After much deliberation with myself and asking opinions of others I have come to the conclusion that this text is best suited at the bottom of the page. I think this because as a reader you have the chance to read the blurb and digest it then read the metaphor at the bottom which should link in with the already seen, read, front and back information. Hopefully, from what i have tested it has the most impact, with the realisation of the relivence to the metaphor in the novel to the illustration.
I feel happy with the result. I have felt through out this project 'as it is named' Specialist Professional Practice, I have indeed kept to my specialism which is illustration, I have embraced my area in the form of a book cover for Penguin. This project was a great opportunity to experiment with my own techniques on a book layout canvas, which I found at times very challenging but enjoyable. The reason I chose to do this brief in particular was because of all these pointers and also due to the book title in particular was of interest as the its one of my favorite film and I had never read he book and saw this as a great opportunity embrace the novel and delve into the issues that the book tackles. This was very interesting, and even more when it came to some how translating it on to a single book cover... When it came to approaching the imagery on the book I felt that transcripting my favorite parts and choosing a metaphor that I felt personally connected to and inspired me instantly with ideas was the best way to answer the brief. As it came apparent in the past, I particularly tend to illustrate animals with human characteristics, this metaphor simply jumped out at me!
I wanted to have fun with this brief and do what I do best, so I started illustrating firstly on rough pieces of paper then I used Photoshop to bring them to life. I was drawing some intense looking rabbits and wolfs, up against each other/ fighting or hiding. I wanted to experiment with what kind of layouts I wanted and in particular focus on the relationship between the two characters in relation to the book. I wasn't taking into account the illustration style as yet because I already knew that I wanted the end illustration to be sketched in black ink and watercolour.
After a few critiques at university it came apparent that I needed to push the idea along! It was discussed how I have in my previous illustration I had used mirrored images, this lead on to the discussion of the Roschach tests. So I had a go at making my own, still keeping to the idea of the metaphor, I was using water colours pressed together to making a variation of images including rabbits, wolfs, lips, circles and just random shapes. I enjoyed making these a lot, they where very affective and took no time to produce. I tested them on to some book layouts and they didn't seem right, the front page was left with too much space and looked quite dull. I carried on, then a 'eureka' moment happened! I realised in another critique that one of my favourite images that i had illustrated roughly was a rabbit down a hole. I started to visualise this image with the circles i had been printing with my watercolours, I tested a few out and they where brilliant but I wasn't happy with rabbit.
The rabbit started off as a cartoon, I drew many with all kinds of expressions but I didn't like them in context. So I drew one realistic rabbit, an instant success! This rabbit had more expression, it looked venerable and small, I placed this little white rabbit into the dark sketchy inky black hole I had illustrated, and it fitted well. I then edited out sections of the hole so I could under lay my circle watercolour prints. This gave the image extra dimensions and a chance for it not to be all black and white, this image could be broken down and when put in relation with the book I think it would say a lot. -How the White rabbit is lost, venerable, innocent and being seen in a black deep hole which is in parts colourful and crazy which suggests the metal hospital. The fact the rabbit is down the hole shows him as hiding from something (the wolf whom is the nurse is the book). If interoperated correctly this image encompasses the story well.
The introduction of the wolfs lack of presence was spotted; I lacked the basic scary, angry wolf that the rabbit is hiding from. I needed to resolve this for my illustration to tell the metaphor clearly. I stared testing ideas of how the wolf's presence could be hinted in the book design with out pulling to much attention away from the image central illustration (rabbit hole). I thought up having the feet of the wolf creeping in at the bottom, or his ears at the top, to have a shadow of a wolf or wolf paw prints. I did illustrate a few ways and made my own paw prints with my fist cover in paint then press on to a page, which worked but didn't fit. I wanted the wolf to be disturbing, so it affected the rabbit hole, I started to draw a wolf hand scratching down the page, I loved this idea of the wolf scratching the colours of the rabbit hole down the page. Once i had illustrated and keeping to the same illustration technique, it looked great together. I find the image leads my eye down the page which in it's own right tells a story/ narrative.
Now i had all of my main imagery done I was then positive in starting the process putting my book jacket together. My first challenge was, what to put in the background behind my illustrations, I started off putting a block colour behind which I disliked instantly, I need texture. I took a photography of the ground, this image had multi tones. I overlaid this image over my illustrations and light grey background, then I lowered the opacity levels to make the photograph transparent. This gave the image texture with the multi toning, this helped blend in the background with the illustration, therefore making the image not look so so placed.
I decided on the typeface Myriad Pro, because its a sans serif font, its readable when small and it was the closest to my original choice Gill Sans but Myriad Pro had better 'G's'. I have used this font for all the text on the book cover, blurb, spine, font cover quotes and author. I like how thin this typeface is, I didn't want the typeface to distract the reader away from the illustration. I have used this typeface for the title in a 14pt unlike the body text which is 10pt, the title still needs to be resolved.
I have put in all my text on the back and spine, I am trying to keep everything rang centre. With the blurb on the back i have made the circle on the front reflect on the back but mad the opacity very see through so I could over lay the text, I designed it so the circle would almost frame the blurb.
No comments:
Post a Comment