Roughs 9

I made this image before the peer tutorial and got some helpful feedback on it. Other members of the group thought that at first glance the hands looked like reflections which could confuse the message. The idea behind the image is that you enter a new world when reading fiction and return changed and also that fiction helps young people to develop empathy. The idea of a reflection could tie into the idea of empathy but I think it may be too complex an idea that only really works if you already know it. I have also drawn some roughs of holding hands that I like think communicate the idea of empathy more in a thought provoking way but it is hard to illustrate without one of the pairs of arms being crossed. I need to try a few more compositions to see if I can find one that keeps the balance of the composition.

Heavy line work is an issue on a couple of my designs. It overpowers the illustration and the other colours in the composition. I wanted my illustration with 'fiction' spelled out in keys to seem positive and bright but the combination of thick black line work and the colour schemes I tried made the image seem quite dark and moody. I struggled with that particular illustration, something about the composition or the keys themselves caused me lots of problems. The feedback was very useful. I need to make my illustrations less 'cartoony'. That's not to say they can't still have elements within the piece but the illustration needs to capture the tone of the messages I am trying to communicate and have failed to up to this point. I need to keep experimenting with visual metaphors and colour. I still like the ideas for these images and want to find a way to make them work but I need to be careful not to force them to fit the dimensions. If something isn't working I need to step back, re-evaluate and approach it from a new angle.