Narrative Illustration - More experimentation

This is the first scene I have attempted to illustrate. I have created this image using digital methods only, utilising a pen and Wacom cintiq. Despite it being hand drawn digitally, it does not have a hand drawn quality to it. The line work is clean and there is very little expression or movement. This is more noticeable when looking at the mane of the horse, where it should be fine and free flowing, since the stance of the beast is indicative of fast and sudden motion, it is in fact, stiff and bulky.

The colour palette is no longer restricted like in the screen print and each colour has a complimenting shade and highlight to give it a more three-dimensional quality. The colours used are more realistic and suited to the respective animals but because there are so many, the scene becomes busy and lacks a focal point. Even the colours in the back ground compete for attention as the blue and green starkly clash.

The perspective the viewer has is straight on, as if they are stood close by watching the animals parade on by. I do not feel this perspective helps to communicate the chaos and energy of the scene in fact it feels flat and quite boring.

 

In an attempt to salvage at least some of the work done on this, I altered the back ground completely, using a brush stroke effect and colours from the same spectrum, red, orange and yellow. This has definitely helped to change the overall 'feel' of the piece. It now seems more at peace, the foreground stands out better against this back drop, but the colours of the animals still seem to clash, the piece feels more like a scene from a children's book and this is not the style I was aiming for.

It's not a total loss, I still think the design can be used in another way, just not as a final illustration for this module.

I need to incorporate more of my own, hand drawn elements and rely less on the digital tools, I need to rethink the perspective and consider reverting back to the restrictive colour palette that worked so well with the screen print in the previous entry.