I finally broke down and did a repaint/mashup for the book my Fiverr cover artist is working on. I'd already found a "look" that I could live with using a particular stock photo set from a Aussie photographer going by the name Faestock. It did require a bit of adjustment but I was okay with that.
Well, cover artist talked me into a "posing with gun" pose. Which works for the Kyoto book. (She does, briefly, take a Chinese-made Tokarev knock-off from a yakuza, but promptly throws it into the snow). Trouble is, the "Steampunk heroine" or whatever Faestock called my primary set didn't include that pose. So a lot of mashup and way too much hand-painted hair later:
I'm still tempted to run a "paint" filter over it to make the parts that actually are painted stand out less.
Photoshop fun you wouldn't think had to be done; distorting the pattern on the (barely visible) scarf so it looks like it is actually on the fabric and wrapping around. Liquify with "face aware" engaged to give her a slightly more heart-shaped, wide-mouthed face. The hair is all in her face because the original had messy blond hair and I got tired of hand-painting forehead and eyebrows to hide it. That is actually a proper Soviet silencer but wrong model and on a different stock resource, and matching the bluing was a huuuge pain. The belt was in the wrong place so half the shirt is hand-painted. The rear pocket was originally shiny leather and looked ghastly. Fixing the material was easy. Preserving the stitching was not.
At least the other two covers she is wearing a hat. Honestly, otherwise I'd be making the girl cut it off before she hits Paris.
Incidentally, the suppressor attached to the frame and make it so heavy it won't cycle properly. That's why the knurling; you jack it like a pump shotgun after every shot! (And now I'm sad there's no suppressor in the story.)
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