Willow Friends Design/Layout Critique

[Amber Lynn Benton]

I still haven't made a formal introduction but I have to get something out the door today that I need extra eyeballs on.

Somewhat recently I painted a set of portraits of the characters in The Wind in the Willows. I've been working on building up a line of greeting cards for the local market so I composed this as a greeting card. Then prints were requested and so I've listed it as an 8x10 print in my Etsy shop and I've sold a few copies.

On Etsy this illustration was discovered by an interior designer working on a TWITW themed nursery for a client. She has custom ordered each of the portraits as a separate print and requested lots of white space - she doesn't want the images to fill the entire frame.

You can probably see my struggles in working with these portraits - the frames and backgrounds were designed to fit each character but I didn't thumbnail how each of these might fit or work together - hey, I'm an artschool dropout and this was before I found SVS!

How did I do laying out each portrait to take up a similar amount of visual space? (see below) Any suggestions? I have a template with guides set up in PS but the frames are pretty organic in nature.

Thanks for looking!

Amber

[shinjifujioka]

First of all - lovely characters! Second, that's so great that an interior designer has requested your work! It's my dream to one day have some sort of hand in interior design.

I'm not sure how else to interpret what the designer asked for. The portraits are separated and surrounded by lots of white space. I think they look great!

[Amber Lynn Benton]

@shinjifujioka Thansk so much for the reply and encouragemnt! I think the struggle is just sizing/placing them so that they look like a 'set' when they are all different. Mr. Toad and Badger are the most difficult.

I'm trying to balance physical space and visual space if that makes sense.

[Judy Elizabeth Wilson]

@Amber-Lynn-Benton Hi Amber. These are beautiful illustrations. I'm sure you will have a very happy client with how you have laid out the illustrations separately.

[Amber Lynn Benton]

@Judy-Elizabeth-Wilson Thank you, Judy!

[StudioLooong]

I love how you did it, I think you could make the mole just a tiny bit bigger but the organic unevenness doesn't bother me. It's lovely and whimsical! Really nice stuff!

[Amber Lynn Benton]

@StudioLooong So for mole perhaps pay more attention to the interior of the frame instead of the exterior of the frame. Good eye!

[Amber Lynn Benton]

Thanks for the eyeballs guys. I slightly enlarged Moley and they are all printed and on their way!