concept/execution
when i read this poem, i always think of it in terms of a first love: deep and pure, true and innocent. it reminds me of the stories told to little girls, of the prince that is just searching to find you. because of this, i chose to interpret this poem as a children’s book. i drew the female character as a sort of doe-eyed, innocent young girl, yet a girl brave enough to walk through the forest and the night to find and reconnect with her love.
when i read this poem, i always think of it in terms of a first love: deep and pure, true and innocent. it reminds me of the stories told to little girls, of the prince that is just searching to find you. because of this, i chose to interpret this poem as a children’s book. i drew the female character as a sort of doe-eyed, innocent young girl, yet a girl brave enough to walk through the forest and the night to find and reconnect with her love.
in executing the illustrations, i paid close attention to the movement and progression of the scenery and the night. each page links to the next: for the most part, what is on the right side of one spread ends up being on the left side of the next. this was to ensure that the viewer could follow the narrative and comprehend that these events are happening successively. another choice i made was to embody the heart as an outward physical object, so that the female character literally is carrying her love’s heart with her. the final element i added into the drawings was the changing of the moon. the cover is simple – it only includes the title, author, and a drawing of the moon, which directs the reader to think the moon is something important. as the story progresses, the moon shifts across the pages, moving from right to left. when she is finally reunited with her love at the end of the book, the sun rises on the two of them.
technique
first, i sectioned out pieces of the poem. i then created a concept for each spread. i drew everything in pencil, then outlined it in black marker. i used the scanner to bring the files into photoshop, where i cropped and rotated them. after i did that, i brought the files into illustrator, live traced them, and then used live paint to color each part of the drawing in a flat color. after the basic coloring was finished, i brought the files back into photoshop and used a combination of the mouse and a tablet to shade the files with brushes of varying thicknesses, colors, and opacities. to add text, i brought files back into illustrator and used americana in white. finally, i flipped them back into photoshop to print.
reflections
i consider my work on these files to be outstanding for my comfort level in both photoshop and illustrator. i am extremely proud of everything i have been able to accomplish in this project. if i could change anything about my project, it would most definitely be how i bound the book. before i printed, i should have made sure that all of the text was far enough away from the side of the page. when i cut my pages down, i was hasty and ended up using a pair of scissors, which resulted in crooked and ragged edges, and some of the text was too close to the edge. i also wish i had done a hard cover, with a different binding. i am extremely proud of my digital work, and i think my project could greatly benefit from being reprinted and rebound.
