Action!
Ambushed - two figures - a city's back streets - night
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After Feedback
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For my initial chosen thumbnail, I wanted to focus on the movement of the action, the man reacting to a gun being drawn on him out of nowhere, but it was noted to be not a realistic enough reaction as there were no hands thrown up defensively.
After the feedback, I decided to include the hands as suggested which helped add to the sense of surprise and defensiveness that comes with being ambushed. The tension in the hand also helps convey the rigid reaction of the man when he freezes up. In addition, the eyes are now more focused on the barrel of the gun. |
Vertigo - a steeplejack - daytime - windy day
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After Feedback
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After feedback I decided to go with my more exaggerated idea for the roof as I felt it played into the sense of 'vertigo' more, playing into the unsettling nature.
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Tango - two figures, movement, sexy, close, exotic, café
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After Feedback
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I wanted my thumbnail to convey the intimacy that comes with the dance and chose a tight, close-up shot of the pair absorbed within the tango.
In my second tweaked version, I made the hand rest more carefully on the back so that it looked less rigid and uncomfortable. I also added shading to further emphasize the closeness which draws your eyes in to the core of the couple facing each other. |
Systems Failure - one figure, spaceship, physical struggle
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After Feedback
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I wanted to experiment with the view I used for thumbnails, deciding on a bottom up view of the figure which I think helps express the looming dread of what's to come of the system malfunction. I wanted the figure to appear slightly rounded in a subtle fish-eye effect after combining the different aspects I liked best from each of my initial thumbnails.
After getting feedback on this thumbnail, I decided to not hold back from worrying about going overboard with the red and added a stark glow of it to the figure. I made the opacity of the text on the helmet lighter so that it was more clearly a reflection on the glass, as well as making the shadows of the face red as the colour would realistically fall there too. A small amount of white was added to the shading of the helmet to counterbalance the mass of red and show glare on the glass. A background was also include to further show that it is taking place on a spaceship. I chose for the panels to curve following the slight fish-eye effect I gave the figure, heightening the claustrophobia and panic of the system failure. |
A Giant Leap - rooftop chase, three figures, peril, bravery
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After Feedback
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My initial refined thumbnail resulted in having the figure look more like he is climbing rather than leaping so I decided to completely redraw it.
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January Sales - claustrophobia, queuing, doors opening, multiple figures
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After Feedback
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In the first refined thumbnail, I wanted to convey the physical struggle of battling through the crowds, having figures trying the clamber over others or blocking them from shoving forward.
In order to make my illustration appear more dynamic to correctly portray the fighting that occurs during mass sales, I decided to add a more dramatic light from above that shops would have. I also included the sale sign to make sure the 'January Sales' is correctly portrayed, keeping it bright to balance and contrast with the darker shadow, as well as a box that the outreached hand is surging towards. I think that this improved the thumbnail significantly, making it much more engaging. |
Body Language
Angry Boss - two figures - an office setting
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After Feedback
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For this thumbnail I wanted to play with the perspective and exaggerate the size of the boss looming over the small and frightened employee.
After feedback I changed the hands of the employee to be more defensive and scared as well as having the hair brush over the back. |
Good News - a single figure holding a phone - 1950s
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After Feedback
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For my first rendition of this thumbnail, I wanted to have the woman appear to be beckoning someone over to tell them the good news but it quickly became apparent that the body language wasn't conveying the beckoning aspect clearly.
I changed the arm to be pointing towards the phone instead and changed the direction of the TV as the antenna was fighting with the direction of the figure. I also made the furniture in the background and the figure appear closer by making them bigger since the figure wasn't the clear focus with it instead getting lost in the background. |
Mum can we go now? - two old friends meet on the street, the teenage daughter of one doesn't want them to talk for long
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After Feedback
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For this thumbnail, I chose to have the girl just leaving the shot as she is wanting to leave the situation. I decided to change the framing of the thumbnail as the pulling of the jacket wasn't as clearly the center point as I wanted it to be. This change also helped with the narrative as it appears more similar to a child's perspective as the faces of the adults aren't important details to them. I also made the pull more aggressive and exaggerated to better convey the frustration and want to make them leave.
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The Anniversary - a couple celebrating an anniversary in a restaurant. They hate one another...
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After Feedback
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I wasn't happy with how this thumbnail turned out as rather than having the feet look they were pointed in opposite directions, they ended up being too close together and looked more intimate if anything so I decided to completely redraw it. To better express their discontent with each other I decided to show the couple at different ends of the table with an obvious divide between the two consisting of empty space. I decided to cut the mans face out of the shot to convey that despite physically being at the table, he has already mentally left the relationship.
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The Big Jump - a figure in an aircraft just before having their first parachute jump
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After Feedback
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As suggested, I included more of the drop in order to add an element of danger and to show what the reluctant parachute jumper is afraid of.
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Genius at Work - serious concentration in an academic or scientific setting
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Communicative Colour
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I found the text I was given quite difficult to visualise so I colour coded the important aspects of the described setting and feeling in the passage to try and view it more clearly. I started my drawing out some rough thumbnails to figure out an interesting view on the scene that captured as much of the art direction that I could. The colours I chose started out more realistic as I exaggerated and changed them as I progressed to include more feeling to the illustration.
For my composition I wanted to have the man looking out at the setting sun over the English coastline as he realises it's soon to be night, while an ominous figure overlooks the scene from atop the hills.
Inspiration - Betty Jiang
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When looking for artwork that used colour to create mood, I came across Betty Jiang's work. I really like the use of a single colour clearly used throughout the illustration while still having a varied value range. The brightness of the ground captures the eyes attention and draws you into the image. The greenish-blue hue also gives a supernatural and unearthly feel.
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After getting feedback on my initail thumbnails, I decided to go back to the colour palette for the illustration as it is the main focus of the project. I felt that green gave a sense of unease along with a supernatural quality and that the red made the background foreboding and untrustworthy. I used blue to to emulate the cool feeling of the sun setting and day ending which soon leads to night. The yellow contrasts it well and gives an element of danger, as though someone has caught them.
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I chose to go with the green and red colour palette as I think that it fit the brief best. To help intertwine the two colours I decided to make the sky green which gives sickly quality as dusk is fast approaching and they are in unfamiliar territory. The red compliments this well and balances the unease with an alert fear. I decided to make the figure on the top of the hill more abstract which helped include the element of the unknown which I think is much more unsettling that actually knowing you can see something. I also got rid of the cylinder the figure is holding as I felt it was unnecessary and distracting.
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Initially building up the figure using light brushstrokes allowed me to blend the red into the green so they felt less disconnected. It also gives a ghostly feel to the man as he sinks into the beach. I went over the green with some red to fully immerse the foreground in the painting. I decided to use loose brushstrokes to give a blurred, nightmarish quality to the illustration. The harshness of the deep, almost black, red gives a harshness to contrast the softness of the brushstrokes and captures a sense of movement as the elements thrash windswept. The water lapping up at the sand helps draw the viewers eye back into the face of the figure as the composition circles around the page smoothly.
I wanted to keep the details of the figure subtle so I stayed away from using black and softly carved out the elements of his suit with my brush.
I wanted to keep the details of the figure subtle so I stayed away from using black and softly carved out the elements of his suit with my brush.
Final Illustration
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I think that the final illustration worked out well and I'm glad that I spent the time to experiment with the colour palette further and make bolder choices.
The higher resolution file is below. 
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