Unit 4 Evaluation

Final Piece

This is my final book cover design. I really like how the type sits over the painting on the back of the book. I feel like it adds depth to the cover, and makes it really aesthetically pleasing.
I think if I was to do this project again, I'd probably experiment more with colour schemes and composition.
Though I like that the dark colours set the mood for the book, I think that maybe the design may benefit from the introduction of colours.
My only concern would be that the abundance of colours would clash with the painting, and so take away from the illustration.
Over all, I am very happy with the out come of this project. I think it fulfils the brief I had set, and is over all a successful design.

Final Piece : Back process

I started off by drawing a box shape with the pen tool so that I could alter where the text would wrap around the portrait.
I wrote a brief summary of the story for the blurb, and even included a 'review' from a newspaper.

I thought having the review at the top of the blurb would work well, but I think it made it look messy/cluttered. To fix this I moved it to the bottom. This made the design look more efficient and streamline, and so made the product look more high end.

I decided that I didn't like how the text sat at the side of the back cover, and made the design look messy. Instead, I lowered the luminosity of the face so that it faded into the darkness and overlaid the text so that it rested on top of it. This added depth into the cover and I think  that made it look a lot more high end and better quality.
It was a huge improvement, but there was still something that I didn't like about it. It wasn't until I changed the alignment that I realised what it was. I feel like the left alignment of the text made it look quite rigid and formal. I changed the text to a centre alignment which was much more streamline and successful.

After changing the alignment of the text, I then proceeded to add features/conventions such as barcodes and logos. I used two types of barcodes (Interleaved 2 of 5, and QR Code), and included the logo of the publishing company on both the spine and back.

For the book folds, I decided to include a short biography of the author (Tim Burton) and a photo. I really like the affect of having the photo included in the back of the book. It gives the book a much more personal feeling, I think. One of the elements I like about this is the starting letter being in the same script type as the cover, and being a larger size. It looks a lot more aesthetically pleasing and interesting than if I were to keep the text all the same type.
I also included information of the publishing company, as I feel that it gives it a formal edge but remains relevant to the page topic.

This is how the back looks with the front cover. I am very happy with the outcome as I feel it has a really nice balance and contrast. I feel that the different elements of the design work nicely together and compliment each other, bringing the out the best.

Final Piece : Front cover process

I started off using the left half of the portrait I had painted. I thought it looked more worn and 'dead', and so would make for a better cover. However, I then thought that it'd be difficult to connect both the back and the front if the portrait was to end abruptly.
To solve this, I then moved it so that the right side was resting on the front cover, and the left side on the back cover.

After swapping the sides over, I then duplicated the portrait so that I could drag the face out wider. Even though it makes it look misshapen on the plan, when printed out and folded into shape, it will work better as there's an equal amount of face on both sides.

Originally I had designed it so that the title of the book rested on the bottom of the cover. However, I felt that it made the white space ineffective and unsuccessful. It made the cover look still and boring.
To adjust this, I rearranged the type positioning.

This is how it looked after I had repositioned the text. I much preferred it in this position, but I thought that the white contrasted too much with the black, and took focus away from the portrait.
To counterbalance this, I colour selected a muted colour from the veil, so that it still contrasted with the black, but wasn't so bright that it took away from the main illustration.

This is how the front cover looked after adjusting the colour of the type. I feel that it is much nicer on the eyes, and makes the the typeface easier to read.
I also think that the composition is much more successful than how it was before hand.

Final Portrait Process

I started off with a basic sketch of the portrait that I wanted to do. I did it on a background with low luminosity, as this allowed for clearer painting, and made it easier to judge colour differences in tone.

I then painted under the sketch in a monochromatic style so that I could get a better idea of what tones would fall where. It also gave a base for shape and gave me more confidence to work over than if I were to try with the oil paint brush tool immediately.

On a layer above, I started to apply paint using the oil brush tool, blending and altering the colour as I went. This was so I could really get the right shapes of the face.

I duplicated the layer with the painted face, and flipped it so that it was the opposite side of the face. I then proceeded to add details like teeth and eyes, making slight differences between the two sides to avoid an overly symmetrical look, as this would look highly unnatural, and too ‘perfect’

I really like how this technique worked out, as I don’t think I would of been able to achieve such a range in tone from the colours without first painting monochromatically under the sketch. I think that it is a very successful technique, and it is one I will definitely be using in the future.

Final Cover Layout Trials

These are rough cover arrangements that I trialed after completing the cover illustration.
So far my favourite of all the designs is the final one, as I feel that the darker back ground makes the book seem a little too illustrated, and so may appeal to a younger audience, which is not in correlation to my brief.
I will use a hand drawn font to use as type on my cover. I will also include any company logos that I feel necessary,
I might make the illustration a bit more subtle, so that it's like you're seeing the character through a mist-like screen. This might also make the book look higher end, and so appeal to an older audience.

Final Cover Scamping

These were the initial scamps that started the final development of my final cover design, I wanted to digitally paint an illustration of the main character, and include references to the book.
I started off with a very rough sketch of a basic pose I wanted on the cover, and then I developed it into a more detailed scamp. Under the scamp, I did a very rough monotone painting, so that I could get a rough idea of shape, so that I may later work into it.
I think I will make some minor changes to the pose and expression so that the character is given more 'life'. I will also change the petal-like fragments that come from her (as seen below) into moths, as they are more book accurate.

I started off with a monochrome digital painting of the character, so that I can set a top layer to 'Overlay', and make colour adjustments on a 'multiply' layer. This allowed the colour to be transparent and sit over the monochromatic painting. This gives the darker colours a less saturated look.
Next time I will probably try and paint her using the oil brush tool, and working in a low saturated colour palette, as opposed to a monochromatic,