Ella 3

I started to rough out some compositions to give myself an idea of how the characters would work within the frame.

I want to show some interaction between Alice and the birds, whether she is jumping out and scaring them or just watching them sing. Having lots of birds in the picture is good and bad, good in that it opens up an incredible colour spectrum but it is difficult to fit lots into a composition without it looking cluttered.

I like the idea of basing the composition from Ella Fitzgerald's viewpoint. I am not sure I like having Ella's arms in view. They could change the focus of the illustration and add depth to it in the wrong way. it could work with her arms in view but I think it would shackle my options for the rest of the composition.

I chose two of the roughs and made more detailed versions of them adding colour. Of the two I think the bottom one works best. the character is lined up with the birds and her eye line leads up to them. I would add sounds to the sides of the image in the background using grass and sky colours. I like the change in scale between Alice and the tree in the top design but I think the bird characters will be too small in the composition and wont be as effective as I would like.

I reworked the image in Adobe Illustrator to see how the sounds in the background would work. I think I need to do more work on the lettering. The character jumping out combined with the lettering and the movement of the birds makes a hectic energetic composition that doesn't really communicate up a serene beautiful day in the garden. I want to involve sounds and a performance but need to find a balance.