Critique on a blown up version of thumbnail

RG Spaulding

Hello everyone,
After watching classes on composition and watching @Lee-White's youtube video on thumbnails, I am starting to draw thumbnails for my manuscript.
I would love to get your thoughts on this thumbnail (blown up). The scene I am trying to illustrate is a little girl and her imagined stuffed animal (giraffe) under a blanket with a flashlight. I need help deciding if I should draw from point of view inside the blanket with everything else in the room being dark or from outside the blanket. Any other pointers would also help. Thank you.

RG Spaulding

Anyone with feedback? I appreciate your time.

burvantill

@RG-Spaulding I guess it depends on what’s important in the story. If the dark room is important then I say include it. What’s the emotion that you are going for here? Can you give us an idea of what’s supposed to be happening in the image? What story are you trying to tell with this image?

TessaW

If you're trying to decide between options, my suggestion would be to thumbnail, at minimum, both of the ideas so you can compare them side by side. Bonus points if you make many thumbnails to brainstorm ideas and have a variety of options to compare and contrast.

I'm not familiar with the process of making a book dummy, but have you made thumbnails for the book as a whole, so you can see how the images work together with pacing and such? I can see how that might be very valuable to the decision making of each individual piece.

RG Spaulding

@burvantill , The little girl and her friend are really scared. They just picked up the flashlight that they dropped by mistake and then heard a strange sound. I guess it makes sense to show them scared under the blanket. This is what I am going for as far as emotions.

@TessaW, I am in the process of doing thumbnails. I agree. I will have to draw both options to see which one captures the moment. Thanks.

burvantill

@RG-Spaulding Yes, more thumbnails. Go for 50 and make Lee proud.

RG Spaulding

@burvantill, I did many but not anywhere close to 50. I am failing @Lee-White sorry!

Lee White

@RG-Spaulding You can do it. Start with a couple of different ideas. Combine that with a couple of different shot choices, add in more lighting options, and 50 is easy breezy!

RG Spaulding

@Lee-White , thanks. I will try. 32 pages x 50 is a huge number!!

Lee White

@RG-Spaulding don't think about all 32 pages, just think about the one you are working on. : ) Also, it doesn't have to be 50. I just picked that number to make sure people are working through a lot of possibilities. 30 is also a good number, especially when doing a narrative group of images.

RG Spaulding

@Lee-White, okay, I will try 30 for one spread and see how it goes. Thank you. I plan on having 3 finished or decently finished pieces for a dummy.