Paint a Street-Art Monarch Mural Zine Cover

Choose File → New and make a 1100 × 1700 px document with a White background.

Click the top ruler at x 60, 550 and 1040 to drop three vertical guides: the two side margins and the centre. Then click the left ruler at y 60 and 1640 for the top and bottom margins.

Double-click Layer 1 and rename it Fade.

Pick the Gradient tool with Type set to Linear and click Advanced…. Make four stops: #15173A at the left end, #22357A at about 42%, #127A86 at about 78% and #22A592 at the right end. Click Done, then drag from the top centre of the page straight down to the bottom.

Muralists often start a wall with a "fade" like this: a few colours of spray paint blended into each other.

Click Add Layer and name the layer Mist. Pick the Brush and set Size 420, Hardness 0 and Opacity 45.

• With the foreground set to #E0458B, make one slow, wavy stroke across the lower left, from off the left edge to about the middle, at about y 1180.
• Switch to #3FD8E6 and make two more: one across the bottom right at about y 1500, and a short one across the top left at about y 260.

Click the ✦ button on the layer's row to open its effects drawer, set the blend mode to Screen and close the drawer. Then click the opacity figure on the row and drag it to 70%.

Add a layer called Blocks. Set the foreground to #7C7C7C, press Cmd+A, choose Edit → Fill and press Cmd+D.

Choose View → Show Grid. A Grid slider appears at the right of the options bar: drag it until the label reads 128px. Cinderblocks are twice as long as they are tall, so each block will be two grid cells wide and one tall.

Pick the Pencil with Size 7 and set the foreground to #2E2E2E. The grid is centred on the page, so the first horizontal line is at about y 82, not at the top edge, and the top and bottom rows are part-blocks. Zoom in a little if your clicks don't land on the lines. It's a lot of clicks, but each one is quick.

1. For each horizontal grid line, click at the left edge of the canvas and Shift-click at the right edge. Shift-click draws a straight line from the last point.
2. Now the joints between blocks. In the top row, click on a vertical grid line and Shift-click straight down to the next horizontal line. Repeat on every second vertical grid line along the row.
3. In the next row down, do the same but on the grid lines you skipped, so the joints are staggered like real blockwork. Keep alternating to the bottom.

When the wall is done, choose View → Show Grid again to hide the grid.

With Blocks still active:

1. Filter → Add Noise… with Amount 22 and Mono. This gives the blocks a pitted concrete surface.
2. Filter → Emboss… with Angle 135 and Strength 40. The mortar lines turn into grooves lit from the top left.
3. Filter → Gaussian Blur… with Radius 1.5, to take the digital crispness off the edges.

Open the effects drawer for Blocks, set the blend mode to Overlay, and close it. Set the layer's opacity to 40%.

The grey disappears and leaves only the bumps and grooves, so the fade now looks like paint sprayed onto blocks. Everything painted on the wall later goes under this layer, so it takes the texture too.

Real walls carry history. Here, someone's old tag has been half painted over ("buffed") with paint that doesn't quite match.

1. Click Mist and add a layer called Wall Paint. Leave it empty: it's a spare layer for touching up the wall later. Pick the Text tool, choose Sedgwick Ave Display at Size 46, set the foreground to #E4E0F2, and click near the right edge at about 966, 704. Type MOTH and press Tab to commit.
2. Pick the Move tool. Hover just outside the text box's top-right corner until the pointer turns into the rotate cursor, then drag up a little to tilt the tag about 12° anticlockwise. Press Cmd+D.
3. Set the MOTH layer's opacity to 35%.
4. Click Add Layer and call it Buff Patches. With the Lasso, draw a slightly tilted, roughly rectangular patch, about 130 × 80 px, that covers the bottom half of the tag and hangs below it. Fill it with #77768A, then run Filter → Add Noise… with Amount 10 and Mono. Deselect and set the layer to 90%.

With Buff Patches active, click New Group at the bottom of the Layers panel and name it Mural. Everything painted for the mural goes in here. With the group selected, click Add Layer and name it Sun.

1. Pick the Elliptical Marquee and drag a circle from 198, 320 to 902, 1024. That's a 704 px circle centred at 550, 672.
2. Choose Select → Feather… with 40. Spray paint never gives a clean edge.
3. Pick the Gradient tool, set Type to Radial, and in Advanced… use #FFF6D2 at the left end, #FFD76E at about 55% and #F5A13A at the right end.
4. Drag from the centre of the circle to its right edge, then press Cmd+D.

Add a layer called Sun Dots. Pick the Brush with Size 18, Hardness 100 and Opacity 100. Open the Brushes dialog with the brush-tip button at the left of the options bar, and on the Shape tab set Spacing to 200. Close the dialog.

At 200% spacing each dab sits two brush-widths from the last, so a stroke becomes a row of dots. Set the foreground to #FFE7A0 and drag slowly once around the sun, about 44 px outside its edge. A freehand ring will wobble a little, and that's fine: it looks hand-sprayed.

Open the Brushes dialog again and put Spacing back to 10 before you paint anything else.

Open your cropped monarch photo in any image viewer, copy it, and press Cmd+V in Lopsy. The crop is a little wider than the page, so Lopsy shrinks it to fit and selects it, with the Move tool already active.

Rename the new layer Reference and set its opacity to 60%, so you can see the wall through it as you work.

Press Cmd+D. Pick the Magic Wand and set Tolerance to 40 with Contiguous ticked.

Click the white in the photo's top-left corner. That selects the whole connected background. The small white wedge under the body, between the two lower wings, is a separate area, so Shift-click it to add it.

Press Delete, then Cmd+D. Only the butterfly is left.

Cmd-click the Reference thumbnail to select the butterfly's pixels. The Move tool shows transform handles around it.

1. Hold Cmd and drag the bottom-right corner handle up and in until the butterfly is about 860 px wide. Cmd keeps the proportions.
2. Drag from the middle of the butterfly to move it until its body sits in the centre of the sun, at about 550, 672.

Hover just outside the box's top-right corner until you see the rotate cursor, then drag upward to turn the butterfly about 9° anticlockwise, so its right wing lifts. A slight tilt makes it look like it's flying rather than pinned in a case.

Press Cmd+D to commit.

Now you'll trace the photo the way a mural painter works: black base first, colour on top, and the black that shows through becomes the veins.

1. Click Sun Dots, then Add Layer, and name the new layer Wing Black. It goes between Sun Dots and Reference.
2. Cmd-click the Reference thumbnail to select the butterfly.
3. Choose Select → Grow… with 4, then Select → Shrink… with 4. Growing and shrinking by the same amount closes the hairline gaps along the body without changing the outline.
4. Set the foreground to #1A1210 and choose Edit → Fill. Press Cmd+D.

The Reference layer sits on top at 60%, so the black looks brown for now.

Click Reference. Pick the Magic Wand, set Tolerance to 70 and untick Contiguous, so one click finds that colour everywhere in the photo.

1. Click inside one of the orange cells in an upper wing.
2. Shift-click an orange cell in a lower wing. The lower wings are a lighter orange, so this adds the ones the first click missed.
3. Tidy the edges: Select → Grow… 1, then Shrink… 2, then Grow… 1. This fills pinholes and drops the loose specks the photo's scales leave along the veins.

Click Wing Black and add a layer called Orange.

Pick the Gradient tool with Radial, and in Advanced… use #FFD447 at the left end, #FF9A1F at about 45% and #E8521A at the right end. Drag from just below the butterfly's body, at about 550, 692, out to the right about 440 px. The colour now glows from the body out to the tips, the way a muralist fades one can into another. Press Cmd+D.

Click Reference again. Keep the Magic Wand with Contiguous off, and set Tolerance to 80. Click the middle of one of the cream spots near the tip of the left upper wing. Every spot in the photo is selected.

Click Orange, add a layer called Spots, set the foreground to #FFF8EA and choose Edit → Fill. Press Cmd+D.

The specimen has pale scales along the inside of its lower wings and a speckled thorax, and the wand picked those up as white blotches. Paint over them:

1. On Spots, use the Lasso to draw a loose shape around the abdomen and the pale strips either side of it, from the bottom of the thorax to the tip of the abdomen.
2. Hold Shift and drag a small circle with the Elliptical Marquee over the thorax to add it.
3. Press Delete, then Cmd+D.
4. Click Wing Black and lasso a slim shape over the abdomen, then fill it with #1A1210. That closes any gaps along the body.

Click the eye on Reference to hide it.

Open the effects drawer for Wing Black:

• Stroke: Width 4, colour #FFF3DA, position Outside. Muralists often finish a figure with a thin light line so it pops off the background.
• Drop Shadow: Offset X 14, Offset Y 16, Blur 0, Opacity 75, colour #2B124F. A hard, solid shadow is a classic mural trick for depth.
• Outer Glow: Size 22, Opacity 45, colour #2B124F. This is the soft mist that spray paint leaves around a shape.

Click Spots and add a layer called Sheen. Cmd-click the Orange thumbnail so the highlight stays inside the cells.

Pick the Brush with Size 200, Hardness 0, Opacity 45 and the foreground #FFF6C9. Make one stroke along each upper wing, from near the tip toward the body. Press Cmd+D and set Sheen to Screen.

Traced antennae come out lumpy and pick up the cream outline as thick tubes. Draw clean ones instead.

1. Click Wing Black. With the Lasso, draw around the antennae in the gap above the head, staying clear of the wings, and press Delete. Press Cmd+D.
2. Click Sheen and add a layer called Antennae. Set the foreground to #1A1210.
3. Pick the Pen tool and set Stroke to 4 in the options bar. Click at the tip of the left antenna (where the old one ended), click twice along its line, and click at the head. Press Enter. The Pen commits the path and strokes it in the foreground colour. Do the same for the right antenna. The last path stays selected, so its thin blue outline stays on screen in the next few screenshots; it's only a guide and never shows up in the export.
4. Pick the Brush with Size 9 and Hardness 100 and click once at each tip for the knobs.
5. Add a layer called Body. Lasso a slim shape for the abdomen that narrows to a rounded point at the bottom, and fill it with #1A1210. Give it a Stroke of Width 3, Outside, in #FFF3DA, so it reads as its own segment.
6. With the Brush at Size 3 and the foreground #4A3A33, draw six short, slightly curved lines across the abdomen for its segments.

Click the Reference layer and click Delete Layer: you won't need it again.

Click Body, then Shift-click Wing Black to select the six butterfly layers. Choose Layer → Group Layers and name the group Monarch. Now the whole butterfly can be moved and switched on and off as one.

You want two small copies of the finished butterfly, outline and shadow included. Copy Merged copies everything visible inside a selection, so hide everything else first.

1. Click the eye on Background, Fade, Mist, MOTH, Buff Patches, Blocks, Sun and Sun Dots.
2. Draw a Rectangular Marquee around the whole butterfly, shadow included.
3. Choose Edit → Copy Merged, press Cmd+D, and turn all those layers back on.

Collapse the Monarch group with the arrow on its row and click it. Press Cmd+V: the copy lands in place, right on top of the big butterfly, and it's selected with the Move tool active. Rename it Small Monarch 1.

1. Hold Cmd and drag the bottom-right handle in until the copy is about a sixth of its size, roughly 175 px wide.
2. Drag it up to the top left, centred at about 150, 368, just under the masthead area and clear of the sun's dots.
3. Use the rotate handle at the top right to turn it about 22° anticlockwise, then press Cmd+D.

Press Cmd+V again. The new copy lands on top of the big butterfly again, just like the first one. Rename it Small Monarch 2. Scale it to about 14% (roughly 145 px wide), move it to about 120, 965, rotate it about 18° clockwise this time, and press Cmd+D.

Click Sun Dots and add a layer called Flight Path. It sits under the butterflies.

Pick the Brush with Size 9, Hardness 100 and Opacity 85, set Spacing 200 in the Brushes dialog again, and set the foreground to white.

1. Drag one smooth curve from just under the top-left monarch, out past the tip of the big left wing (keep about 15 px of wall between them), down the left side, and in toward the lower monarch, ending just above it at about 110, 926.
2. For the arrowhead, make two short drags of about 36 px that both end at the end of the route: one coming in from up and to the left, one from up and to the right.

Put Spacing back to 10.

Collapse the Mural group and click it. Click New Group and name it Piece. Because Mural is collapsed, the new group lands above it instead of inside it.

With Piece selected, add four empty layers in this order: Overspray, Cloud, Drips, Extrude. Each new layer goes above the last, so they stack from the bottom up. Building the stack first means you never have to drag layers around later.

With Extrude active, set the foreground to #FFD23F, pick the Text tool, choose Titan One at Size 176, click at about 70, 1040, type MONARCH and press Tab.

Pick the Move tool and click Align center horizontally in the options bar.

You're about to treat each letter as pixels, so click Rasterize Layer at the bottom of the Layers panel. Rename the layer Letters.

Graffiti letters never sit on a ruler-straight baseline. Give each one a little movement. For each letter, draw a Rectangular Marquee tightly around it (just that letter, a little above and below), then switch to the Move tool with V so you get the transform handles and arrow-key nudges. Titan One's letters sit close together; if a box catches part of a neighbour, draw the selection with the Lasso instead. Then:

• M: rotate about 5° anticlockwise with the rotate handle.
• O: with the Move tool, press Shift+Up once and Up four times to lift it 14 px.
• A: rotate about 7° clockwise.
• R: press Down eight times to drop it 8 px.
• C: rotate about 6° anticlockwise.
• H: rotate about 5° clockwise.

Press Cmd+D after each letter. Leave the N alone.

1. Cmd-click the Letters thumbnail. Pick the Gradient tool with Linear, and in Advanced… use #FFE66D at the left, #FFA21C in the middle and #EF4A2B at the right. Drag from the top of the letters straight down to their baseline.
2. Keep the selection. Pick the Lasso, hold Shift+Option and draw a thin band, about 10 px tall, across all the letters about a third of the way down. Let it arch up over each letter and dip in the gaps between them. Shift+Option intersects, so only the band inside the letters stays selected.
3. Fill it with #FFF4CF and press Cmd+D.

Open the effects drawer for Letters and turn on Stroke with Width 7, colour #141019, position Outside.

Click Extrude. Cmd-click the Letters thumbnail, choose Select → Grow… with 7 so the block covers the outline too, set the foreground to #3A1C71 and choose Edit → Fill.

Now stretch it into a block. Zoom in to about 200% first, so each small drag is big enough to control. Pick the Move tool, press inside one of the letters, and hold Option while you drag about 4 px right and 5 px down. Option-dragging a selection moves a copy and leaves the original pixels behind. Do it three more times, each time starting inside the copy you just moved. Each drag stamps the last copy in place and pulls a new one, so the purple steps out into a solid 3D block about 20 px deep.

Press Cmd+D. Give Extrude a Stroke of Width 6, #141019, Outside.

Click Cloud. Cmd-click the Extrude thumbnail and choose Select → Grow… with 26.

Pick the Elliptical Marquee. Holding Shift each time to add, drag about nine ovals along the top edge and eight along the bottom edge, overlapping the selection by half their height. Vary them: some about 80 × 50, some about 140 × 90, and nudge a few up or down so the outline isn't a neat row of scallops.

1. Fill the selection with #E8458B and press Cmd+D.
2. Give Cloud a Stroke (Width 7, #141019, Outside) and a Drop Shadow (Offset X 12, Offset Y 14, Blur 0, Opacity 70, #1B0B33).
3. Pick the Dodge / Burn tool. Set Mode to Burn, Exposure 22 and Size 64, and drag once along the inside of the cloud's bottom edge.
4. Switch Mode to Dodge with Exposure 30 and Size 40, and drag once along the top bubbles.

The cloud now looks rounded, like the bubble shading graffiti writers spray in by hand.

Click Drips. Pick the Brush with Hardness and Opacity at 100 and the foreground #E8458B.

Open the Brushes dialog. Taper shrinks a stroke from full size at its start to a point over that many pixels. Set it to about 1.6 times the drip's length, so the drip thins but never quite vanishes. For each drip, set Size and Taper, close the dialog, then drag from just inside the cloud straight down. Finish each with a click at the bottom using a brush a little over half the drip's size, for the drop. Make about six, uneven:

• at x 170: Size 30, about 92 px long
• at x 246: Size 20, about 38 px long
• at x 352: Size 34, about 124 px long
• at x 612: Size 24, about 64 px long
• at x 772: Size 20, about 30 px long
• at x 952: Size 28, about 50 px long

Set Taper back to 0 when you're done.

Then click Overspray and pick the Spray tool with Size 90, Density 14, Opacity 55 and Softness 60. Keep the pink. Make one wavy pass just below the cloud and one just above it.

Click Letters and add a layer called Shine. Pick the Brush with Size 9 and white.

Draw five short highlight ticks inside the letters near their top-left corners: on the M, O, A, R and H. Vary them: 16 to 34 px long, at different angles from steep to diagonal. Leave the N and C without one.

Then add two sparkles. With the Lasso, draw a four-point star with deeply curved-in sides, about 60 px across, at the top right of the H, and fill it with white. Draw a smaller one, about 28 px, just above the O.

The masthead is a band of buff paint rolled over the wall, the way city crews paint over graffiti.

Click Blocks (it sits above the groups) and click New Group. Name it Zine and add a layer inside called Buff Band.

1. Draw a Rectangular Marquee right across the top of the page, from 0, 10 to 1100, 270, and fill it with #F2EBDD.
2. Filter → Add Noise… with Amount 16 and Mono, then Filter → Motion Blur… with Angle 0 and Distance 45. The noise smears sideways into roller streaks.
3. Pick the Lasso and draw the band's real shape inside that block: from about 26, 34 to 1074, 238, with slightly wobbly, torn edges.
4. Choose Select → Inverse, press Delete, and press Cmd+D.

Cutting the band out after the filters keeps its edges crisp. If you filter a band that's already cut out, the blur drags transparency into its edges.

Set the foreground to #17131D.

1. With the Text tool, choose Special Elite at Size 25, click at about 80, 178, type STREET ART ZINE // ISSUE 12 // FALL 2026 // $4 (two spaces either side of each //) and press Tab.
2. Click Buff Band. Choose Bungee at Size 136, click at about 40, 40, type WILD WALLS and press Tab. Making the lower line first means this click doesn't land in it.
3. With the Move tool, click each text layer in turn and click Align center horizontally. Then use the arrow keys to put the tops of the big letters about 64 px from the top of the page, and the issue line about 22 px under them.

Now colour WALLS to match the monarch. With the Text tool, click inside WILD WALLS near its end, press End, then press Shift+Left five times to select WALLS. Click the Text color swatch in the options bar, type F26A1B into its hex field and press Return. Click the swatch again to close it, and press Tab to finish.

Click the Zine group's row. With the Move tool, its handles frame everything in it. Drag the rotate handle at the top right to turn the band about 1.5° anticlockwise, and press Cmd+D. The text stays live and turns with the band.

Click the issue-line text layer (the top of the group) and add a layer called Masking Tape. With the Lasso, draw a short strip about 115 × 34 px across each top corner of the band, angled about 37°, with ragged ends. Fill both with #E4DCC6 and press Cmd+D.

Set the layer to 85% so the band shows faintly through, and give it a small Drop Shadow: Offset X 2, Offset Y 3, Blur 3, Opacity 40, colour #0B0716.

Click Buff Band and add a layer called Sticker.

The sticker's bottom edge sits right on the bottom guide, and guide snapping would drag the thin bottom strip onto it. Choose View → Snap to Guides to turn snapping off for now.

1. Build a rounded rectangle 300 × 206 px with its top-left at 740, 1434. Draw a Rectangular Marquee the full height but 18 px in from each side. Shift-drag a second one the full width but 18 px in from the top and bottom. Then Shift-drag a 36 px circle with the Elliptical Marquee into each corner.
2. Fill it with #FBFAF5 and press Cmd+D.
3. Cmd-click the Sticker thumbnail. With the Rectangular Marquee, hold Shift+Option and drag across the top 92 px of the sticker. Fill that with #D7263D.
4. Cmd-click the thumbnail again and intersect a strip across the bottom 14 px the same way. Fill it red too, then press Cmd+D.

Turn View → Snap to Guides back on. Give Sticker a Drop Shadow: Offset X 7, Offset Y 9, Blur 8, Opacity 55, #120A22.

Make the three lines from the bottom up, so each click lands in empty space:

1. Foreground #1A1A1A, Rock Salt at 40, click at about 780, 1546, type Danaus (the monarch's genus) and press Tab.
2. Click Sticker. Foreground white, Special Elite at 21, click at about 780, 1496, type my name is and press Tab.
3. Click Sticker again. Bungee at 50, click at about 780, 1436, type HELLO and press Tab.

With the Move tool, centre each line on the sticker's middle (x 890) with the arrow keys. Put the top of HELLO 14 px below the sticker's top edge and my name is 7 px under it, and sit Danaus halfway down the white area.

Click Danaus, Shift-click Sticker, choose Layer → Group Layers and name it Hello Sticker. With the Move tool, turn the group about 6° clockwise with its rotate handle and press Cmd+D. Stickers never go on straight.

Collapse Hello Sticker, click it, and add a layer called Tape (for the paper strips; the masking tape is a separate layer up in the masthead). Set the foreground to #F4F0E6.

With the Lasso, draw one strip 44 px tall with torn, jagged ends, choose Edit → Fill, deselect, and repeat for the other two:

• from 60, 1482, about 450 px long, tilted 2° anticlockwise
• from 82, 1538, about 500 px long, tilted 1.5° clockwise
• from 62, 1594, about 405 px long, tilted 1° anticlockwise

Press Cmd+D. Cmd-click the Tape thumbnail and run Filter → Add Noise… with Amount 8 and Mono for a paper grain, then deselect. Add a Drop Shadow: Offset X 4, Offset Y 5, Blur 4, Opacity 50, #0B0716.

Set the foreground to #17131D and pick Special Elite at Size 28. Do the bottom strip first, then the middle, then the top, clicking Tape before each:

• SEED-BOMB YOUR BLOCK
• PAINTING THE OYAMEL FOREST (oyamel firs are the trees the monarchs winter in)
• 4,800 KM ON PAPER WINGS

For each one: click on its strip near the left end, type, and press Tab. Then with the Move tool, centre it on the strip with the arrow keys, and turn it with its rotate handle to the same tilt as its strip.

Expand the Piece group and click Shine. Set the foreground to white, pick Sedgwick Ave at Size 96, click at about 420, 1300, type migration and press Tab.

With the Move tool, centre the word at about x 570 with its top at about y 1318, so it sits just under the cloud, clear of the sticker and the paper strips. Then turn it about 7° anticlockwise with the rotate handle and press Cmd+D.

The tag crosses the pink drips, so give it a dark edge to show it was painted over them.

1. Click Shine and add a layer called Tag Outline. It goes under the tag.
2. Cmd-click the migration thumbnail, choose Select → Grow… with 4, fill with #1B0B33 and press Cmd+D.
3. Click migration and add a layer called Tag Drips. With the Brush at Size 9, white, and Taper about twice the drip's length (these are thinner, so they can taper further), drag four thin drips, 34 to 64 px long, down from the bottoms of the m, a, t and n. Click a 10 px drop at the end of each.
4. Set Taper back to 0 in the Brushes dialog.

Collapse Piece, click Blocks and add a layer called Grime.

1. Filter → Clouds… with Scale 4, then Filter → Add Noise… 20 Mono. Set it to Overlay at 22%.
2. Add a layer called Dirt. Pick the Brush with Size 22, Hardness 0, Opacity 30 and the foreground #0A0F2A. Drag seven streaks straight down from the bottom of the masthead, 60 to 210 px long, in two or three clusters.
3. At Size 30 and Opacity 45, drag six more, 70 to 140 px long, down from the mortar line at about y 1492.
4. At Size 180 and Opacity 60, make one wavy stroke along the very bottom of the page.
5. Pick the Spray with Size 120, Density 30 and Opacity 70 and make one wavy pass at about y 1630.
6. Draw a Rectangular Marquee across the bottom 220 px. Pick the Gradient tool with Linear, and in Advanced… set both stops to #0A0F2A, then select the left stop and drag its Opacity bar all the way to the left. Drag the gradient from the top of the marquee to the bottom and press Cmd+D.

Set Dirt to Multiply at 75%.

Zines are photocopied, and copiers leave specks, mostly toward the edges. Collapse Zine, click it, and add a layer called Toner. It goes at the very top.

1. Set the foreground to #808080, press Cmd+A, choose Edit → Fill and press Cmd+D. Run Filter → Add Noise… with Amount 100 and Mono, then Filter → Threshold… with Level 40. You get a few black specks on white.
2. Pick the Magic Wand with Tolerance 20 and Contiguous off, click a white pixel, press Delete and Cmd+D. Only the specks are left.
3. Set the layer to Multiply at 40%.
4. Click Add Mask, then click the mask thumbnail on the layer's row to edit it. Use a Radial gradient: black at the left end, black again at about 45%, white at the right end. Drag from the middle of the page, 550, 850, out about 900 px. The middle of the cover stays clean and the specks collect at the edges.

Click the Toner layer's name to stop editing the mask.

Choose File → Quick Export PNG to save the cover, and File → Save Project to keep the layers.