BOOK COVER ILLUSTRATION
A Thousand Ways to Pay Attention
In this “exquisite and probing narrative” (Publishers Weekly) of life on her small farm in the year leading up to a surprising diagnosis of severe ADHD, Rebecca Schiller pens a vivid rallying cry for anyone wondering if different doesn’t have to mean broken.
Written by Rebecca Schiller
Published by The Experiment
Cover design by Beth Bugler
Cover illustration by Sarah Moore
ILLUSTRATION PROCESS
Rebecca describes with unflinching honestly not only how disorienting it can be to navigate life with ADHD, but also what a gift it is to live in a mind so keenly attuned to beauty, meaning, and the interconnectedness of all things. Working closely with Beth Bugler, Creative Director at the Experiment, I wanted to help create a cover that communicated both of these perspectives.
I knew that the overall cover concept would be about the sense of fracture that the memoir captures, so I focused on aspects of Rebecca’s home and garden which also brought her peace. I used screenshots from her Instagram stories to create the reference image for the painting. The first painting was a quick sketch to test cover ideas, followed by a final illustration.
Digital collage reference, sketch painting, and drawing for the final illustration
Final illustration