I'm putting together a series of illustrations based on photographs from a trip down the west coast of America. Anyway, my original idea was to frame the photographs using the illustrations, like so;
(badly photo shopped, but you hopefully get the idea; the blend to black would be done more subtly, and there'd be no flipping)
However, for this particular illustration I'm not sure it works, so I was thinking of just framing them together, like so.
What do you guys think? And what the hell should I put in the smoke frame? The story is that we nearly ran out of gas in the middle of nowhere, Utah.
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Also, the text does not read well. It needs to be bigger or at least "cleaner" or perhaps spaced apart more..
Visti: The point is just do some illustrations to go with a set of 6-12 photographs I took on a cycling trip; they'll then be framed and go into an exhibition. If you mean what' the point of the illustration, I'm not entirely sure - this is the first one I've done so far, so I may have to rework it as I get a clearer idea of how the set will work together.
That said, I'm assuming you need to actually use the photo? If not, you could draw the gas sation within the smoke, larger, which I might like better. As opposed to a large photo overtop a drawn illustration. Or maybe even draw the station into the smoke and have the photo above, but be able to draw the comparison.
Just a suggestion, of course. And I know how touchy that kind of contract/commission work can go since usually your sponsor has some clear (if perhaps misguided) view of how the art should look...
NibCrom: My intention was always for the smoke cloud to frame the image. In the past I've drawn straight onto the mount, and I realise now that what I should've done was have the smoke interact with just the bottom edge of the frame. I'd like to give more detail to the story outside the image, to give them detail outside what the camera captured, but I obviously need to rework this to realise that.
For the next three, I'm going to draw the river into the frame below the rope bridge, the seaplane onto the frame of the boat photograph, and the Seattle cityscape onto the frame of the shot of my friend taking a photo.
two more done, I'm not sure if this concept works at all actually...
I'm losing it entirely
anyway, yeah, it's not working so well, Jake.
I've been cycling in the states for three months.
Those nice, swirly lines in the smoke in the first picture and the water in the bottom, most recently-posted image: those are great. If you were to work some design lines in the photos you took, but put them in WHITE so that they cut into the photos, it would tie them in much better.
Right now, those are not working. Sorry.
have you
how's that been?
This was the first thing I thought also.
Also, I'm working on another paper sculpt
You should make something like this:
http://www.cool4cats.biz/page16.htm
I must try some papercraft now.
i've seen very similar work done for scrapbooking photographs, and i think it's quite elegant if you set up the compositions right
the illustrations are not meant to be focal, they're fun little bits on the outside, what you should be paying attention to is the photography.
the illustrations serve as almost footnotes to the photos and I feel it works fine
loving the line work on the bridge one
my main crit is that on the one with the water plane, maybe lower the plane down so that it's on level with the photo and crop the extra space
i like white space as much as the next design enthusiast, but i feel staggering imagery in "steps" distracting.
yeah it really is, gorgeous line quality, excellent flow, i like it with the big ol' random smoke too, it's interesting.
In short, find a way to keep them seperate but obviously pieces of the same work (i think a big frame and a mat with with two holes might be your best bet)
beav: totally agree with you on the plane, it's awfully placed! Oops
(edited for sounding like a dick)
yeah this sounds to me like it's going to look great
tam: I like to think photography is my thing, if I have one :P, but cheers
grenn: October 28th-November 11th, LS6 gallery on hyde park corner for the photos, and Leeds city library in october for the paper sculpt (not entirely sure about the exact dates for that second one).
done a bit more work on the flowers and feet today. Just a bit of tidying up and a tree now. Would be finished actually, but the one I made I realised was crap, and too heavy to sit comfortably in the turret.
excellent stuff
I just need to finish adding the laces, and possibly rearrange the speakers (not sure it makes the finished article too fussy).
facebook.com/LauraCatherwoodArt
Also, here's another in my usa cycling illustrated series
This is awesome.
I know what you're saying, but I like the feathery look of the photo, and that's something I'm not happy to loose. I might try toning the black down a little instead, although full size the black isn't so overbearing.
Not sure about this next piece. The perspective of the illustration works best with the first photograph, but I think I prefer the second shot.