Day 3: Colour Theory

Colour theory

Rough plan of illustrations

All photos are authors own

This project was started off by creating a colour wheel and refreshing my knowledge on colour theory. I found this process a little bit tedious as I was just recapping on things I was already aware of, but it was good to verify anything I wasn't 100% clear on. Then I created three illustrations (first two are abstract and third is digital) that represent a passage in Darren Shan's Book Demon Apocalypse:

"I'm rushed towards the window. The flames peel away from me. The window gets bigger and bigger as I fall upon it. I just have time to worry about what will happen when I flash through and smash into the ground on the other side. Then I hit it and everything goes green."

"I land hard on the floor of Baranabus's cave..."

I think my use of colour in the first two illustrations worked well in abstractly conveying what was happening in the book. The first one uses a spectrum of colours between red and yellow to symbolise fire and the second used tones of green to illustrate Darren's vision. In my digital illustration I feel like the colours I used for the jacket and blanket are too bright a tone to work well with the lighting in the cave, so I would like to darken them. However, in the time I had I feel as though I produced three images that convey the text rather well.

Day 1: Illustration Book Cover

Mindmap of things associated with illustration

 Research into the context/range of illustration

Illustration with text/existing book cover designs

Experimenting with cover layouts

Experimenting with cover designs/titles

Using Illustrator to digitally draw the text

Font experimentation

Using indesign to create the final book cover

Final book cover design

All photos are authors own

This was the first in 6 one day projects that I completed over 2 weeks. Starting with the my chosen topic of illustration I proceeded to do research in an effort to produce a book cover design. I really enjoyed this project because it gave me an opportunity to learn more about illustration and it's diversity. It was also a chance to create a more illustrative graphic's piece, as it fitted well with the concept I was working with. It was challenging to come up with a concept, research, ideas and final piece all in one day, but it encourage a more efficient work approach.

I am pleased with my final book cover design. I think the pencil mark background I created by dragging a graphite stick across the page is in keeping with the typical associations with illustration e.g. personal, hand drawn marks. Also, small design choices such as, the handwriting type face in the corner of the front page to represent an artists signature, help the appearance of the piece. However, I'm not sure whether the image on the front cover is clear. My idea was that it would relate back to an earlier illustration I did, but was shaped to look like a question mark and the teeth spell out "Illustration". The title of the book being Illustration?