Design a Retro-Futurist Sci-Fi Book Cover

Open Lopsy. In the New Document dialog, set Width to 1600 and Height to 2400 pixels and click Create. That's a 2:3 portrait page, close to a mass-market paperback.

First rename Layer 1 to Sky by double-clicking its name. Guides mark the margins and the two bands of the cover's "trade dress". Click on the top ruler to add vertical guides at about 80, 800 (the centre) and 1520. Then click on the left ruler to add horizontal guides at 132 (the bottom of the top band) and 2140 (the top of the bottom band).

Then open the View menu and untick Snap to Guides. You'll draw lots of small marquees close to these guides later, and snapping would pull their edges onto the guide lines.

With Sky selected, pick the Gradient tool, set Type to Linear and click Advanced…. Click on the gradient bar to add stops until you have eight. Then give them the dusk-sky colours from the palette, at positions of about 0, 30, 50, 60, 68, 76, 88 and 100%.

Drag from the top guide straight down to the bottom guide. The pale sage stop between the teal and the peach matters: without it, a blend from teal to salmon passes through a dull grey.

Add a layer called Stars and fill it with #808080 (Edit → Fill). Run Filter → Add Noise… with Amount 100, Mono and Gaussian. Gaussian noise piles most pixels up near the middle grey, so only a few land near white. Those few will be your stars.

1. Run Filter → Threshold… at 182. Only the brightest specks survive, as single white pixels on black.
2. Open the layer effects drawer and set the blend mode to Screen. The black disappears and only the stars show.

For a few bigger stars, add a Bright Stars layer and repeat the grey fill and the noise. Then run these four filters in order:

1. Threshold 190
2. Gaussian Blur 2
3. Threshold 22
4. Gaussian Blur 1

The blur and the second threshold swell each surviving speck into a small, soft dot. Set this layer to Screen too. (The screenshot already shows the fade you'll add in the next step.)

Stars shouldn't show in the sunset. With Stars selected:

1. Click Add Mask at the bottom of the Layers panel, then click the mask's thumbnail to edit the mask.
2. Set the gradient to two stops, black → white.
3. Drag from just above the peach part of the sky (about y 1400) up to about y 650.

While you're editing a mask, Lopsy tints the hidden part blue, as in the screenshot. Do the same on Bright Stars, then click a layer name to leave mask editing. The stars are now dense at the top and thin out towards the horizon.

The whole cover uses flat, gouache-style shading: two or three solid tones instead of smooth airbrushing. Light comes from the upper left.

1. Add a layer called Planet. With the Elliptical Marquee, hold Cmd and drag a perfect circle about a quarter of the page wide (410 px) in the upper right, centred around x 1150, y 820. Leave a clear band of sky under the title area. Fill it with #E0A24E.
2. Cmd-click the Planet thumbnail in the Layers panel to load the circle as a selection again. Then Alt-drag a slightly larger circle, shifted about 75 px up and to the left, to subtract it. What's left is a crescent on the lower right (shown above). Fill it with #C47838.
3. Load the circle again and repeat with an offset of about 30 px. Fill the thinner crescent with #8E4628.

Bands on a sphere curve like lines of latitude, so draw them as thin crescents too. Add a Planet Bands layer and set the foreground to #A3532E. For each band:

1. Cmd-click the Planet thumbnail to load the circle.
2. Shift+Alt-drag a wide, flat ellipse across it, a little wider than the planet and about a quarter as tall as it is wide. Only the part inside both shapes stays selected, so nothing spills off the edge.
3. Alt-drag an ellipse of the same size, 16 to 30 px higher. What's left is a thin "smile". Fill it.

Make five bands, of different thicknesses, spread from near the top of the planet to near the bottom.

Cmd-click the Planet thumbnail again, run Filter → Gaussian Blur… at 3 to soften the bands inside it, and set the layer's opacity to 70%.

Now draw a rectangular marquee around the planet and switch to the Move tool. Drag just outside a corner handle (the cursor turns into a crosshair) to rotate the bands about 16° clockwise. This matches the tilt the ring will have. Press Cmd+D to commit.

Add a Planet Highlight layer above the bands. Draw a small ellipse, about 110 × 75 px, on the upper left of the planet and fill it with #F4CD8A. Putting it on its own layer keeps the bands from showing through it.

The ring is a set of ellipses that all share the planet's centre, so add two temporary guides through it first: click the top ruler at x 1150 and the left ruler at y 820. Start and end each drag the same distance either side of where they cross; the Info panel shows exactly where you are.

1. Add a Ring layer. Draw a wide ellipse almost twice the planet's width and about a fifth as tall (760 × 168 px).
2. Alt-drag a smaller ellipse inside it, three-quarters the size (584 × 120 px), to cut out the middle. Fill the ring with #F1E2C0.
3. Draw the big ellipse again and Alt-drag one just inside it (692 × 150 px), leaving the outer edge. Fill that outer band with #D8A867.
4. Draw that 692 × 150 ellipse once more, Alt-drag a slightly smaller one (668 × 144 px) inside it, and press Delete. This cuts a thin gap between the two bands, like Saturn's Cassini Division.

Drag the two temporary guides back onto the rulers when you're done.

Draw a rectangle around the ring, switch to the Move tool and rotate it 16° clockwise, the same as the bands. Press Cmd+D.

For now the whole ring sits in front of the planet. The half that should pass behind is the part above the ring's centre line:

1. Cmd-click the Planet thumbnail.
2. Switch to the Lasso. Shift+Alt-drag a polygon whose bottom edge runs along the tilted centre line of the ring and whose top is well above the planet.
3. The intersection is the planet's upper half, cut at the ring's angle (shown above). With Ring active, press Delete.

Select Ring, add a Moon layer above it, and Cmd-drag a circle about 128 px across in the upper left, around x 230, y 700. Fill it with #EDBC57, then use the crescent trick again with #B9822E: load the moon's thumbnail, Alt-drag an offset circle, and fill.

For each crater, fill a small ellipse with #D49E3D. Then draw the same ellipse again, Alt-drag a copy nudged slightly down and right, and fill the leftover sliver with #9C6824. That puts the shadow on each crater's upper-left wall, the side facing away from the light.

Where the ring crosses the planet, the gap you cut shows the planet through it, which looks like a mistake. Fill it in with a darker tone instead:

1. Add a Ring Gap layer and drag it below Ring.
2. Cmd-click the Ring thumbnail to load its shape. Run Select → Grow… 8, then Select → Shrink… 8. Growing merges the two bands across the gap, and shrinking brings the outer edges back where they were.
3. Fill the selection on Ring Gap with #9C6A3C, then delete the back half again with the same circle-and-lasso selection as before.

For the shadow, add a Ring Shadow layer below Ring Gap:

1. Load the ring's shape again. With the Rectangular Marquee active, nudge the selection 16 px down and 5 px right with the arrow keys, and fill it with #5A2232.
2. Cmd-click the Planet thumbnail, choose Select → Inverse and press Delete, so the shadow only falls on the planet.
3. Lasso any shadow that lands above the front of the ring and delete it too.
4. Set the layer to Multiply at 50%.

You'll draw the rocket standing upright, then tilt the whole group at the end.

1. Select Moon, click New Group and name it Rocket.
2. Inside it, add four layers from bottom to top: Flame, Fins, Hull and Trim.
3. On Hull, use the Lasso to draw a cigar shape about 180 px wide and 800 px tall, centred on x 500. Give it a pointed nose at the top, straight sides, and a tail that narrows slightly at the bottom.
4. Fill it with #F3E6C8.

A cylinder in gouache is just vertical stripes of flat colour. For each tone, lasso the hull again, then Shift+Alt-drag a tall rectangle to intersect:

1. The right 30% of the hull: #D9C29A.
2. A narrow strip at the right edge: #B59873.
3. A thin highlight stripe left of centre: #FFF9EC.

For the nose cone, lasso the top 270 px of the hull and fill it with #E2714E. Then shade it the same way with #B9473A, #8E3333 and #F5A27C.

1. On Fins, lasso two swept-back fins, one on each side of the tail. Each starts on the hull about two-thirds of the way down and sweeps out and down past the tail. Fill the left fin with #E2714E and the right one with the shadow coral #B9473A. The flat light from the upper left does the rest.
2. Still on Fins, lasso a short trapezoid nozzle under the tail. Fill it with #172636, then give its left third a lighter #4F6170 face.
3. On Trim, lasso the hull, Shift+Alt-drag a 30 px horizontal band about two-thirds of the way down, and fill it with #172636.
4. Lasso the hull once more, then pick the Brush at Size 5 and Shift-click a line across the bottom of the nose cone. The selection keeps the seam inside the hull.

Portholes. On Trim, centred on the hull between the nose seam and the navy band, fill a circle about 80 px across with brass #E0A93E, then use the crescent trick to darken its lower right with #A06A24. Fill a smaller circle inside it with #2F7C7A, shade it with #154048, and add a tiny cream glint #FFF8EA. Add a second porthole about half the size just below the first, the same way.

Flame. On Flame, lasso three nested teardrops hanging from the nozzle and fill them from the outside in:

• the longest, about 480 px, with #D9503A
• the middle one with #F39A42
• the short core with #FFE08A

Then turn on Outer Glow in the effects drawer: colour #F39A42, Size 40, Opacity 75.

Number. With the Text tool, set Righteous at 40 px in #172636 and type KN-9 just below the navy band. Centre it on the hull with the arrow keys.

Click the Rocket group's row in the Layers panel and make sure nothing is selected on the canvas. With the Move tool, one box now frames every layer in the group. Drag just outside its top-right corner to rotate the whole rocket about 25° clockwise, so it points up at the planet, then press Enter. (Earlier you committed with Cmd+D, which also drops the marquee. There's no marquee here, so Enter is all you need.)

Every layer turns around the same centre, and the KN-9 text stays editable.

Select Moon and add a Sparkles layer. Zoom in on the lower right of the sky and lasso a four-point star with concave sides, about 90 px tall: click its four tips, and between each pair of tips click a point about a fifth of the way out from the centre, so the sides curve inwards. More clicks make smoother curves. Fill it with #F7EBCF. Sparkles like this, sometimes called "atomic stars", are all over 1950s design.

Draw a rectangle around the sparkle and press Cmd+C. For each copy:

1. Press Cmd+V. The paste lands in place on a new layer.
2. Drag it somewhere else with the Move tool.
3. Draw a marquee around it and Cmd-drag a corner handle to scale it down evenly, to somewhere between a third and two-thirds of its size.
4. Press Cmd+D.

Make five copies of different sizes. Keep them in the dark part of the sky, away from the ring's tips and the rocket's nose.

Select the top sparkle copy and choose Layer → Merge Down, repeating until only Sparkles is left. Then add an Outer Glow in #FFE9B8 at Size 22 and Opacity 65, so they twinkle.

For a sense of speed, select Moon and add a Speed Lines layer. With the Brush at Size 5 in #F7EBCF, Shift-click three long lines parallel to the rocket, trailing back along its left side, and set the layer's opacity to 70%.

Select Sparkles and click New Group. Name it City. It sits below Rocket, so the rocket will fly in front of the buildings. Add a Far City layer inside it.

1. Draw a rectangle standing on the bottom guide.
2. Shift-drag more rectangles along the guide, 60 to 120 px wide and 150 to 330 px tall, with small gaps between them.
3. Shift-drag two elliptical domes and one thin rectangle for an antenna.
4. Paint the selection with a vertical linear gradient from #2C6A70 at the rooftops, through #4E7A80, to a hazy #9A8288 at the horizon. The haze pushes the far towers back.

Add a Near City layer. You'll build the whole near skyline as one big selection, Shift-adding one piece at a time, and fill it once at the end. Work left to right:

1. Bottom band and podium. Draw a rectangle from the bottom guide to the bottom of the canvas, then Shift-drag a 70 px tall strip across the full width, sitting on the guide.
2. Dome. Near the left edge, Shift-drag a big ellipse about 460 × 380 px centred on the guide, so only its top half shows.
3. Towers. Shift-drag five rectangles, 60 to 100 px wide and 180 to 370 px tall: two left of centre and three on the right. Give each a rounded roof by Shift-dragging an ellipse as wide as the tower across its top edge.
4. Saucer building. In the middle, Shift-drag a thin 20 px stalk up from the podium, a flat ellipse about 160 × 40 px on top of it, and a small dome on top of that.
5. Boomerang building. Right of centre, use the Lasso with Shift to click out a low building about 250 px wide whose roof zig-zags up and down.
6. Space needle. Right of the boomerang building, Shift+Lasso a tall, narrow tapered stem (about 570 px) and two splayed legs reaching out to the guide on either side. Then Shift-drag a wide flat saucer (about 290 × 60 px) near the top, a smaller domed cap on it, and a thin rectangle for the spire.
7. Pylons. Shift-drag three thin rectangles, about 22 px wide, rising from the guide to just above the podium. They'll hold up the monorail track.

Fill it all with navy #13283A. Because everything is one colour, the overlaps merge into one silhouette.

A hand-drawn lasso arch looks wobbly. The Pen tool gives a smooth curve. Pick the Pen, set Stroke to 30 in the options bar, and keep navy as the foreground colour. Then click-drag three anchor points:

1. Left foot: start on the bottom guide just left of the saucer building and drag up and slightly right.
2. Apex: about 385 px above the guide, drag horizontally to the right.
3. Right foot: on the guide on the other side, drag down and slightly right.

Press Enter. Lopsy saves the path and strokes it onto Near City in one go, and the arch frames the little saucer building, like a 1960s airport landmark.

Draw the track the same way, but stroke it from the Paths panel this time:

1. Click-drag three anchors across the full width, just above the podium: start off the left edge on the pasteboard, put the middle anchor slightly higher, and end off the right edge.
2. Click the ✓ Commit path button in the options bar. That keeps the path without stroking it.
3. Open the Paths panel, select the path and click Stroke Path. Set the Width to 24 and click Stroke.

The track arches gently and sits clear of the saucer.

Rows of lit windows are a job for a pattern.

1. On a scratch layer, fill an 8 × 12 px rectangle with #F4C65E.
2. Draw a 22 × 28 px marquee around it, with the window 7 px from the left and 8 px from the top, and choose Edit → Define Pattern.
3. Delete the scratch layer. The pattern stays available.

Add a Windows layer above Near City. Shift-drag rectangles over each tower face, the boomerang building and stretches of the podium. Then Alt-drag over the pylons to leave them dark.

Choose Edit → Fill with Pattern…, pick your 22×28 pattern at 100% scale and click Apply.

For the saucer lights, open the brush presets, go to Shape and set Spacing to 200. Then, with a Size 7 brush in #F4C65E, Shift-click a line across each saucer's rim. The wide spacing turns each line into a row of separate bulbs. Set Spacing back to normal afterwards.

Finally, give Windows an Outer Glow in #F4C65E at Size 14 and Opacity 70.

Add a Monorail Train layer and build a 38 px tall capsule standing on the track, between the arch and the needle tower:

1. Draw a rectangle about 240 px long, then Shift-add a small ellipse at the back and a longer ellipse at the front.
2. Alt-drag away the lower half of the front ellipse to make a sloped bullet nose, and fill the capsule with #F3E6C8.
3. Cmd-click the layer thumbnail, intersect with a rectangle over the lower half, and fill it with #D9C29A.
4. Do the same with a thin rectangle for a coral #DD6748 stripe, and with a 10 px band near the top for gold windows #F4C65E.
5. With the Pencil at Size 3 in navy, Shift-click short vertical dividers across the window band.
6. Cutting away the lower front leaves a small notch under the nose. Lasso a thin wedge there and fill it with #D9C29A, so the nose sweeps back in one clean line.

With Monorail Train selected, add an Exhaust Trail layer. It goes inside City, at the top, so the smoke sits in front of the buildings.

1. Lasso a tapering plume from the tip of the flame down to the lower-left corner.
2. Shift-add about nine circles along it, growing larger towards the bottom left, and fill with #F7EDDA.
3. Cmd-click the Exhaust Trail thumbnail to load the shape again. Then Alt-drag each circle a little up and to the left, which leaves a crescent on the lower right of every puff. Fill those with #E6C2AA.
4. Select everything below the bottom guide and press Delete, so the smoke stops at the band.

The flame now ends in the smoke, so the rocket looks as if it has just cleared the rooftops.

Select the Rocket group, click New Group and name it Cover Type. Add a Trade Dress layer inside it.

1. Fill a rectangle across the top, 124 px tall, with #13283A.
2. Fill an 8 px coral #DD6748 rule just below it.
3. Fill a matching rule along the bottom guide.

Pick the Text tool. Set Righteous at 326 px in #F3E6C8, click on the sky and type KESTREL. Switch to the Move tool and use the arrow keys to centre it, leaving about 70 px of sky under the coral rule.

Add a Drop Shadow in coral #DD6748:

• Offset X 10, Offset Y 11
• Blur 1
• Opacity 100

A Blur of 1 keeps the shadow's edge crisp, like a second ink printed slightly out of register.

Set Righteous at 92 px in #EDB24C, type NINE, and in the Text panel set Letter spacing to 36. Centre it under the title.

On Trade Dress, use a Size 6 brush in the same gold to Shift-click a 250 px rule on each side, leaving a 30 px gap to the letters. Then click once with a Size 18 brush at each outer end to add a dot. Check that there's still a clear band of sky between NINE and the top of the planet.

Starburst. On Trade Dress, draw the imprint's starburst near the left guide with a Size 5 gold brush. Shift-click four lines that cross at one point, two long (horizontal and vertical) and two short diagonals, which gives eight rays. Add a dot in the middle with a Size 14 brush.

Imprint and price.

1. Set Federo at 44 px in cream with Letter spacing 6 and type COMET LINE BOOKS to the right of the starburst.
2. Type D-417 40¢ in gold and line its right edge up with the right guide.
3. Centre both vertically in the band.

1. Set Yellowtail at 56 px in gold, with Letter spacing back at 0.
2. Type Nine pilots. One rocket. No way home. and centre it about 40 px below the coral rule.
3. Below it, set the author's name, MARGO VANCE, in Righteous at 86 px in cream with Letter spacing 10.

Period paperbacks set the author's name big. Leave at least 60 px between the name and the bottom edge.

Select Sparkles (a layer outside the groups) and add a Vignette layer. Set the gradient to Radial with stops of white at 0% and 55% and #8E7280 at 100%. Drag from the middle of the cover to a bottom corner.

Set the layer to Multiply at 70%. Then drag it up the Layers panel, one row at a time, until it sits just above Rocket and below Cover Type. That darkens the art but not the type.

Halftone screen.

1. Add a Halftone Screen layer and fill it with a vertical grey gradient from #9A9A9A to #5A5A5A.
2. Run Filter → Halftone… with Dot Size 7 and Angle 45. The gaps between the dots become transparent.
3. Set the layer to Multiply at 22%.

Paper grain.

1. Add a Paper Grain layer and fill it with #808080.
2. Run Add Noise… at 40, Mono, Gaussian.
3. Set it to Overlay at 35%.

Drag both layers to the very top of the stack. Zoom in and you'll see the cover now looks printed rather than rendered, like a paperback that's been in a spinner rack since 1962.

When you're happy, choose File → Quick Export PNG to save the cover, and File → Save Project to keep a .lopsy file with every layer, group, path and effect still editable. Want a different book? Retype the title, change the hull number, or swap the planet's ochre for a pale lavender.