Here is the first full illustration and text page for the Lithuanian fairy tale I'm illustrating for my BFA project. The spot illustration is still in progress. I plan for it to look like the sheaves of wheat in the illustration with color and line. I want the scythe to look sharp and metallic too. That will be the hard one for me I think. I made certain words colored to emulate illuminated texts that similarly colored important words in the text. The traditional color in illuminated manuscripts is red, but it didn't seem to harmonize very well with the yellow/purple of the illustration. But now I wonder if the purple is too harmonious and if a more red violet would work better. If I change the color of the colored text on this page to fit the illustration, I'll have to do the same for all the other illustrations, and it may not work as well. Should I stick with the traditional red? Or should I ditch the colored words all together? I think they're kind of fun myself, but I just want them to be a bit more varied.
Your comments and critiques on the illustration, the design of the text, the in progress spot, or anything else will be greatly appreciated.
I like the purple text. I think it salutes the past tradition but it's subtle enough that it isn't distracting. I think you need a couple of commas: "Once, somewhere in Lithuania, lived a family..."
ReplyDeleteGlad you said you're going to add some sharpness to the spot illustration. I think the bundle in the front right needs some more definition, but I love the way your detail fades into the distance! WELL DONE, Shara! So excited to see more!
Cool. I like the border treatment. Love the way you have handled atmospheric perspective. I think it is strange that the sheaves wheat seem perfectly manicured like someone ran a hair brush through them, if it were me I would probably paint a few strands sticking out in various directions. Although I've actually never harvested wheat, so I could be wrong. I am not sure about the colored text. Maybe after you see it with a few more illustrations you will know what to do.
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