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The Problem with Chickens / Hænur eru hermikrákur
Painting the Cover
Cover Art in the Studio with Gunnella
Click to See the Painting Steps Page
Click to See the Page of Gunnella Painting That Art

Hey, I need a cover!
or...
How the Cover Came to Be



This is not the cover.

I saw a very small painting of Gunnella's in a gallery similar to the one above. It was of a lady tilting her head into the frame and there was a sun, where the chicken is in this painting. As the author and book designer, I suggested that perhaps this idea might work for the cover, leaving space for the title and text, and that the back of the lady would work as the back cover of the book. So, Gunnella painted the cover that you see above.

However, when Gunnella's husband, Siggi, saw this cover he said, "It's not right. The title is The Problem with Chickens, plural, chickens. There is only one chicken." Oh, oh, I think we have a problem.




So Gunnella started work on the final cover.
And soon the lady would be back in her formal traditional Icelandic dress.



Finally the cover lady was smiling...



...and the chicken now had two chicken friends.



It was that third chicken, peeking around,
that pulled it together.
Note Gunnella's fine use of color, the black and white in both chickens and the lady, along with the red of the chickens with the rosy red cheeks of the lady, and finally the blue to set it off.



This is how...



...the cover you see came to be.

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