Colours

I have been experimenting with colour and compositions adding layers to the landscapes on the pages to try and create more depth. I have found that simplifying the colours of the background helps to make the characters stand out while managing to maintain the depth and detail of the scenery. One thing I am struggling with is the colour of the people in the illustration, I have been trying to find colours that compliment the rest of the illustration but any colours I would normally use as a skin tone are too close to the background colour and make the characters blend in too much. The only colours I can think would contrast enough are blue and green but those colours communicate illness and sadness and could add meaning to the characters that I don't want. Adding layers to the backdrop went against my original ideas of compositions almost floating in on a blank page, although I will be using a colour background I was thinking of using coloured paper and not having full bleed illustrations. because of this I wanted to find a way to make the scenery seem grounded on the page without a full complicated backdrop. Adding the rocks to the composition suggested the ground and the space the characters inhabit so I have added shadows to the scenery to give them more of a feeling of form.

The top image is my original design and the bottom one is where I am up to now, I think the bottom one works much more effectively as an immersive landscape and makes the dog the focal point of the composition. The use of pink makes the image possible makes the image seem otherworldly which could possibly be a bit confusing but the other colours I tried did not create the same appealing, soft aesthetic. I am going to continue the same aesthetic into more pages of the book and keep trying out different colours for the people in the book. I have been working on the scene where the dog is looking in the mirror thinking "I have teeth like a polar bear". The composition at the moment is too simplistic and needs some work. I am going to add more details and see how I could create a more interesting composition. The challenge has been to create an interesting immersive landscape that doesn't overpower the dog character as he is based on simple shapes and one colour. I have been looking at some illustrators that use textured line work combined with shape based illustrations to create some really nice effects, this is something else I am going to experiment with.