Help Creating SKIP Book Cover!

Here is what we went through for the last book:

https://permies.com/t/93518/dailyish/Paul-Shawn-choose-book-cover

(note that you can only see this thread if you are logged in AND subscribed to the dailyish)

I was rooting for this instead of the plain green:



But the votes were heavily in favor of the plain green.

Note that that image is a pciture in allerton abbey - of a cob wall, a post, and a bit of straw on the floor.

Everyone is fascinated by bunnies.

I like a good graphic/picture that somewhat gives me the idea of the book.  The Better World book has the 12 images that you can enjoy trying to figure out before reading the book.

For SKIP I'm thinking of images that get you dreaming about owning your own place.  Or building/growing/weaving/welding things yourself.  

Someone turning away from a cubicle and running towards a garden?

If this is a book about how to learn the skills to inherit property then I vision pretty pictures about farm land.

Maybe a collage of several pictures above and below the title.

Here are some examples I found on Pinterest of what I vision:


Source



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If the book's about building skills, then I feel it should have activities on the cover. People doing things.
There are probably lots of great pictures on the forum....

A common thing for authors to do these days is to make all their book covers have a similar look and feel. That way their fans quickly recognize their books. Works best if you plan to keep writing books as opposed to just a couple. Something to consider.

any news?

just had a visit with mike about this.  

What about something that looks a bit like where's waldo?



Maybe with a color scheme a bit like this




Maybe with a little "Richard Scarry" tossed in:



Something where all the people are working on cool BBs ...

Maybe something in keeping with the BWB cover? Replace those icons with others that are SKIP related, such as plumbing fittings, tools, needle and thread, a pie, a mop and bucket, rocket stove, and so on...
12 or 16 icons that give the BIG picture of SKIP. The wood background could work nicely. Back cover could be 4 quadrants of sand, straw, wood, iron...

If there were ever physical "workbooks" or "guides" they could have backgrounds of sand, straw, wood, iron...

SKIP stands for "SKills to Inherit Property", right? So maybe something showing an older person teaching something to a younger person?

If we wanted to show objects related to SKIP, what could we use?

Spoon
3 legged stool
Compound mallet
Canning jar
Tree partially cut down
Bird house
Hugel
Tractor with front end loader
Knitting needles in a sock
Cluster of berries
Mushroom
RMH

If we wanted to show people doing things related to SKIP, what could we use?

Whittling a spoon
Cutting down a tree
Driving a tractor
Excavatoring a hugel
Using a solar dehydrator
Sewing a patch
Picking berries
Making shakes
Sweeping a floor
Running a RMH
Peeling a log
Scything
Sharpening a hachet
Making adobe bricks
Making a wood burned sign
Peeing on a plant
Welding a kindling cracker

I think images of people doing things might speak more powerfully to the intent of the book than images of objects related to those skills.

Are there any budding artists who'd want to make the book cover?  Doodlers?  Folks that are good at drawing little characters doing BBs?

I'm totally nostalgic for a Richard Scarry-esque illustration of creatures doing badge bits, for each badge, to open each chapter/badge section of a book!
Some characters of each could be represented on a cover, in a similar fashion to the BWB icons...

A "Where's Otis?" or "Where's Wheaton?" where all the characters are wearing jeans and overalls, while doing badge bits would be quite fun too.

A friend of mine made some doodles of people working on BBs...

Speaking of inspiring books, I would like a mashup between The Way Things Work and Back to Basics: How to Learn and Enjoy Traditional American Skills . The cover art on both, squished together somehow, would give me a sense that this is a book that teaches me the hands-on skills to build and create rather than just understand the things around my home.
P.S. I just made a little outdoor rocket stove: such a thrill!

paul wheaton wrote:just had a visit with mike about this.  

What about something that looks a bit like where's waldo?



Maybe with a color scheme a bit like this




Maybe with a little "Richard Scarry" tossed in:

Something where all the people are working on cool BBs ...

I'm thinking this might be the basic idea? (It's extreeeeeeemly rough. It takes time to draw little figures, and this was one sheet of paper, so the level of detail is totally lacking. And it's hard to draw tiny figures at that scale. And I didn't spend much time on it because I'm not even sure if it's what you're going for.)

(Badges pictured: textile, food prep, rocket stove, gardening, roundwood, natural building (sort of), animal care, foraging (maybe?), earthworks/homesteading, welding. Badges missing: Woodland care, dimensional woodworking (make a workbench with someone making a bird house?), tool care, greywater, plumbing, solar (maybe solar panel on ground with someone working on it?), nest (have someone sweeping), natural medicine)

Oooh, what a great thread....

I like the Where's Wally idea, (im in the UK), and maybe in the picture you could embed the skills talked about in the book, and maybe pictures of you as a Wally character. The cover could then also be a poster that could be displayed, cos, well, everyone loves a poster. And throughout the book you could match the images... And hide things throughout.
Oh man, i love this, if you don't do this.... Im gonna.

As an alternative, you could go with the hitch hikers guide to the planet option, of a big friendly button with the words dont panic....

Or set a challenge.... SKIP this page.... Its boring
... I love a play on words.

Ho hum...

I love Nicole's sketch 👍

Hiii!
I would love to do the cover for you, if you want to check my artwork, search on Instagram: @1.helder

If you like, we can talk and I can start drawing

Salut!!

Although I can (and do) illustrate books, I agree with the idea some give here, that the book can look somewhat like the Building a Better World book. In that case:  there are already the icons of the Badges. Why not use those. Aren't they made by Nicole? Nicole's sketches here are nice too.

Hello there, I am quite new into the group. I read the thread and had an idea for a sketch. So here you are!
Please let me know if you like it as a book cover.

Being that I've got a ton of photos archived in folders from things we've done around our farm, I assembled some into this design idea. Maybe if you get enough images you could put together a photo montage like the one in my layout illustrating some of the skills/projects that are part of farm life and would be valuable to the running/ ongoing maintenance of the properties the books readers might be working toward. Maybe work up a little tag line to give folks an idea what the SKIP concept is.

I like the front cover with lots of drawings in boxes and I like the carrot better than the skunk.
Bazil Zerinsky, is a great illustrator I used to help me with a kids coloring book on yoga. Here is her information

Bazil Zerinsky bazilzerinsky@gmail.com

namaste,

ajeet

I've been working on fleshing out my sketch--it's still got a LOOOOONG way to go. I still need:

 --easily recognizable food plants on the hugel
 --to actually draw out in detail and then color the fruit tree section.
 --to actually draw out in detail and then color the tractor
 -- probably add in 1 or 2 more people  doing permie stuff

Where's Waldo-type fun--Can you find:

 -- Paul Wheaton
 -- Mike Haasl
 -- R Ranson
 -- Jacqueline Freeman

I'm also sort of there, but that's just because I colored on of them to look like me (hint--I like purple!)

So many power outages! I ended up having to do the part of hugel plants and the apple tree twice, because the power went out before I could save. That happened twice!

I now have everything sketched out better (if you click on the image, you can see it in higher resolution). I'd love if for ideas on what can be fixed, what looks funny, what would look better moved around a bit, etc. Give me all your constructive criticism, because I've been starting at all the details so long that I can't "see the forest for the trees" any more!

Nicole Alderman wrote:Give me all your constructive criticism

 Okay  First off, it's looking great!  The grindstone guy is awesome and I like the variety of ages and colors represented.  I like the plants on the hugel!  Now for the constructive bits...
- The title lines aren't spaced out the same.  Maybe move up the third line or down the middle line so the spacing is better
- The front of the wofati seems like it needs more depth perception or 3d.
- The door might benefit from some grain or by seeing the individual boards
- Could the solar panel guy be standing on a two step step stool (from dimensional lumber badge)
- The pizza looks like a ball, could it be oriented a bit flatter
- The blacksmith's hammer is turned a bit funny
- The wood splitter would ideally be using a 2 lb sledge hammer, not a full length axe (one hand on the wood, one hand holding the hammer).  But this would be ok if you change her axe out into a sledge hammer
- The knife and hand orientation for the spoon carver just seems backwards or odd.  Normally it would be a smaller knife
- Could the downed tree have a bit of taper on it's trunk?  Maybe a couple more twigs down low (if they aren't in the way of the other people)
- Does the chicken need legs?
- I think the tractor bucket might need to be elevated or something.  As is, it's hard to tell that it has dirt in the bucket.  Oh, the dirt should be covering up part of the left side of the bucket (grey part)
- The hugel scaffold right vertical log bottom looks correct, the left side has a cut end showing that doesn't seem right
- I'm way overthinking this but someone could think that they can see up the shorts of the tractor guy and see his daddy parts (I know it's just his upper leg)

Apples grow in "clumps" - not so neatly spread out in the tree maybe?

- Chicken: Is perched, I don't think it needs legs
- Metalworking character moved slightly up and to the right to contrast better against the Abbey
- Rocket Over = Rad
- I like how the title is nice and clear

Nicole Alderman wrote: I'd love if for ideas on what can be fixed, what looks funny, what would look better moved around a bit, etc. Give me all your constructive criticism

I haven't really studied this or given it serious thought yet, but what jumped out at me was something Mike noted.  The person splitting wood with the kindling cracker should probably be using a sledge hammer instead of an axe.  Most accurately would be a smallish sledge, like a 4 or 5 pounder if I remember right.  It's more like a heavy one handed hammer than a long handled two handed hammer.

Mike Haasl wrote:

Nicole Alderman wrote:Give me all your constructive criticism

 Okay  First off, it's looking great!  The grindstone guy is awesome and I like the variety of ages and colors represented.  I like the plants on the hugel!

I agree!

Mike Haasl wrote:- The front of the wofati seems like it needs more depth perception or 3d.
- The door might benefit from some grain or by seeing the individual boards
- Could the solar panel guy be standing on a two step step stool (from dimensional lumber badge)

I think these are great ideas.

- The pizza looks like a ball, could it be oriented a bit flatter

I did not realize she was carrying a pizza - seemed to me she was walking toward the person on the bench, so I would move her a little to the right and closer to the oven so it looks like she came out of the Wofati kitchen.

- Could the downed tree have a bit of taper on it's trunk?  Maybe a couple more twigs down low (if they aren't in the way of the other people)

OK, I know this is just make-believe, but I have a *real* problem with someone downing a tree in the middle of a large crowd (nor does he have hearing or eye protection on) I would stick that way up near the title or loose it.

- Does the chicken need legs?

I assumed she was just sitting, snoozing on the ramp myself.

- I think the tractor bucket might need to be elevated or something.  As is, it's hard to tell that it has dirt in the bucket.  Oh, the dirt should be covering up part of the left side of the bucket (grey part)

Can't elevate it - there are no metal parts to lift it, so yeah, it needs a little work. The bucket width doesn't seem quite centered on the tractor body.

If you do remove the tree, how about a basket-weaver since the apple pickers are using baskets?  You've covered lots of the different PEP areas.

Hi! That's fun!

I would definitely choose a different font. This one looks like for a children's book.
The drawing too. I would like the drawing to be handmade, with some texture, less cluttered, and not so close to the edges.

If this is for a physical printing, I would be concerned about the edges. It's much easier on a printer when you give them room for error. Less opportunity for waste due to mistakes!

I'd make sure it has a bleed all around, and try to keep things away from the edges that would look bad if the cut is off. I'd make room at the bottom so Mike Haasl doesn't lose his. You could even just shrink or nudge everything slightly and give it a neutral nature space border/bleed.

I love the design.

I feel guilty trying to critique when I can’t even draw stick figures or understand perspective! But, ok, here’s a couple things- I don’t like the tree looking like it almost hit the guy peeling a log, plus it seems an odd place for the tree to have been left that long in a developed yard (or, why is a healthy tree being cut down right  there). I liked the pizza and oven detail better in the rough sketch- seemed more ‘correct’ somehow. The blacksmith without a forge seems not quite right. And last, I really miss the duck pond from the rough sketch!
Overall this is really cool, and super impressive to ‘me who can’t begin to comprehend drawing a scene like this’. Even more amazing that you did it through multiple power outages. I’d be so pissed if I lost my work like that!

I agree, apples do not grow like that, in fact is that part a test?! Maybe a bit of green on some of them for realism too?!

The downed tree, i like it being on the cover, but could it go the other way?

Pizza, make it bigger, that would barely feed one! Another one waiting on the table behind maybe?

More plants.

Who is the man with the top hat?? Is it Paul or Mike, if yes, do you have a top hat, if yes, please post a photo wearing it!

Is "skills to inherit property" a subtitle? If yes should it be a smaller font? I think the font type is ok, but the sizing of the title/s is a bit wonky