WIP March book cover composition. Critiques welcome.

[ArtofAleksey]

Ok so here is the pre inked rendered pencil version.
Im slowly learning what my preferred drawing process is. It seems that it’s banging my head against something until i figure it out anyone else share that process?

So what im going for is im trying to surround the scene with lots of details and tones to make the eyes focus on the frog/reflection because the frog is surrounded by less detail and tone.

Is that working? If not, what is working?

[Heather Bouteneff]

@Aleksey I love this, especially the clever reflection, the ripples on it like it's representing disturbed life (like interrupted from being a human) and especially that you put the pond up against a natural little waterfall.
My only other comments are so nitpicky and probably just me so honestly you can ignore them- but I wish the ball was bigger, unless this is a person size frog the Princess has lost her golden marble. I am not convinced his expression matches the personality he had in the story either. Here he looks lost and timid and sweet and I love him, but the frog prince was a bit more like a clever bargainer

[ArtofAleksey]

@Heather-Bouteneff these ar good point! Yeah he was but there have been several adaptations apparently sometimes the frog doesn’t suck.

[ArtofAleksey]

Ok here is the inked version.

[ArtofAleksey]

And value guesstimates

[NessIllustration]

@Aleksey I think there is an opportunity here for you to be much bolder with your values and make contrasts that stand out from afar (as a book cover should). The pool can be a brilliant white, the frog a much darker figure standing out over it. I'm also not sure I understand the shape behind the frog. Is this a rock? It seems to be melting into the water of the pool, but it's not water because on either side we see trickles of water. What is that?

[ArtofAleksey]

@NessIllustration thanks for the feedback. it is a rock yeah I’m trying to use it as a framing device I for the frogs figure. Is there another way you would approach that?

[NessIllustration]

@Aleksey I think what's throwing me off is that the rock is a different value than the other similar rocks around it, and is instead the same value as the pond and its surrounding tiles. I'm also not sure of the rock's structure. The lines of where it lays on the ground are enveloping it and hiding the structure of its base. The lack of lines inside of it (while I'm guessing you omitted them to clarify the frog) makes it hard to see what kind of volume this is, and which parts are jutting in or out.

[ArtofAleksey]

@NessIllustration yeah that makes sense I did that intentionally but maybe I can add a bit more tone onto it with line I want to keep it minimal.

What do you think of these values? I might darken it On the top rocks

[NessIllustration]

@Aleksey Ohhhhh nice, that pops so much more!

[MichaelaH]

@Aleksey I like the new value also very much, looks great

[ArtofAleksey]

Ok whew.. what do you guys think? I had some trouble with the shining water because I ended up inking with a different light source in mind.p but I like this too

[MichaelaH]

@Aleksey I would make the frog in lighter color, the leaf darker. I like the color of the background, the water is to bright so for me, so it doesnt feels like shining water, but more like very bright water. But it is really great how it changed from the thumbnail. Love to follow Your progress. Really good.

[ArtofAleksey]

@MichaelaH ok i will try to do that. I dont want to make the frog too light because i want it to contrast with the background. But maybe thats what i need to do

[burvantill]

I agree. I think if you make the frog lighter and the pool rim and lily pad darker that may work. I would also consider slightly darkening the water sonthe ripples show. And maybe darkening the silhouette too. I think it’s an important part of the story and it’s getting lost. I keep forgetting that it’s a prince and not just a straight reflection. I love how this is progressing. The baground values are great.

[ArtofAleksey]

@burvantill good points ok ill try that thanks

[Susan Marks]

@Aleksey Good question! Does a book cover get a pass on the rules which generally avoid symmetry?
I appreciate your next attempts-but I don't think they're as strong as the first one. I didn't pick up on it in the first one that the shadow of the frog has such a long narrow silhouette, perhaps because you drew more detail on it. In your next attempts, it reads off to me. Does a shadow ripple out so long? Yes, perhaps, but I think it gets thinner and weaker as it extends out. Maybe there's something off with the perspective a bit. The vantage point is up above the top of the frog, looking down at him. From that angle, what would the shadow look like? (consider my comments on perspective to be coming from an avid novice!)

[ArtofAleksey]

@Susan-Marks yeah I actually thought about this a lot and ended up making it look less obvious. This wasnt on putpose i had trouble figuring out how to make a reflection with ripples that organically extended from the lilipad, communicated that its a prince, and didnt seem out of place. So im gonna try and play with it just a tiny bit, maybe the crown, to make it look more obvious. Because it does not look like how i initially intended

[ArtofAleksey]

Ok I’m actually really happy with this.
I’m gonna figure out the font next.

[KathrynAdebayo]

Hi! Thanks so much for sharing your process with this. It's so helpful to learn from. I noticed in your sketches that the title is to go in the water, but as I was looking at the progress you've made here, the thought came to mind to suggest playing around with the title above the frog, and the author/illustrator's name in the water. At this point, the rendering you've done on the trickling water and rocks is so awesome that after I see the frog, my eye wants to look at all of that detail (even before looking at the reflection in the water). It brings the question to my mind, "What role do the rocks play in the story?" because they are given so much area of the cover. If they're not important, I would crop the page differently or put the title on top of them. Perhaps this is already your plan, in which case, thank you for reading through this message even though it doesn't give you a new topic to think about.