Fall WIP

[chrisaakins]

I like the 2nd one. I like how it creates a nice curly line out of all the elements.

[ArtofAleksey]

This is like autumn fairies? I love it, discovering the acorn hat idea is super cute.

[Chip Valecek]

I like the 2nd one as well.

[Elizabeth Rose]

So So Cute! Can't wait to see the color version! I love the energy of the second sketch

[TessaW]

@Jade-V Good point. I decided to explore the composition a bit more after seeing your comment.

@nyrrylcadiz - Oof. You caught me. I have the bad habit of making torsos too long. I was consciously trying to keep it shorter for this piece, but I didn't shorten it enough! Thanks for letting me know. I tried to shorten the torso even more. Hope it's enough this time.

@Jonas-Zavacky Thank you Jonas. You must like The Borrowers then?!?

@chrisaakins Thank you. I was attempting to imply an infinity symbol with the foliage.

@swordofodin It's supposed to be a fairy in her summer wardrobe switching to her fall wardrobe and being excited about it. Fall is my favorite time as far as fashion goes.

@Chip-Valecek Thanks!

@Squirrelsize - Thank you!

Welp, I'm forever changing things around mid-process. I'm still not very secure when it comes to composition or the thumbnailing process, but I'm at least getting better at them than I was before. I decided to change the composition to imply a little more action and I wanted to show that the foliage was changing from summer to fall, and this new comp gives me more room to do that. The colors are just rough flats and don't quite convey the final values. I'm pretty happy with it. Just need a couple of tweaks and I think I'll go ahead and start rendering it out. Thinking of adding a magic fairy trail to show how she's been flying.

[Gary Wilkinson]

I love the concept, but I think the story reads better as 2 separate images as you originally had. Currently it feels like 2 fairies rather than a continuing story of 1.

How about if you have both images apart from each other but framed with spring/autumn foliage or seasonal items around edges to show the transitioning through the 2 seasons.

[TessaW]

@gary-wilkinson Aw dang it! And I thought I had it. Lol. I'll play around with the framing of the earlier comps. Thanks for your input.

[Gary Wilkinson]

@tessaw It's just my opinion and others might read it differently, if you are happy with what you have then keep with it. If text was added later to explain the story it would be a much easier read of the illustration

[ArtofAleksey]

@tessaw Ohh i see. Sorry I didnt look close enough I distracted myself with the sequential art, and the acorn is what stood out to me.

[Jonas Zavacky]

@tessaw Ooooh the memories! Yes! I loved the movie when I was young Oh well but i guess you talked about the book?

[TessaW]

@Gary-Wilkinson While I am happy with the overall look of the new comp, I want the concept to read, so I really appreciate your feedback. This forum has held my hand quite a bit as I've navigated through trying to make my own compositions, and it's always shaped up my pieces way better than I could have done on my own. So I hope my reply didn't come off as too negative, as your critique was very valuable.

@swordofodin Hey, no problem. If the concept doesn't read, then I know I have more work to do.

@Jonas-Zavacky No, I actually haven't read the book. I didn't know there was a book! But I guess it makes sense that it started out that way. I remember loving an old made-for-tv version of the Borrowers when I was growing up in the 80s, though I don't remember a lot about it. Then I saw the 90s version of it with my daughter about a year ago! I think studio Ghibli made a version of it, that I've been meaning to see. Which movie of the borrowers did you watch?

[TessaW]

Forever playing around.

[Gary Wilkinson]

@tessaw I didn't take it negatively at all. Reading my reply in a different tone makes it seems almost defensive, but I was more concerned of pushing your piece to something you might not be happy with

I think the new version with the text fits in so much better. One thing I would suggest is to adjust the position of the flower hat on the floor and the left over acorn as they are almost at a tangent and it's feeling as though they are stacked on top of each other. Their position also creates (at least for me) an issue with the composition for that page with it being quite vertically weighted on the left side.

I hope you don't mind but I did a quick draw over with how I would probably frame the scene. I minimized the size of the scene on the 2nd page to create more depth, and to try separate the character as she transitions from each season. I also tried to emphasize her ability to fly, which also gives room to hopefully give a better flow to the composition (the music notes might have been a bad idea though..)

[TessaW]

@gary-wilkinson said in Fall WIP:

@tessaw I didn't take it negatively at all. Reading my reply in a different tone makes it seems almost defensive, but I was more concerned of pushing your piece to something you might not be happy with

Ok cool Just making sure.

And wow! Thanks so much for taking the time to do the draw-over. It really has improved the composition a lot!

[TessaW]

Well I've changed it yet again. I thought it would be fun to set it up like it's in a kid's music book. I don't know if the comp still works in this format. I'd say I'm about 90% there. Still need to tweak some things and think about the text design. The song I made is not so great and if I made this into a product, I would definitely need to work with a songwriter/musician.

Anyway, thought I'd post this and put it away for a couple of days before going back and finishing it out.

[kaitlinmakes]

Oh man! So cute! It's got a Moonrise Kingdom feel about it, and I'm so glad you put the raw nut and dress directly below the fall fairy - it really helps to tell the story that it's the same fairy that we saw in the first image.
Also I know a pretty cool musician who sings to kids at schools (and also LOVES Prince) - so if you move forward in that direction and don't have any musicians in your network I can shoot you over his information.

[TessaW]

@kaitlinmakes Thank you. Oh yeah, Moonrise Kingdom! It kind of has a similar color palette and woodsy theme going on, right? I would love your friend's information- that's very cool of you to offer- though the idea of this is still so brand new to me that I don't really know how I would proceed on it. I do have a few musicians in my life, but would not know how to structure a collaboration. Interesting things to think about!

[aska]

@tessaw Texture and colours on your piece have a lovely warm feeling