In our first year, we were given a book to read in order to design a cover for it - the idea was use it as an opportunity to practice our photoshop compositing skills. When reading the book I was struck by a passage where the protagonist talked about painting himself into a corner with the girl he is in love with. It was striking and it was a way to work with strong "superhero" colours while still portraying the reality the story is based upon. Below you can see the elements I used to bring the final product together.
