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...
- 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!
Hi Hannah,
ReplyDeleteYou shouldn't worry about your illustrations becoming too digital looking if you use Photoshop. Its a tool like any other. You can paint and then scan in lots of different textures, and using Photoshop apply your purple or yellow colour to them, so they aren't flat area of colour. Lots of illustrators who work with printmaking use this method to keep the same feel in their more time sensitive commercial work.