The Moment Before Halloween WIP
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I tried sketching this from 5 different angles but this is the only one I can get to sort of work and I'm still not sure it does. Trying to decide to see if it gets better with the sidewalk and environment/ moving the cat more directly under and behind or if I need to think of a new idea!
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@Heather-Bouteneff I wonder if the ghost needs too look more "stretched" so we see more clearly what is going to happen... We probably need to see those ghostly folds in the sheet/skin of clouds that are being held down by the cat. I'm personally not sure an environment or a different angle would help tell that story--it's the act of being revealed that is the point of the illustration, I feel, and keeping that center is a good idea. Just my opinion.
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Hi @Heather-Bouteneff! This is such a great idea for a moment before! It wasn’t immediately clear to me what was happening though, so I would definitely find a way to emphasize the cat pulling on the sheet. I agree with @Coreyartus that putting some stretchy-tension on the sheet would help a lot. Maybe you could move the ghost to the front of the line and the cat to the back of the line, so that the white sheet is stretching behind the kids across the whole image, drawing a visual line from ghost to cat. Or maybe he’s just got the end of a string of the unraveling sheet so that there’s still tension on the ghostly shrouds but not so much white sheet across the whole thing? I would for sure add a shadow under the ghost to emphasize that he is floating—not a kid in a costume. It’s such a fun concept! It’s looking adorable! Good luck!
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Hey @Heather-Bouteneff What is the concept behind this drawing? I'm missing what this is the moment before? It feels more like just a moment I don't get a sense of tension or anticipation. I think the concept needs more direction, or perhaps I am just missing it. I'd love to hear back from you.
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@andersoncarman It's supposed to be like 3 kids trick or treating and enjoying the night but the kid in the middle is actually a real ghost and the other kids probably don't know that. The cat is playing with his "costume" though so when it falls down and there is just a an invisible ghost holding a floating pumpkin they will be surprised!
I think they will still be friends though, especially since the ghost kid happily trades away his Snickers for candy corn
I'm working on changing it up thanks to Corey and Beck's feedback, but I have a SCBWI conference in a month too that I'm trying to finish a picture dummy for so I am like a turtle trying to multitask
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Trying it this way, it changed the story a bit though I think like the ghost is the pied piper for cats who just can't resist sitting on clean laundry !