Greetings from... Process

Here are some process shots from Illustrator. I have tried to illustrate Aberdeen as parts of a Reebok Ventilator trainer.

I have tried to show the history of the cities industry with fishing in the detail on the sole, ship building illustrated through a ships bow on the toe of the trainer and textiles using the leather laces. I am thinking of adding a hand holding a sowing needle at the end of the lace to illustrate this element more effectively but I'm not sure I want to overcomplicate the composition. I have tried to make the Reebok logo into 2 rivers to represent the two river that Aberdeen is situated between. The detail on the grey sections of the trainer is to represent the architecture and environment of the city. The details of the flowers are represent the Britain in Bloom competition that has been won by Aberdeen on 10 occasions.

I played around with different colours to balance the design of the shoe and to try and make each element clear. I darkened the colour of the river and added another tone to give it more of a feel of water and motion. I also made the back of the shoe grey instead of dark green as the different sections of the back were blending together.

Adding the tread to the sole seams to made the shoe seem like a solid object. tried the design with different coloured backgrounds to see how the colours were affected. I like this composition but feel I need to fine tune to shapes making up the shoe. They need to be as smooth as possible without and mistakes in my work with the pen tool. Something else I would like to try is to move away form the original shape of the shoe and see if I can build a composition that gives the idea of the trainer but is made up of other objects. I would also like to experiment with negative space within the shoe in a more simplified design.