New Purple

Things are getting off to a sloooow re-start. But to begin, I am trying to solve the "purple" problem. That is, am trying to get some consistency with the purple in each image, and making it stand out within the illustrations. So using photoshop, I've selected the correct area, and painted over with a selected purple, keeping a degree of transparency so that the textures and luminosity of the images is retained.

As you can see in these exciting before and after shots!

Before...

And after...

Before...

And after...

It may not seem to make a huge amount of difference, but I am hoping it now looks more purple, and if added to all the images - may add a degree of continuity and flow between the pages, fingers crossed!

Continuity problems...

Two posts in one day!!

I also want to document my concerns (from an illustrative book point of view) confirmed from a recent group criticism by the Picture Club (a group of illustrators I am part of).

Most importantly the lack of continuity between the images. As you can see from the current double page spreads...

Although I am relatively happy with each image individually (although all need tweaking/re-drawing, etc.) there are too many differences between the images in terms of:

- different lettering

- use of different media

- the point of view of the images

- the characters within the images

- the colours - especially the yellows and purple.

I had a decent conversation about this within the group criticism, one of the problems with my way of working is that is is so definite. Once the paper has been cut, there is little room to make amendments to an image, you can't rub it out. Therefore, one of the changes I hope to make is my way of working, to build up layers using photoshop, so that I can play with the finished image so much easier. So I need to polish up my adobe skills! I am concerned that this will give too much of a "digital" feel to the illustrations, but we will have to see. Also, one of the most important things within the images is the use of yellow and purple, although I want there to be a variety of yellows, to symbolise different emotions and memories: fear, sickness, loneliness, triumph, hope, happiness, the purple, I want and need as a constant. The purple symbolises the missing person, and needs to be obvious enough so that the reader eventually realises it, so I may need to depend on trusty photoshop to provide one definite purple colour, rather than the red/blue-y variants I currently have in the images. So, lots to be done!

Bereavement Charity Research

Right then, everything has pretty much come to a halt over the last couple of weeks, hence the lack of blogging, as life and work has got in the way of the project and anything remotely creative, which is very frustrating. So I need to get into some kind of routine again and focus on some new (less tight) deadlines, now that I have less time on my hands.

In the past few weeks I've been able to contact some grief charities, local and national, and have received really helpful responses, information packs, words of encouragement, and I'm meeting a local charity tomorrow - which will be an invaluable experience. Speaking to someone first hand who talks to people and children dealing with grief on a daily basis will be a great opportunity, for one of my main concerns about writing this book is that I am not professionally trained within this area. It will be also be good to get the opinions of someone new to the project and my work - as I constantly worry that it won't make complete sense to readers (although, to some extent, everyone's reading of the book should be different, incorporating their own feelings and experiences into the words and pictures).