Friday, June 7, 2013

So Many Digital Dreams...

Happy Friday, everyone! 

Today I'd like to share with you my mock book cover for Philip K. Dick's "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" I love the hell outta this novel and was super excited to draw some concept art, then book covers and interiors for the story. Many iterations later, I have finished the cover (for my thesis)! Now, allow me to share with you the process.



It all started last fall. I worked on this in my Narrative Illustration class at AAU for my thesis. Above l to r: the initial thumbnails at the top, then below several different versions. In the end, I was glad to have explored my options, but really wanted that dead-on, looking right at you with her goggles version. I then did some value and color studies and a tight drawing. I wanted to experiment with oil painting initially (I was obsessed with creating texture in oil paint at the time). I worked on it some traditionally, but when pressed for time took it digital to finish and overlay the lineart. Not terrible, but I wasn't happy with it and knew I would continue working on it.



I re-visited the drawing after getting some great feedback from Michael Buffington (an instructor at AAU).



I decided to tackle it digitally this time for color. I was happy with how it turned out, but when I had my final review one of the biggest problems I heard back on it was that there wasn't enough room for type and there was some confusion about why she didn't have arms. I made that choice consciously, wanting to be more abstract and design the overall shape as priority. I needed to revisit this illustration again.



Back to thumbnails! I decided to really push the designed elements and make it obviously pattern/shape based.



Voila! The final version. When I finished it about a month ago I was very "meh" about it, but after taking a break and coming back to look at it I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

No comments: