This is probably my most ambitious manip to date because the request required a phoenix symbolism. Most of the best phoenix pictures on the internet are paintings done by hardworking artists which means I'm technically not allowed to use them. I don't like when designers, especially here on Wattpad, just take artwork and use it as their cover photo without crediting the artist or even asking for permission.

I'm a firm believer in the fact that so long as you have a clear vision of what you want and how to get there, anything is possible. So today, instead of a traditional cover tutorial, I'll be showing you how to 'Build-A-Bird' because that's essentially what I had to do.

The Request:
-Phoenix must be present
-dark colors
-dark fantasy-esque vibe
-Full creative freedom (my favorite part, ty PaigeCunha22)

--Challenge Accepted!!--

Design Process: 5+ hours over the course of a week
The first and most crucial step is understanding what goes into building your very own birb. Some of the characteristics of a phoenix include: long feathers, fiery color, and elegant plumage.

So like a witch with her own damn cook book, I used the following ingredients to construct my own phoenix: a skeleton [the macaw], an emu feather, ALOT of fire, and a screeching eagle.

Got my ingredients collected, now comes the hard part: taking parts of each bird and building my franken-phoenix. The first step is to set up my base. The macaw in this case is my skeleton or mannequin. This means that I'll be using his form to outline the phoenix.

I'll take the flaming wing PNGs that I got off google and place them where the Macaw's wings are. I reduced the Macaw's opacity so that I can see both pictures and adjust accordingly.

Next, I'll take the emu feathers I got off Google and stick them where the Macaw's tail feathers started. Don't worry about how messy this whole she-bang is going to look like.

I duplicated the feathers and mirrored it to the other side to complete the phoenix's tail feathers. I then took an airbrush with some orange and painted a light orange on a LINEAR BURN layer.

What this franken-phoenix is lacking is some fire. During our correspondence, Paige told me to add more fire to it and so I did. I took the flaming wing, duplicated it several times, and set them to Overlay. I moved the wings around to position the flaming effect all over the phoenix's body. If there were parts that stuck out, I just took an airbrush and erased them.

This bird is need of an actual body. Luckily for me, this phoenix is like 100% on fire, so I wasn't worried about accurate anatomy. I took some fire PNGs I got off a free png site and stacked them on the center. I took the smudge tool [the q-tip looking thing] and smudged the flames around until I formed somewhat of a solid chest.

Next, I took the smokey brush and added some highlights onto an overlay layer to mimic the random tendrils of flame.

I had to go through like 5 different bird heads before actually settling for the eagle. Fun-fact: phoenixes were based on flamingos. In this case, the client wanted something more badass than a flamingo or crane head, so Eagle it is.

In order to get that head, I tilted the head like so and used the Hue/Saturation tool to turn the entire thing orange. Then to make a uniform orange across the white spots on his head, I took my paintbrush [Overlay mode] and painted a solid block of orange on a Linear Burn clipping layer.

If there were parts of the head that didn't blend with the flaming body, I just took my airbrush eraser and erased.

The last step would be to add the title which was purposely done to mimic the phoenix's colors. 

And voila! The cover is finished! This is a harder tutorial because you need the ability to visualize 8 different pictures into 1 uniform picture as well as understanding what all of the layer types do. 

*You can read PaigeCunha22's story over at her profile. If you like how I design, feel free to donate over at Ko-Fi:http://ko-fi.com/repulsifydesigns. It keeps me motivated and lets me know that I'm doing good.*