Slowvember: Macbeth. Feedback on thumbnails

phoenix yip

Great job! My favorite is 2 and 4, I like the contrast and emphasis you put in them.

sigross

@robgale I think the expression of Macbeth in 3 is great. Looks like he's having a tough time at the King game. But I also like the idea of Lady Macbeth (in 1) being in the picture as she is the key villainous manipulator of the whole downfall.

xin li

I love the thumbnail #5, love the storytelling in this image. The composition is very interesting as it is now. I would work it out more with a couple more thumbnail variations based on the same idea. For the witches in the background, I will push it to be less symetrical. I will also experiment with where the line dividing black background and white background should be - I will avoid letting the line to be too close to the center for this particular image.

robgale

@chrisaakins Fantastic! That's exactly the kind of feedback I was looking for! Thank you.

robgale

@Braden-Hallett Thanks for the feedback! I hear what you're saying about the action in the dead center, and I'm totally going to play with that idea of the crown stretching!

robgale

@bugeyefly @Rachel-Horne Thank you both for the feedback! I like that throne in the center thing too, maybe I'll play with that a bit more... slow is the name of the game right!

robgale

@Oriana-Fernandez Thanks for the feedback! I like the idea of playing with 2 and 4 some more and maybe combining them. I had to youtube the Blackadder bit! Hah! Love it.

robgale

@Kevin-Longueil Thanks for the feedback! Agree on the dagger straight up and down on #1. Throne of Blood is basically what led me to Macbeth in the first place, so I suppose the influence sneaks in. I'm working on another piece based on Ran, so I didn't want to do 2 Kurosawa takes on Shakespeare.

robgale

@KaraDaniel @Fossi-Images @Chip-Valecek @sigross @xin-li Thanks everyone for the feedback! I feel like everyone's feedback has really encouraged me to stay in this thumbnailing world even longer, even though #3 seems to be the clear winner (for now). I was half expecting I was going to move into the drawing stage, but I feel like there are still some fun things to play around with thumbnailing.

@KaraDaniel I'm no Shakespeare expert, but I've been trying to read more classics and so I thought, why not paint what I'm reading. It's been a lot of fun and because I'm trying to interpret it into a painting, I definitely pay more attention.

@Fossi-Images @sigross Definitely get what you both are saying about trying to get Lady Macbeth in there. In a way, they're almost like two parts of the same character and equally important. I'll have to play with that.

@xin-li I see what you mean. I kind of did #5 and thought it was an interesting idea and then I didn't really work it as much as some of the other ones. Definitely worth a revisit.

Rachel Horne

@robgale exactly! I'd be really interested to see how it turns out.

Meta

I was also going to write I was drawn mostly to number three. Seems most poeple do. I think it's more attractive to look at some character in emotion then at a bloody scene. I'd increase the sice of the crown a bit to have another size of light area then the face. I'd do the same with the light areas left and right of him: make one slightly bigger, the other smaller for different size of area. Or change the size for bein the same. Either of it.
I'd also say they all read really well and your contrasts and compositions are great. Nevertheless, here some ritiques:
Number one looks a bit debalanced to me. The figures stick together and the king is neither in the center, nor in golden ratio. You could also try how it comes out if you push the section between black and white up to golden ratio. Maybe even putting the point of view rather below the throne. This would end in a fairly different composition, as the lines of blood which are parallel now would run toward a vanishing point.
So, my vote for number three and I look forward seeing more of it!

Coreyartus

I have to say my favorite is number 6. I think, graphically, it would be the most striking in real life. It is very simple, yet very bold.

A bloody hand with a dripping silhouette figure and crown also epitomizes the story of Macbeth quite a bit--it is literally a reference to Macbeth's dreams, his wife's "out out damned spot" line, and to the horrifying levels of blood in this show.... It could be fun to play with the drips of blood forming the visage of Macbeth, or perhaps render it as reflected light on the shiny wet surface of the blood.

To me, #3 reminds me, personally, a bit much of King Lear, a play that sorta hinges upon the madness of the ruler. Lear has three daughters, so the figures in foreground could allude to them unless something overtly indicates they're the witches.

There are a lot of illustrators that are hired to do entire seasons of shows in their style so there is a cohesive identity to the season. I found one person on Behance that is actually making Opera posters but they're animated--so they can be viewed both as still posters and online as moving animatics. Sorta cool... if you imagine your posters with some level of movement, the dripping blood could add a whole 'nother level of creepiness...

All of these thumbnails are gorgeous!! They would all make wonderfully suggestive and narrative posters! I can't wait to see what you end up with regardless of which one you choose!

robgale

Happy New Year everyone!

Well, Slowvember has bled into December and into the New Year, but I've finally made some progress on this piece. Here's where I'm at currently. I went forward with #3 (see above) and took some of all'y'all's advice. It's evolved a bunch since then as you'll see, but I hope the basic idea is still there. Anyway, I would love to know what jumps out to people. I've been looking at this for too long and I see a bunch of stuff I could still fix, but I think it's time for some other eyes to see what really pops as wanting.

Thanks for all the feedback so far!

Macbeth

Coreyartus

Oh. Man. That's gorgeous. Lovely love love!!! The lurking Lady M in the background, the blood, the witches in the crown (holding tree branches, no less!!), the creepy backlighting, the visage of pure greed with tiny glints in the eyes... The symbolism in this piece is deep. As a theatre person who has done this show in 2000 (Jim Parsons played King Malcolm in it when he was a student in the grad program I design costumes for), I think you absolutely NAILED it!! Are you contemplating augmenting it with any form of text or show info, or leaving it without?

You seriously need to think about doing an illustrated version of the play... I, for one, would buy it!!

robgale

@Coreyartus Thank you so much! Your post is super encouraging, I'm really glad you liked it and that it reads as it does for you. Making art can really put you in a weird place sometimes where you can't see things as other people do anymore, so I really appreciate the feedback here.

I hadn't thought of doing an illustrated version of the play to be honest, but it might be a fun idea!

As for text, yes, I would like to put at least a title on, but haven't quite worked my way around to that piece yet.

Thanks again for taking the time to leave the feedback!