always fascinated by it, not least because of the troubled relationship between father and daughter on-screen and off. Henry Fonda was a cold and overbearing father to Jane and her brother Peter. The actress bought the screen rights to the stage play of On Golden Pond by Ernest Thompson because it mirrored their relationship.

Buy On Golden Pond

Their mother, Frances Seymour, who was Fonda’s second wife, committed suicide in 1950. For the remaining parent to be so domineering must have been extraordinarily difficult for the children. Jane writes movingly on her website about her mother.

I was interested to learn that it was the first time that those two Hollywood icons, Hepburn and Fonda, had ever met, let alone worked together. Hepburn gave Fonda  a ‘lucky’ hat that had belonged to her long-time love, Spencer Tracy, on the first day of shooting. It is the same hat Fonda wears in the film.

Click here for instructions if you would like to take part in future challenges.

Take care and keep laughing!

First Night Design | #PhotoRehabCoverMakeover #16 Dark Side of the Moon

Buy The Dark Side of the Moon by Pink Floyd

It’s Week 16 of the Photo Rehab Cover Makeover run by Desley Jane of Musings of a Frequent Flying Scientist and Lucile of Lucile de Goday,

#photorehabcovermakeover Week 16 Dark Side of the Moon

A makeover for The Dark Side of the Moon by Pink Floyd? Sacrilege, I thought. How could I ignore such an iconic image and do my thing for a breathtaking album that epitomizes my teenage years? I have a vivid memory of when I first heard it. I was with a boy in his bedroom and we were about fifteen. We did a little fumbling but nothing to worry the parents or the Mrs Whitehouse brigade. And we listened to the album. Loudly. Very. Bliss was it in that afternoon to be alive.

Desley and Lucile gave us a choice: Dark Side or Division Bell, another Pink Floyd album(or both). Since nothing came to mind for the latter, I went back to Dark Side and decided to play with same colours. The font is Telugu Sangam MN Regular. I prefer the original, to be honest. The album was released in 1973 and was designed by Storm Thorgerson and drawn by George Hardie.

Click here for instructions if you would like to take part in future challenges.

Take care and keep laughing!

First Night Design | #PhotoRehabCoverMakeover #15 Six Days Seven Nights

#PhotoRehabCoverMakeover #15 Six Days Seven Nights

It’s Week 14 already of the Photo Rehab Cover Makeover run by Desley Jane of Musings of a Frequent Flying Scientist and Lucile of Lucile de Goday, and the challenge is to create a new poster for the film Six Days Seven Nights (1998) starring Harrison Ford and Anne Heche. I only remembered the challenge at the last minute so I’ve not had much time. In other words, I threw this together in half an hour!

The original cover for the DVD

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Take care and keep laughing!

First Night Design | #PhotoRehabCoverMakeover #14 The Incident at Montebello by P.A. Moed

#photorehabcovermakeover Week 14; The Incident at Montebello by Patti Moed

It’s Week 14 of the Photo Rehab Cover Makeover run by Desley Jane of Musings of a Frequent Flying Scientist and Lucile of Lucile de Goday. They have chosen another book by a fellow blogger—The Incident at Montebello by Patti Moed of Pilotfish. Ms Moed is an award-winning creative artist who’s worked as a university professor, writer, textbook editor, photographer, corporate trainer, educational consultant, and instructional designer; that’s some CV!

I have used a family photo which you might recognise from my treatment of it for When Worlds Collide. I can’t pretend the vehicles are spot-on for 1930 but I consider them close enough to give a flavour of Patti’s book (which I have already bought for Kindle and am very much looking forward to). The strap line I’ve used is my invention!

Buy the book!

‘The Incident at Montebello is a historical novel based on a true event— In 1930, Italian Premier Benito Mussolini was driving through the Italian countryside with Cornelius Vanderbilt, Jr. when his car struck and killed a little girl, Sofia Buonomano. The Buonomano family is torn apart by Sofia’s death and is caught in a political firestorm that spreads from their village to Rome and across America and Europe. One family member, 16-year-old Isolina, witnesses the accident and recognizes Mussolini as the driver.’

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#BLOGSHARELEARN LINKY PARTY OCTOBER 16/15

Take care and keep laughing!

First Night Design | #PhotoRehabCoverMakeover #13 Golden Valley Silver Flowers

#photorehabcovermakeover Week 13 Golden Valley Silver Flowers

It’s Week 13 of the Photo Rehab Cover Makeover run by Desley Jane of Musings of a Frequent Flying Scientist and Lucile of Lucile de Goday, and I should be in time for the challenge!

I’ve kept it simple and used a marigold image from The Graphics Fairy.

The gals have chosen a book by a fellow blogger, Becky, who is donating 100% of her book royalties to help the refugees arriving in Europe.

In Becky’s own words:

I am a 28 year old PhD student in the field of neurovirology, freelance author and blogger. I’m much more besides that, but those are my professions.

I am a war survivor and former refugee and mostly I write real-life stories that happened to me or my close ones. I’ve seen a lot in my life and want to share my experience, hoping that someone out there might open his eyes and see it all in a different light.

I am a fighter for human rights, peaceful coexisting and a green planet. I’m against war – no matter where it takes place -, against trauma, post-traumatic stress disorders, pain, loss, hunger, injustice.

I dedicate all my stories to those who have suffered and lost and I donate from my author’s salaries to help people who are going through hell.

Feel free to join me and become a soldier of peace by following, liking, sharing or buying my recently published book (“Golden Valley Silver Flowers” by SB Selimovic).

Click here for instructions if you would like to take part in future challenges.

Take care and keep laughing!

First Night Design | #PhotoRehabCoverMakeover #12 The Cabin in the Woods

#photorehabcovermakeover Week 12

Whoops-a-daisy! I prepared my entry some days ago for Week 12 of the Photo Rehab Cover Makeover run by Desley Jane of Musings of a Frequent Flying Scientist and Lucile of Lucile de Goday, and then promptly forgot about posting it in time. Duh!

The challenge on this occasion was to do a cover for the horror film, The Cabin in the Woods (2012), a frightener if ever there was one.

I used a photograph taken by Mr FND when he was in the middle of nowhere trying to find the newly built Venice ferry port. I promptly added a lighted window from another photo of ours before doing the title, cast and director. Oh, and I also added one of my textured backgrounds.

Click here for instructions if you would like to take part in future challenges.

Take care and keep laughing!

First Night Design | #PhotoRehabCoverMakeover #10 The Lord of the Rings

#photorehabcovermakeover Week 10

It’s already Week 10 of the Photo Rehab Cover Makeover run by Desley Jane of Musings of a Frequent Flying Scientist and Lucile of Lucile de Goday.

I must state that I actively loathe the work of J.R.R. Tolkien so you’ll find no fawning here! No matter how many people exhort me to, I will never again pick up copies of The Hobbit or The Lord of the Rings and try to read them. Life’s too short.

I was so tired of dark colours that my original intention was to create something simple in black and white with the title, author, one of the protagonists, and a ring. I discovered a site that compared the characters to real people. Gandalf, as played by Ian McKellen, was likened to Walt Whitman, which tickled my fancy,  and I took it from there.

Once I’d dismissed the idea of black and white, I searched my designs and decided that the background textures from Turning Windmill might work rather well. I hope you agree.

Click here for instructions if you would like to take part in future challenges.

Take care and keep laughing!

First Night Design | #PhotoRehabCoverMakeover #9 George Orwell’s 1984

#photorehabcovermakeover Week 9

It’s Week 9 of the Photo Rehab Cover Makeover run by Desley Jane of Musings of a Frequent Flying Scientist and Lucile of Lucile de Goday. Actually, it might not be Week 9 — I seem to have got mixed up as I titled Green Mile #7; that’s what comes of dealing with far too many emails and an explosion of other people’s lovely blog posts!

I do know, however, that this week’s challenge, as you can see above, was to do a cover for George Orwell’s classic, 1984.

Buy a copy of 1984 by George Orwell

I chose to use I Can See What You’re Doing as the background to give the impression of a barricade. I added  the same photo from Unsplash that I used in Cabinet of Curiosities (the whirly window), and a medical drawing of an eyeball from The Graphics Fairy.

The font I’ve used (Bodoni) is not what I would have wished. I lost so many fonts last year when the computer died at the same time as the back-up (of course) and remembering the names and finding them again is proving almost impossible. The one I had in mind was what you might call ‘dirty’ and eaten into. Ah well!

Click here for instructions if you would like to take part in future challenges.

Take care and keep laughing!

First Night Design | #PhotoRehabCoverMakeover #7 The Green Mile

It’s Week 7 of the Photo Rehab Cover Makeover run by Desley Jane of Musings of a Frequent Flying Scientist and Lucile of Lucile de Goday. This week, as you can see, we’ve been asked to re-imagine a cover for either the book or film version of Stephen King’s Green Mile. I’ve seen the film a few times but not read the book. Actually, I’ve never read any of King’s work.

I didn’t think I was going to get this ready in time, as I said yesterday to Joanne of Coffee Fuels My Photography. At that point, I had loathed everything I’d tried. A short while ago, unable to sleep, I replaced one of my photos of some museum gates with a photograph of some prison gates from Wikimedia and blended it with a texture from 2 Lil’ Owls. I was more than happy with the result. I hope you like it too.

Click here for instructions if you would like to take part in future challenges.

And now I’m going back to bed: it’s ten to six in the morning here in Crete!

Take care and keep laughing!

First Night Design | #PhotoRehabCoverMakeover #6

I’m entering another challenge.  Who’d ‘ave thunk it! It’s actually a form of creative procrastination since although I have several pieces in the pipeline on my digital drawing board, as it were, I’m not happy with any of them at the moment. See a sneak peek of one on the right!

The Photo Rehab Cover Makeover is run every week by Desley Jane of Musings of a Frequent Flying Scientist and Lucile of Lucile de Goday. The idea is to re-imagine a new cover for a known work, whether a book, an album, or a movie, by adding your own photo and embellishments. For the latest challenge, we are asked to re-do a bar of chocolate – a particularly uninspiring packaging design as you can see!

I used a detail from one of my Christmas pieces which had been created using a photograph of a bowl of grapes to which I had added textures as well as leaves with Photoshop brushes. Since the original chocolate bar has the legend ‘Fair Trade, Fair Taste’, it seemed an appropriate detail of that image suggesting, as it does to me, the goodness of unadulterated food.

© Sarah Vernon

I took  as my lead the violet and teal hues of this detail to fashion the bands of colour containing the brand name and the type of chocolate. The lemon for the citrus taste is from The Graphics Fairy.

 Click here for instructions if you would like to take part in future challenges.

I suspect that since my adaptation is not obviously photographic, even though it was a photograph originally, it might not qualify for the challenge. But never mind!

Take care and keep laughing!