I have worked on this cover for a heritage book for a long time, I colored the extracted photo that was from an old negative at Heritage site . Than painted, used gradients, clone tool and tweaked until I was happy with it.
I created that background using, Anna Aspnes- Feullemort, Kinsfolk, Trees 2, clouds 2,3, countryside, LA back to basics, Nathan brown, water color brushes, Linda Sattgast vignette action, On1 vivid landscape effects. I am not an artist so it was a challenge but I am happy with the results.