OrinsPeachy

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[orinspeachy]

Life isn’t all ha ha Hee Hee templated

I wanted to see how my final design would look placed onto a book cover. So I took my image into photoshop and added it onto a book cover template. The look is very effective and I believe the layout of the cover make it look more professional and ready to be used on an actual book. 

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Mixed media experiment- marker colouring technique

Before fully completing the images in procreate I wanted to try and use markers and pencil to draw out some basic sketches of my Frankee character. I liked adding in the shadows with a light purple marker underneath the colours but adding the highlights to the eyes, nose and lips became difficult so I scanned in the image to procreate to add the highlights. I preferred the digital method as I was able to correct my mistakes easier. I liked the way the marker added texture to there pieces and maybe in the future I will try to use more traditional methods but for the children's book I liked my colours to be smooth and easy to blend. 

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Light study -Final image 4

BEFORE 

In this piece, once again, the original was too dark and the shading on the character looked a bit too black. There wasn't’t any paper shadows on the character so I added a light source to the front and lightened up her face and the middle of her body to make her the main focus in the piece. For her face and her head I used subtle block shading to make the hat’s shadow and the shadows on her face. I found this to be a more effective way of shading than just blending it in.

AFTER

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Before and after light study- Final 3

With this image the before image was too light. Frankee was facing away from the light so I added too much exposure originally. I added the light mainly to her hair since that's where the light would be hitting. Making the left side darker made my character match the background a bit more.

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Before and after reimagined piece light study- Final 2

BEFORE 1 

This was one of the first pieces I designed as part of this project. The lighting isn't right and there isn't a scarf or any from of outside clothing on the character. I knew I needed to add a more refined hair style and facial expressions onto the character as well as a new outfit.

BEFORE 2 

For the reimagined piece I adjusted the character completely. I added a hat, scarf and gloves. I also made the eye bigger and added more blush to the ears, nose and lips. when adding the shading I think the background was too bight and that the face needed a little darker shading.

  AFTER 

For this final piece I added a darker shading to the background on the left making it look like the fireworks lit up the sky on the right. I used a light pen to add the blue hue to the edge of the hat and the back of the character. I added light to the side of the character as I wanted to make it look like there were fireworks all around. I also added darker shading in the places I thought would have the least exposure. 

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Before and after light study -Final 1

BEFORE 

Before I had researched more about light theory this piece was highlighted too much with pink. The character seems to have her back to the fireworks so the light would be on the right side and some of her face would be dark. 

AFTER 

I changed the background to make the stars more visible and then I moved the fireworks closer to the right if the character so I could add a sublet lighting to the side of Frankee. I added shadows using multiply on the layer for the left side of her face since that's where there wouldn't be a lot of light. I added a pink tint on top of a yellow overlay layer so there would be only a minimal amount of pink since the fireworks were far away. This piece is one of my favourites due to the facial expression as a lot of toddlers make the expression when they don't get what they want. 

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Mother and daughter final with shading

In each of my finals I have added a background and experimented with different types of shading. It took me a few tries to get the lighting in my pieces perfect as I needed learn more about the light perspective especially when it comes to fireworks and in the dark. 

Before shading edit 

After - adding shading and enlarging the image. 

Enlarging the image made the faces of the character easier to see as I wanted the mothers expression as well as the joy of the child to be visible to the readers.

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Mother character design and final piece development

This is a close up of the mothers first design that will be apart of one of my final pieces. Initially I had the plan to complete the book completely but the time it would take to print it and add all of the features I want wouldn't be how I wanted it within the time. I changed my focus on this project to make it into a character design project for my children's book.

I added more types of shading onto my characters. I added blended shading and block shading as it highlighted the exposure to light in the characters. 

I kept the colour scheme warm and bright in colour. I kept different tones of orange and reds for Frankee and for the mother I thought it would be best to use different colours that would contrast but not so much that the colour are clashing so I chose a magenta colour and a slight purple to shade. I made the mother have small tears in her eyes to show the happiness she's feeling taking her daughter to her first firework show. I didn't want to add too much detail to the piece so I kept the clothes swim poky shaded and added the most detail and shading to the faces of my characters as the joy and tears of happiness is what I wanted to highlight. 

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Penguin book cover process and initial thoughts

The first sketch was initially supposed to be just one of the main characters with a circle on her chest with her heart inside. I wanted to put a cage around her heart to show her naive attitude within the book and the fact that she doesn't explain her feelings to her family. 

I added the colours red and gold as that's what brides wear in traditional Indian weddings. After finishing the book I decided to use all three of the characters as the highlight of the book is the friendship between the main characters.

 I used google reference photos of henna tattoos to design my own henna tattoos for Chila the middle character. Most brides have henna on their arms hands and a lot of other places for their wedding and I wanted to add as much of the appropriate referencing to the culture.

After adding all the circles within their chests I realised it may not be the best option to use this method to highlight their individual personalities as people viewing may get confused by what the hearts mean. After thought, I added text in their faces and added a word that related to each of the characters within the beginning of the book such as trapped, innocent and I was going to use the word naive for Chila and then liar for the end character. However, as I began to add more depth to the piece and considered colour palettes for the cover I wanted to add facial features to each character as I felt like adding them with their eyes closed would deliver the message I wanted to convey. 

After showing peers my designs with and without facial features the most liked design became the one with the faces. The clothing is very simplistic and the patterns are on a very low opacity so by adding more depth to the faces the expressions become more of a main focus to the piece. I made sure I added features to each character that would make then stand out. On the character who is supposed to be a mother I added a slightly messy hair style and a stain her garment. For the new bride I made her look young and added more accessories onto her. Then for the character who doesn't want to be apart of her culture and runs away format I gave her long flowing hair to show the freedom she wants and minimal accessories.

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Finalised front cover with changes

After reviewing my first full design I felt like it lacked some colour and the characters were too small. I originally had their faces blank so for my final I added faces onto them and I also made the circle bigger and I removed the smaller mirrors from around it. The smaller mirrors around the circle needed to be symmetrical but I wouldn't have enough room for the reviews and the title so I decided they would be a better fit for the back of my cover. 

I also changed the colour of the font within the mirrors to black and made them colourful as I wanted to add more variations of colour to the back and front. I then added magenta and green around the new circle on the front cover to link the other to characters to the main cover. For the spine I added two smaller mirror details and then I made the font smaller as it was taking up a lot of the space on the template. 

Overall after making these changes I am happy with the outcome. I like how the font stands out with the colours and how all of the designs match my theme and each other. I didn't want to use too much imagery that would give away the story so focusing on the characters was the best I could do to develop instead of my other sketches. 

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Life isn't all ha ha hee hee

After finishing my front cover I needed the spine and the back cover to be coherent to the rest of the piece. I used the mirrors on the back after removing them off the front as it was too crowded on the front cover. I wanted the characters to be the main focus on the front cover so with the back I added the reviews in the mirrors and a large mirror for the overview of the book.  I used the same font and also added a drop shadow so the words would be legible. I used the orange as the main background colour as I love the way the reds, yellows and maroons make the piece full of life and colour which fit the Indian theme perfectly. 

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Book cover

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Book cover process - Font styles

After deciding on the imagery I experimented with different fonts. First I used a serif font called Baskerville and I liked how the colour yellow with the red drop shadow behind the text made it cohesive within the cover however, I wanted to try a sans serif font since there was already a lot of patterns and swirls on the cover. 

I then found the font DIN condensed and really liked how bold it was against the imagery. I kept Baskerville within the mirrors where the reviews were placed as io believe the title of the book is more important and needs to stand out. I also changed the colour of the author's name to white to make it contrast with the piece since in a lot of her other book covers her name is bigger than the title and I thought instead of making the font bigger to add contest with a different colour. 

At first I kept the font in a straight line but it didn't find with the rounded imagery so I wrote the text on a curve and I believe it made the entire cover more professional and easier to read and draw someones attention to. After completing the front cover my attention was turned to the spine of the book and the back cover. 

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Penguin design -fiction cover progress

When designing my book cover I wanted to highlight the three main characters without giving away too much of the book. I chose to design the characters with their individual personalities. I made Chila the main focus as her story is focused on a lot in the book. At the start of the book she is getting married so I researched Indian wedding garments and the patterns that are on the dresses. At first I considered using the images with their faces on for the front cover however, I decided to use the imagery where their faces are blank as I wanted to keep the core simplistic. I used a symmetrical design for mirrors in the background as I thought I could use these to link the front and back cover. 

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Penguin design

After finishing the book life isn’t all ha ha hee hee by Meera Syal I took some of the key scenes from within the book and sketched out some possible designs. I will be picking three of these designs to develop and create a survey to find the one I will be submitting 

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Character finalising - F

I’m very close to the final design of the child in my book. I will be outlining and colouring in these digitally and placing them in backgrounds to see if this design is the best fit. I will be starting to finalise the mother’s design soon. 

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Penguin Design Project

Life isn’t all ha ha hee hee - Meera Syal 

For the penguin design project I have chosen to do the cover for life isn’t all ha ha hee hee which is a highlighting a friendship, a marriage and a career of three different friends. It highlights diaspora culture and I have started off by researching colour schemes and patterns that relate to the culture of the book.