This week I finished off the sketches for the books' spreads. I had originally intended to be further along in the illustration phase but it's great to see it all starting to really come together.
So that I could see how the pages look as I was drawing them I brought each spread into Indesign so that I could simultaneously arrange the lettering as I'm working through them. This allows me to spontaneously make changes as needed.
With the first spread, the main character still needs to be moved over. I had a lot of trouble drawing the crowd of people in the background in a manner that suggested a crowd whilst not requiring me to draw every single person - an option not possible with my quickly approaching deadline.
This is the final spread which will hopefully allow me to install a mirror on the right-hand page. I received the foil in the mail this week and I hope to test it out on the hi-fidelity prototype that I'm getting printed next week. Judging entirely from the roll the film looks very promising.
I will have to carefully cut it out and stick it to the mirror I have illustrated. I'm not sure what the self-adhesive is like and whether it will take to the pages of the book I'm printing, so I'll be using the hi-fidelity prototype to do this.
From here I have begun illustrating the next stages - the inking and the colouring. However, at this stage, I'm unsure if I'm going to be able to finish the book to the caliber I want in time to send it to Officeworks to get printed. Judging from their estimate it takes 7-10 days for photobooks to be printed, which means ideally I'd want to have all of the illustrations complete and off to the printer by the end of the month at the latest. I need to dedicate the beginning of November to my presentation, exhibition and mocking up a prototype for the kit. I'll also need to set aside time to polish my exegesis in the last week of October. I don't want to push this too close.
Begining the line art and colouring
I've begun making headway on this stage and it got off to a rocky start. I had a lot of trouble getting the background of the first spread to look good and how I wanted. I had originally intended to imply the crowd in the background with splashes of colours and implied shapes. It turns out the colour splashes were way too distracting from the main focus of the pages so I ended up just representing the crowd with sketches and blue shading. It's not exactly how I want it but I like it better than my first attempt. At this stage, I'm leaving the shading to the very last and will only do it if I have the time.
Although...looking at them again today, I don't actually mind the coloured crowd now....
Reaching out for user testing
Now that the majority of my illustrations are clearly sketched out I can reach out to those from my survey that indicated that they'd like to participate in a later part of the study for feedback. I'd like to ask what these participants think of the direction I have taken and whether or not they feel my project could help do what I set it out to do. At this stage, I cannot take on what feedback they give me before my Master's deadline but it can be used to inform a future direction I could take or validate what I have already done. I have sent out the emails and am now waiting for responses - for ease of scheduling I focussed on those based within Australia.
Prepping to Build the Kit
I'm still not certain how I will go about building the kit that my book is a part of yet but I purchased some facepaint and sparkly makeup that could form part of my kit. I also need to organize to get some stickers printed that go with the kit, I'd like these to match the illustrations in the book.
Comentários