cover development

Skin:
In colouring my skin I decided to go for grey to contrast with the rest of the colours of the cover. I think the contrast of the white on the colour is quite striking and really lifts the figure off the page. I drew on Kilroy's use of pencil and negative space as inspiration for my skin work. I tried using some illustrator brushes or gradients and it looked very artificial. Instead I chose to do my pencil work by hand using 2B, 4B and 8B pencils. I then scanned them into the computer and used the pen tool to cut out the shape I wanted. A bit of the definition, especially in the face seems to have been lost so I may go over that with an illustrator brush.

Colour:
When comparing the front image to the inside images, there is a noticeable lack of consistency in the colours and feel of the images. I have altered the colours of the front image to pick up on the pinks and oranges of the inside and form a more cohesive design.

Hair:
For the hair I have used a variety of different charcoal brushes in varying weights and shades of grey. I didn't want ot he hair to appear as one lump of colour, so I have tried to make it appear realistic with lots of thin strokes. The back layers have thicker strokes in darker colours. I then built on top of that with thinner and lighter coloured strokes. It still needs another top layer to add more depth and really give it some weight.

Brushes:
I have dowloaded a bunch of new brushes such as ink brushes and smoke brushes and they create a lovely hazy line that will blend in excellently with the backdrop of my cover illustration.