The creation of this book cover evolved from two separate photos I personally took on my Apple iPhone 16. Both photos were taken during Summer of 2025, but at different dates and different times of the day. Both photos were taken at North Redington Beach, FL. I used GIMP for both photos, and the creation of this book cover image. I often use my time at the beach to mindfully meditate, and the ocean waves, the warm colored sunsetting sky and Pelicans are truly my favorite things that help me in this. I wanted to incorporate all of these components into my book cover.
I created a montage image for my Mindful Meditation book. The bitmap image was created through GIMP. For the background image, I selected one of my most favorite sunset photos that I took this past summer at North Redington Beach, FL on my Apply iPhone 16. I imported it into GIMP and slightly altered the image’s color temperature to a cooler temperature, to give the darker ocean effect with the warm colors displayed in the sky. I slightly decreased the opacity of the image.
The second image was also taken by me this past summer at North Redington Beach, FL, during the day, on my Apple iPhone 16. There was a group of Pelicans just standing on the shoreline and allowed me to take their photo. The Pelican pictured had the best pose that I thought would blend well in the montage photo. This image was imported into a second layer, which was above the background image, and I reduced the size to 25% in order to fit into the canvas dimensions. Next, I used the free selection tool and only selected the silhouette of this pelican, as it has several pelicans right next to it with a background on turquoise ocean water, and I deleted those. I did not increase nor decrease the opacity of the Pelican, as the background in the first image made it look very strange when I attempted both. I did decrease the color temperature of the second image to match the waves, and I also tried to align the Pelicans legs in the second photo with the waves crashing in the first photo.
I inserted two text boxes, one for the title and one for the Author’s name. I did set the font color to white, to keep with the neutral, relaxation theme. For the title textbox, I used font name Bookman Old Style Regular, size 62. I bolded the title. For the Author’s name textbox, I used Bookman Old Style Regular font, size 62, but I did not bold the Author’s name.
I began creating this logo by selecting the Ellipse icon to draw a circle and customizing the color gradient to yellow/orange. I had to adjust the settings to have the color contrast display just as I was envisioning. Then, using the direct selection tool, I split the circle into two halves. I changed the angle to -90 degrees and ensured the color gradient appeared in a reflective image. I then aligned the second half with the first half of the circle. The midpoint axis points aligned and the two halves of the circles fit seamless with one another.
Next, I needed to create a ripple effect with the second/bottom half of the circle. I deselected the stroke tool and selected the gradient to match the top circle. The gradient color features are set to orange/yellow tone. From the Effect tab, I selected Stylize and Scribble and set the Angle to 0 degrees, the Path Overlap to 0 pt, and the Variation to 9 pt. For Line Options, I set the Stroke Width to 18 pt, Curviness to 5 % which is more of an angular curve than loop, the Variation to 7%, Spacing to 32pt, and Spacing Variation to 6pt. To add more curvature to the lines on the exterior, I selected Effect, Distort and Transform, and the Transform Effect, where I set the Scale settings to 100% Horizontal, 100% Vertical, the Move was set to 2 pt for both Horizontal and Vertical, and Options selected was Transform Objects.
For the text, I selected the Type icon and entered Sunset Sanctuary Meditation in the Myriad Pro Regular Font, Size 36. I then selected the Effect tab, Warp, and Arc. I left the Style set to Arc, the Bend set to 42%, and the Distortion was set to 8% for Horizontal and 4 % for Vertical. I then selected the Fill and Stroke to Orange and White so the letters would be bold and have two contrasting colors.
Finally, I combined the sunsetting image, and the arc text together, and placed in alignment with one another. I then selected the draw icon, black stroke, and free form drew a bird. I used the same drawing 3 other times and placed them strategically, two on each side of the setting sun.
