A few years ago I started writing a book on cover design. Like most of the stuff I write, I left it in Google Docs gathering virtual dust for a few years. Recently, I sumbled across it and had one of those nice serendipitous moments when I realised that with a minimal amount of tweaking I would have the basis for a nice series of tutorials on cover design. Sure, there are plenty of youtube video about this subject, but none of them really cover the subject in enough depth to give anyone a fighting chance of designing their own cover.
In contrast the tutorials that I’ll put online over the coming months start by focusing on the basics of using Photoshop CS2 and will help to build a real knowledge and understanding of how the software works, so that you’ll be able to use it to its full creative potential. Some people will no doubt cast scorn upon me for using such an old version of Photoshop. However, I cut my teeth on PhotoShop CS2 and since Adobe have now made it free to download, it just makes sense to me. I use CS2 on a daily basis to create cover designs and graphics for the web. It more than entirely meets my design needs.
With each tutorial I am planning to make video to acompany it. The first one proved to be quite a challenge. You can see the tutorial here and scroll down to the bottom to watch the video: http://3d-box-shot.com/cover-design/cover-design-tutorial-1-gradient-backgrounds/