Have Your Say: [Now Extended] Choose a Cover for the Book of Ruth
EDIT: If you are reading this for the first time, I am editing it now to include the more advanced developments on the same post. If you are reading for the second time skip down to the coloured versions. Phase 2.
In this short blog, I have presented three sketched options of the cover art for the Book of Ruth (below). It also gives you a sneaky peak at the characters in the book.
Phase one:
Please have a good look at these three options and tell me which you like the best by commenting below. If you like elements of more than one please include this in your comment.
Please consider the composition, characters, items included, etc. I won't tell you my preference but I'll give you some notes about each
All three use just the starting elements of the story, not the conclusion so as not to spoil the ending for those who have not read the story before, (grief, death and ears of barley, not love and marriage). Other themes I could include are famine, more death with skulls etc but I think this cover should be ok for younger readers as this title is likely to only be an advised age rating of 12+. I wanted it to be primarily females on the cover as so many other books in the series will have very few female protagonists.
Click to expand the image.
A: Has Boaz as a silhouette none of the others include him at all, Ruth's not doing much maybe she should be different.
B: Has the most unique composition. It's the only one to have death on the cover.
C: The only one I got the ancient image into (the figures on the right, will be Moabite carvings). This one is similar to the Judges one, possibly too similar.
Edit: Thank you to everyone who commented on these three, you are still welcome still do so, but also read on to Phase 2.
Phase 2:
I've taken the feedback from the first phase and developed the two options people liked more to include the elements people felt were important. I've added colours so you can see the difference or similarity with the Judges Cover (below) Again please have a look and then comment below. (See bear in mind, they are very rough still. I'm aware of the short arm, manly faces etc). Lastly, I added the logo and titles to both make it look closer to the finished piece, but also so we can see if it is too similar to the previous book with these extra consistent elements.
Image 1 (on the left) or Image 2 (on the right)
Image 1:
- From the feedback people agreed for various reasons that the focal point should not be the death of Ruth's husband, Naomi's son. But a suggestion was made to have Elimelek and the family starving and setting off on their journey .
- I wanted to Include the ancient images and decided to put then faintly on the path.
- The sunrise represents hope and a new beginning
- The roughly drawn animal skeletons on the middle talk of the famine in the land at the start of the book.
- It has a strong composition and due to the colours it has a very different feel to the Judges cover.
- This cover still has no Boaz, but he could be on the back cover.
Image 2:
- I changed Naomi to face forward to be a little different to Deborah on the Judges cover. She has her eyes open and her expression is/will be bitterness.
- Behind Naomi I added a barley field, which could also have the sunrise potentially.
- I adjusted Ruth to look more 'determined' than angry, with closed eyes and a clenched fist.
- The Ancient images appear in a smokey haze the same a Judges.
- I squeezed Boaz in in the path looking back at Ruth. I might make him a white silhouette.
Please comment below or on the social media platform you found the post on, even if it's just one letter, but I'll love to hear all your thoughts and opinions about it.
For Reference here is the cover from Judges.
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