Critiques Please! Assignment #2 - Developing Great Visual Stories
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@skeletortoise Just wanted to say this last one communicates the story a lot better to me! I think even more chaos / busyness in the background (more people fleeing, etc) would work, as long as you keep them distinctly grouped into foreground and background like you are doing with value and level of detail. Nice progression from your first sketches!
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Hello all,
I am now doing the second illustration for Assignment 2 is Will’s course, and I would appreciate some feedback. I have 5 thumbnails and I would like to know which one seems the most interesting and present the most storytelling opportunity.
The story: a kid has been trying to grow a plant successfully for some time, but he had no success. One day, a tree he planted bursts to an enormous size!
- Kid is in backyard of home and comes across his tree, grown without his knowledge overnight.
- Kid goes to the field where he keeps his plants (dead, scattered around him - almost a plant graveyard) and finds his tree enormous
- Bird’s eye view of the enormous tree and the neighborhood and kid below. I feel this one is too impersonal but maybe you all disagree.
- Kid goes to field but an upshot.
- Kid inside his bedroom, and about his failed plants - doesn’t know his tree is enormous outside (window).
Thanks in advance for any notes you may have on the story or composition!
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@skeletortoise Hi! Wow, you've chosen a tough idea to convey! I suppose the main way to show that the tree has grown overnight is in the child's expression, and maybe some destruction around it - like lumps of earth that have been pushed aside?
Here are my initial thoughts:
Number 4 looks the most effective to me, though it might be a clichéd point of view (though maybe it's overused because it's so effective...) but it really gets the point across that this is one enormous tree and that that it's surprising somehow.
Yes, the bird's-eye view, number 3, does seem impersonal. It looks more like a good establishing shot for a story that's about a tree and takes place near a town, but doesn't make the tree seem unusual or weird.
Number 1: it's hard to tell how large the tree is... Though if you want the focus to be on the child and his reaction, this might be a good starting point.
Number 2 is maybe a bit uninteresting. It's an image you'd see in any book. But maybe with the tree closer and more upheaval of the earth etc, it could be more effective.
Number 5 looks though the story is more about the child in his room than about the tree - the tree just looks like a background element. Though I suppose it could be right up close to the window as if it's trying to get his attention, or even pushing through the wall?! Then he would probably have noticed it and be reacting in some way.
Well, I hope something I've rambled about here will prove helpful in some way.
I hope you enjoy the illustrating!
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@Robyn-Hepburn thank you for taking the time to give such an in-depth critique! I think I agree with your points. I wonder though if the bedroom scene could work if the plants strewn around the room conveyed his goal. Might be really tough to make it read though.
I’ll keep working on this. Thanks again!
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I would mix 1 and 3.
What I like about 1 is that you have the past on the left and the present on the right. However the point of view of 3 allows a better understanding of the size of the tree, and it is more dramatic. The expression of the kid should still be visible though, as it will help telling the story. I don’t think the view of the city is needed though; you could skip it if that make things too busy? -
One more thumbnail trying to blend 1 and 3 together and I’ve included the text as well. I like this one but am open to tweaks to make it more effective before I go into the rough sketch phase.
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@skeletortoise Great! I can definitely tell now that the tree is big and the child is reacting.
Just throwing some additional thoughts out, feel free to ignore:- Should the tree be closer to the house? or maybe be surrounded by more failed plants? At the moment it feels like that specific plant was put further away specially, as if it was expected that it needed more space.
- Oh, that's it. I have no more thoughts.
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Just finished! The assignment is for a “rough sketch” so I think that about does it for this one. I like this one a lot better than the first one I did.
Please feel free to leave feedback if you have it. Thanks to everyone who helped me with this assignment!
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So you’ve changed your mind at the end
Very nice work! It was really interesting to see you explore different solutions. -
@skeletortoise Nice!! I think this vantage point works really, really well for telling the story of a tree that’s grown very suddenly. If you were to ever take this further, I’d just think it would be cool to maybe show the tree doing things like smashing through a window, pushing on a chimney, or lifting up a car or something with its roots.
https://sarahvandam.art/
Instagram: @sarahvandam.art and @artistsandbox.etsy -
@skeletortoise Yes! Brilliant! Very effective with the houses close by and the tree outgrowing the space, plus the fun point of view with the child and his reaction.
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@Sarah-VanDam yes I was playing around with the idea of the tree breaking something, maybe even starting in the house and breaking through the roof! Thanks for the comment!
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@Robyn-Hepburn thanks so much! I'm glad it's working
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I think the zoomed in images are really capturing the feeling you want to convey!
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if this is meant to be part of a picture book, just keep in mind if you want it to be one page or a two page spread, because if it is for two pages then you don't want important stuff in the middle where it will get cut.
