Alice in Wonderland - illustration series
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I love this take on the Cheshire Cat.
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Well, this one was a difficult birth - 50 things all over again, and the perspective drove me nuts. Feedback on composition is highly welcome and if you spot any mistakes in the perspective...I am too tired to see them.
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No 4 - "You are only just a bunch of cards"...The card figures are going to be done at the color stage, as it is easier to trace them directly from real cards. Almost time to start thinking about color...one more pencil to do.
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@smceccarelli Your drawings are so nice!! For feedback on the Tea Party i am wondering if The Mad Hatter and Alice could be closer to us? Maybe more clutter in the background too unless it is supposed to be less cluttered there - i have not read this in a while so i don't remember the details of the Tea Party very well but the drawing is great.
For the "dashing the house of cards" drawing i had a few thoughts - it might be good to see a bit more of Alice especially one of here feet - i feel like she just swatted the cards away and that her eyes should be on the spot that she just hit...it looks like she is looking at her hand and it is making her hand seem very important - i thought that maybe making the most pronounced of the cards be closer to the bottom right of a rule of thirds composition might look good so i tried it really quickly to see - possibly changing her hand to be slightly more closed? I was wondering if the hair could add to the sense of movement or slight twirling that i am imagining that she just did and thought that raising her hair away from her neck might help with the sense of motion - really great work as always! (love the Ginko leaves
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@kevin-longueil Thank you Kevin, this is very very useful - I will go back to this drawing and change things around following your suggestions - which are all very very valid, as always! I have already made changes to the mad hatter drawing adding a section at the top. I am still pondering wether to cut a section at the bottom (which would bring them closer), but now they are at the third line, so maybe it works. I have also rearranged some of the objects to have a better flow. The queen drawing is also edited following your thinking (and much better for it). I will post all five together when they are finished. Trying to balance the need of the timelines (deadline is mid-November) with trying to do the best work I can possibly do...
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And last one - through the rabbit hole.
Now one day for correcting and improving and adjusting, one day for color studies and on to color. How do they work together? I have to submit prints and have a maximum sheet size of 13" x 16" either orientation. Would you print the finals all on the same size sheets leaving white space around or trim them to size leaving just a border around (or full bleed?)? Need to decide on final size before starting on finals....
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Can I just say how much I LOVE the up/down text?
These are all amazing, seeing your process and the feedback has been so helpful. Thank you for sharing!
As to your questions.... I personally prefer the white border (over full bleed), and would likely trim them to keep the border thickness consistent - like you've done in the collage. Mostly hope that you get the most size you can squeeze out with each format because there are so many wonderful details to look at.
~ Pam
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@smceccarelli Love the Rabbit Hole drawing! I agree with Pam about the border looking nice too. Do you think you will continue with this series? Are you submitting through SCBWI or will your rep be representing you in Bologna? Either way good luck to you - this a very impressive group of images!
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@kevin-longueil @Pam-Boutilier thank you so much for the feedback! I will keep the white border then - I agree with your judgement.
I am submitting with the SCBWI extension, which is until Dec 2nd. The prints need to be physically in Bologna by then, so I am leaving two weeks for printing and shipment, which gives me three weeks to complete with color.
What with the expense and the loss of time, I really hate print submissions....
The illustrators accepted into the showcase (only about a third or a quarter of the submissions, I believe) get free access to the conference, plus a page in the conference annual. My agent would not be there in any case (she does not travel to Bologna), but for me it's only about 300 miles away - so if I get a spot it would be a good deal...
As for continuing beyond five, it depends how I like the style when they are finished. This is a bit of an experiment for me, it's much more design-driven than usual and I am a bit out of my comfort zone... -
@smceccarelli all so lovely--my favorites are the chesire cat (unique) and the bunny hole
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I really like all of them. I'm sure they'll end up looking amazing in colour too.
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Ok, first one close to finish. The final decisions are on texture and the balance of rendered and unrendered elements and final polish on light and color....feedback on either of those or on anything else is highly appreciated!
Also, I initially wanted to have a bit of text as part of every illustration, but now I am not so sure...
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@smceccarelli Fantastic Illustrations! I think the words are a nice element to have. I guess you could try it all over the cat and see what happens, it might be really effective and clarify the idea more- either way you can save different versions of it if it doesn't work.
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It's great, really. I like the text in the illustration. Is it acrylics?
http://wakeupmonster.co.uk/
instagram - @mfjamesillustrations -
@mf-james Thanks! I only work digitally...actually never used acrylics - my medium of preference used to be oil and pastel, but that was a long time ago....;-)
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@smceccarelli These are amazing! I absolutely LOVE the ribbon Cheshire cat, colors, and texture! I
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I got nothing constructive to say apart from that these are great pieces!
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@smceccarelli This is looking really nice! I like the text in the illustrations - it gives a kind logic to the abstraction - for feedback i just have a couple little things - I know you have a deadline and this can easily stand the way it is - the first thing is that possibly the lines on three of the four paws are too dark and crisp - this is the only place where line seems to define form in the drawing - maybe just softening the lines a bit? The other thing is I keep getting pulled away from what should be the focal point - i don't have any good ideas to help solve this - maybe desaturate the extremities of the image and bring out Alice's silhouette out a bit? i feel like Alice could maybe pop more (possibly putting a wider ribbon behind her face so that you could really dial in that area of contrast?)...my eye keeps getting pulled to the saturated paws and the rich oranges and the high contrast spot in the ribbons that forms the tail - I'm at work at the moment so i have not tried this but I'm wondering how this would look using Lee's trick of applying the "cutout filter" in photoshop set to 5? - i think that spot on the tail might show as being focal - i could be totally off though
....feel free to ignore all of this - It really does look great! -
really good work here. I think you are leveling up on this one. Looks like your work just keeps getting better and better. : )
SVS Faculty Instructor
www.leewhiteillustration.com -
@kevin-longueil Thank you Kevin! I always hope to get your feedback because you always make such good points. The paws were disturbing me as well. So much so that I wiped them out and re-did them completely yesterday ;-).
As for the focal point, you are right. Alice is the point of highest contrast, but the saturation is getting in the way, so I am going to play with reducing the saturation of the outer sections and maybe also blurring the edges slightly, and reducing the contrast at the end of the tail (which is spot on the thirds line, so it´s a natural focal point as well). Thank you for pointing that out!
