The Mark of the Rani

A pretty straightforward cover for this story. While there are lots of good design elements in 'The Mark of the Rani', I decided its key selling point is really the convergence of the three Time Lords, and so kept the cover focused on them. I was pleased to find some hi-res photos of Blists Hill on the web which I planned to combine into a great background panorama. But when it came to it, I realised space behind the foreground trio would be so limited it was best to keep the background to a couple of prominent pieces.

Execution was therefore quicker than anticipated, with just the three leads to cut out and a single photo used for the background, enhanced with a doomier sky and a shot of Stephenson's Rocket. This ended up a bit hidden but I had to keep it positioned so it looked like it was in the scene rather than floating above the ground. And at least I was saved having to cut out all the fiddly bits around the wheels! Of the three main figures, I'm not totally happy with the pic of Colin (too smiley) but it was the only one I could find that fitted the arrangement. While that was the pose I wanted for the Rani, the face in that photo was out of focus, so a transplant was made from a sharper image. Finally I decided to keep the straw on the Master rather than paint it out, as I felt it pointed up the slight ridiculousness of his character in this story.

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