Experiment 2 - Digital shading and editing

As a second experiment I decided to try out way using Digital Art. I used drawing software mixed with photoshop to add the shading and darker tones. By only adding darker tones, I was able to produce a contrast between the pipers face being pale and almost white, and the Rats face being a darker shade of grey. This monotone shading also allowed me to add a pipe in the centre of the image to act as a spine for the book cover, but to give this pipe more of an impact and separate he two faces, I added colour to the pipe and also gave it a outer glow effect coloured red to symbolise the horrific nature of the story.

Using Digital software can sometimes be a good way of producing amazing artistic effects, however I feel that this is not the best way for me to produce my final piece. My last technique of using watercolour I feel was a better suited way of adding shading and colour as it gave the artwork a traditional and i'm sure and eerie feel if I try hard enough. So I feel as though watercolour is the way forward for my final book.

Colour choices

In order to play around with colours and get an Idea of what I will include in my final, I expeimented with colour choices using the areas of colour such as Monochromatic, Triadic and Analogous.

Final Draft

After developing my scamp of the split faces of the pied piper and a huge rat both spanning the front and back covers, I needed to refine the Idea further and using photoshop and drawing software to add colour and get an Idea of what colour pallets I will need to use to make the drawing look the best it could possibly be, whilst keeping true to the story and genre of the book I want to create.

The colours needed to be a mixture of desaturated colours for the rat and the pipers skin, and saturated bright colours for areas such as the eyes and the pipers clothes. The method I used to add colour was digital art, although I like this method, I feel that this book could do with a much more traditional technique of colouring, possibly water colours like I used in my previous experiment. 

This is the final draft that I will use as guidance for when it comes to my final.

Second Emulation/Experiment - Using Watercolour

For my second emulation, I wanted add colour to my work this time but I wanted to use another form of colouring rather than just digital. I thought Watercolour would be a suitable starting point, as watercolour paints can give some very beautiful and traditional effects to work, and I was sure I could produce some creepy/eerie looking work using them.

I wanted the image to link to the story of the pied piper, so I decided to draw one of the scenes from it. The scene I chose was where the Piper enters into the council chamber with the mayor and corporation sitting at a council table discussing the rat infestation.

I started the process by drawing a pencil line drawing that I could perfect my design on. I decided to set the scene using a design based around the camera shot angle of an over shoulder shot, although decided to base the image around the side angle of the Pied Piper, and have the Mayor and Corporation sitting in the background around the table.

Now, I decided that if I used purely watercolour I would lose detail in areas such as the faces and hands. I came up with a solution for this by tracing the line work image onto another piece of paper using ink and a brush. This would then let me define more detail, and the colours that would have run into each other during the painting process would be defined between the lines and give the whole image a unique and cartoony style.

Next step was to start watercolour on the pencil drawing. I wanted to separate light and dark tones in a way that gave the impression of true lighting. I did this by using the complimentary colours Blue (to show the shadows) and Orange (for the lighter areas). This made the room look dark, but also gave the appearance of light coming through the window behind the mayor. This worked very well, as when it came to adding the colour to different areas of the image, there was little need to change colour to get darker toned of the same colours. I did ass to some small areas of shading using black paint, just to make the depth of shadow more visible. The colours also hint that he mayor is a innocent person (use of warm colours e.g. Reds, Oranges) and that the Piper is a eerie and strange person that might not be trusted (use of colder colours e.g. Blues, blacks).

Next step was to fit the watercolour with the line work in Photoshop. I edited the colours using Levels in Photoshop to make them more vibrant and darker so they stood out.

Next I added the lines by thresholding them so the lines turned black, and then used the magic wand tool to erase the white, leaving a transparent layer containing only black lines which I then copied onto the water coloured image.

This was essentially the whole image finished, but I wasn't totally happy with the sharp edge of which the image finished. So, I decided to create a border for the image that made it look like chipped paint.

I started with using a coarse brush and some black ink to make a rough and scratchy black line.

I then took it into Photoshop to be thresholded to make the lines darker.

Then using the magic wand tool, selected the white edge around the outside of the black lines.

I then used the keyboard shortcut "cmd J" to duplicate this white edge, leaving me with a white scratchy border.

I then copied this onto the other image to give it a scratchy white border that looks like chipped paint on an old canvas or piece of wood.

This last touch finished the whole image off and made it look even better. I will definitely consider using watercolour in the future, possibly for the whole front cover and few pages I will be creating.

Drafting Ideas

To start drafting ideas for my front and back cover, I have decided to go with one of my scamp designs and develop it a little further. The scamp I chose was one of my personal favourite designs and felt to be the better choice.
The image is of the Pied pipers face splitting off into the face of a rat on the back cover, I felt it makes the book look creepy, and achieves the eerie horror style I was looking for.

I decided to add the title I have perviously created in order to give a quick taste of what my final book cover may look like.

Tis is still just a first attempt at drafting, therefore I will be making improvements to this design.

Flat Plan

Here is the flat plan drafting for my pied piper adult style children's book. It shows the proximity of the images and text, it includes all of the pages and the front and back cover all planned out for my final piece.

All that's left to do now is select which pages of the book I will be doing.