Project 3: Narrative Fiction
For this project, I am tasked with creating illustrations for a special edition for the Day of the Triffids, which follows the story of a man who manages to avoid being blinded by a meteor shower and must survive a man-eating plant apocalypse.
John Wyndhams’s The Day of the Triffids
Research:
Covers and Posters
Adaptations of Plant Creatures
Venus Flytraps
Little Shop of Horrors:
Tropical Pitvcher Plants:
Artists:
Patrick Leger
Aaron Douglas
Notes on Novel:
Triffid Design Ideas
After reading how the triffids were described and depicted, I thought it would be best to come up with my own adaptation of the plant creature.
Thumbnail Ideas:
My approach to this project was to create something horrifying for the viewer. The easiest place to start would be the front cover, so I got to making rough thumbnails for the cover.
Thumbnail Ideas (Rethink)
After receiving some feedback, I decided to rethink my approach when it came to the front cover.
Front Cover Final Drawings
Out of the two thumbnails I have drawn, the first one feels more appealing to me as it has more potential to stay true to the feeling of the story. However, I will still use the other thumbnail should it ever appear more eye-catching to me.
Front Cover Ideas
Out of the thumbnails above, I narrowed it down to two choices: the 4th and 6th choices. I felt these were the most relevant and appropriate of the choices.
Single Page Idea
After working on the cover, I had to choose a scene from the book to adapt into a full bleed illustration. For this, I chose a moment where one of the triffids attacks the main character.
Page of Writing
For it to feel like a real full bleed illustration to me, I decided to incorporate the illustration next to a page of writing as a test.
Possible Double Page Illustration Spread Idea
The scene I had chosen had the most potential to be illustrated, as it is the first encounter of a triffid for the main character. The next part depicts the triffid being burned alive after what had happened to the main character , so I will try to make the illustration pop out as much as possible.
After Feedback:
Single Page Refined
Revisiting my single page illustration, after receiving some feedback I went to edit the drawing as it wasn't intimidating enough. In the last slide the changes I made were spikes on the end of the triffids arm-like tongue, however, the most prominent change I made was the complete redrawing of the main character falling, which had more of an impact.
Double Page Illustration Spread (Chapter Break Idea)
After receiving some feedback, the fire illustration was not realistic enough to consider the drawing as fire-like. In the last slide is my refined illustration.
I decided to improve the quality of the double page spread and it came out absolutely wonderfully. It felt much like an actual fire, it felt more alive. I also edited the surroundings to fit more of the realism when a subject is close to a strong light source. Rather than use a flat, basic brush, I decided to turn to an actual fire brush, along with a combination of flare and colour effects, to depict an actual fire in the illustration.
Double Page Spread (Writing Page)
Revisiting the single page and writing page spread, I made the latter into less of a script and more of an actual page in a book. My newly edited single page illustration fits much better with all the newly added changes.
Final Product Outcome (Front Cover)
Final Product Outcome (Double Page Spread)
Final Product Outcome (Single Page)