Redesign cont.

Issuu won't let me type underneath its document so new post:

After a tutorial with Fred he commented on how they don't really fit as a set, contrasting compositions draw them apart. So I made some time to sit and redesign my prints.

First off I did some thumbnailing. I wanted the image to be centred. I liked the design on the right but half way through inking it I realised that I hadn't left room for the text. So I used the same parts from the original but putting the egg at the top so that the eyes opening is sequential and makes more sense. I think it was unclear in the prints what the closed eyes were. I put the wool in the back though because it gave the other parts something to strongly centre them. The other designs all seemed to have a central part and without the wool this one was just floating.

 With the brain one the original was really simple and the others were more complicated so it didn't really fit into the set. I first tried making the brain the big main part but after tracing out the outline of a brain that I could draw wool into I realised that it took too long. So I decided to draw it smaller; I tried to fill the extra space by having deaths arm twist around, but I don't think it works visually.

I was thinking of this print in the design so I wanted to keep the unravelling brain in because I think it was a simple and effective visual metaphor. In the end I decided to draw all of death in it and have terry pratchett in the picture. This is the serious one because it represents the Alzheimers and I felt like the face I draw for him is a little too silly for this one so I made him a silhouette. Atleast that wasy I could show the wool inside of his head, I tried to make it look like the wool from the first print in the set, to link them. Also I cut the original quote I used because t was too text heavy and instead just used the last line 'it makes you feel quite alone'. That part pretty much sums the whole quote.

For the Officer of the British empire thing I wasn't really sure how to represent it at all. The last image I made for this one was literally a medal around his neck. Since the other ones are all visual metaphors and non literal it didn't fit in the set. I got the idea from a seperate idea I had for animation where a series of short clips of the hats of discworld being put on. I decided to use the post master hat from going postal, I used the tv movie version because it is more widely recognisable  than the book cover illustration one. It represents an honour so it's fitting to use for Pratchett's knighthood.
At first I just had the hat with the feet and it looked like it was wrong but I couldn't figure out why. After asking around the studio it came down to it being a little to empty and the other prints were busier. So I decided to have books splayed out to show that he was knighted for his work in literature.

For this one the original was over busy. I tried at first to keep the child reading under the covers because I liked the innocence and I felt it was something that everyone could relate to. But after a lot of attempts I found that its really hard to draw someone under the covers. Also compositionally it was an awkward shape to place. So I decided to have the scene coming out of his head. Because when you're reading and you get really into it you get to a point where your not aware that you're reading because you're experiencing it in your imagination.

Finally I kept the elephant one almost the same but I put the text at the top because before I think the text was too small and 'shy', it needs to be loud. Also I took out the little Pratchett writing because I realise that since my audience are pre existing Pratchett fans there was no need to have anything representing that it was his book writing because the turtle and elephants made it clear that it represented discworld. Having it there made it a little patronising to my audience.

I'd been playing around in my head with the idea of having the prints displayed like a mobile. In my tutorial with Fred I told him that and he asked me some questions about it; including what will hold them together? safe to say I hadn't thought it through properly and had no idea.
Then Fred highlighted to me: 1 I have 5 prints. 2 What has five things? Hands. 3 Where do I have hands in my work? Deaths hand unravelling Pratchetts brain. DEATH one of Pratchett's famous characters. of course.
So with this new revelation I decided to draw the hand. In honesty I'm terrible at drawing hands, they are one of my biggest foes. So you can imagine my struggle with skeleton hands. So  I got a picture printed out and traced the basic bone outlines. Then in the pink I drew each bone in my own way, I did this because I wanted the hand to be realistic and kind of scary because I also want to show a serious message concerning his Alzheimers. 

Inked up. I then drew in lght and shadow. At this point hadn't decided my colours so I was just labelling the light ones which I was thinking of going with yellow.

In the positives I decided to use the black to outline the bones; so it matched the set but also to make it look severe and angular. For the colour positives I decided to use the scribble texture I used in the  other prints so it was all linked as a set. Also because I think block colour would make it look to 'cartoon' and that would ruin all my work to make it severe and scary.

Now my positives are all ready I  scan them and arange them on A2 so that they are all in position and I can do them all for each colour in one go. I'm dong this because I need to save time where I can seen as it's so near to the deadline and i'm behind. Bad tme planning, but onwards and upwards.