Owl on left or owl on right?

Sabrina Gosselin

@Braden-Hallett Awesome! I was actually thinking owl on the right because it looks more like it's suddenly blocking the characters, ie. Blocking the flow (as you read left to right so it's like theyre trying to run off the page)? Ie. More tension? I dunno, that's just me

Nyrryl Cadiz

@Braden-Hallett RIGHT

K.Flagg

I would also say right

Neha Rawat

Left, you silly, because:

My eye naturally goes to the top left to read a page (right around where the character riding the owl is as opposed to the empty space in the other version)
The flow of page is going from the top left to the bottom right so it feels more natural
Since the flow is going diagonally down, it gains momentum towards the end and having the giant mouse looking back into the page helps the eyes move back and stay within the illustration (as opposed to losing momentum going diagonally upward and stopping at the character riding the owl)

Melissa_Bailey

For this composition, the story really will dictate on what side you place the owl.

Is the owl the protagonist? If so, then it would make sense to have him moving left to right, as books are read and how action in children's book illustrations normally flows.

If the girl is the protagonist, then it makes more sense to place the owl on the right, as it would then be the antagonist blocking her progress through the story (as @Sabrina-Gosselin already eloquently pointed out).

Either way, really dynamic composition and storytelling!

lizardillo

I'm really not very good at writing critiques but I'm here to say I'm looking forward to seeing this! (But I would have said owl on right)

miranda-hoover

@Braden-Hallett Left feels best to me for some reason. Mr. Hootles is a great name (every owl I ever see will now have this name, lol)!

kylebeaudette

Right is right.

KevinTreaccar

I say owl on left to establish the threat first before we see the reactions to it.

LouD

Is this part of a sequence of images? If so, I’d keep the “forward” direction consistent among them.
Like other commenters said, I also think of moving from left to right as moving forward. If the girl is the protagonist, I’d put to owl on the right (unless in the story she’s backtracking to something she’s visited previously.) My eye flows down the hill with the mouse and girl, and her knife is like an arrow to the next page, then oh no giant owl obstacle in her way! If the owl and its rider is the protagonist, I’d put them on the left.

braden H

So many good reasons for both left and right! I've decided to go with owl on the right as it makes the most story-telling sense (girl is the protagonist) and while I like the idea of the owl reading first and leading the eye to the girl and mouse, I also like the idea of the negative space leading us to the knife.

Anyhoo, thank you all so much for the feedback!

Here's what I've got to so far just for giggles

TaniaGomesArt

Looks really great

Nyrryl Cadiz

@Braden-Hallett beautiful as always