Ideation and Communication

 

After some IDEATION (f*ck yeah), I had 3 A7 dummy books, firstly a mock up of my current theme ([Thanks Chiu]: The effects Birmingham may have on Superheroes). Then, from this, I explored the idea of a superhero's role in society; saving innocent people, and came up with the idea of the "Who will save me" placard. This then spawned ANOTHER idea, of how normal people probably have, or had, wishes and aspirations to have superpowers. From all of this I sketched a few thumbnails out, top right being close to what was in my dummy book. This, on reflection, turned into the top left image, which I think is successful in terms of composition, and it has potential to be my cover because of it. 

 

The above image is possibly the best composed and most powerful of the selection of sketches I created based off my idea of 'Superzeroes'. Looking at Todd McFarlane, and other similar artists and their inking styles, I decided to hatch the image to add some contrast and let it pop. However, after looking at my quick sketches above, it is really lacking the punch a book page really needs.

 

These are simply quick digital dummies, as I don't want to commit my ideas to the original, in case something changes. I looked initially at a similar approach to my placard sketches, just colouring the background. This I then altered with overlay layers and got an interesting sepia/tea stained parchment look. Finally, I added hessian layers to really darken the image, to rid the page of the white. 

My current plan is to render the final pages traditionally, with inks, pens and watercolours, I know the effect isn't perfectly simulated on PC, but I'd like feedback on which effect people feel is most effective, and more so why, if it works, I'll apply it to the rest of my pages, so it's fairly crucial haha...

Cheers!