Take Two on a New Cover

So, sometimes I do something and I’m not quite happy with it, but it takes me a while to work out what I don’t like. Anyway, this is what happened with Anna and the Rock Dragons. I’ve spent the last month pondering the cover, while I go through edits. It was missing something.

I finally realised it didn’t look finished. Well, I didn’t know what to do about that—oil pastels can be a bit tricky—so I went back to my art folders to see what had attracted me to using them in the first place. The work before had a lot more lines in them, more colour showing through, more lines in parallel. I thought about that.

One of the biggest problems in the original cover is the shirt—there’s too much blank space, and the speckling looks messy. Other things I didn’t like were the outer lines—they look hesitant and almost temporary, and the figures aren’t clear on the page. Also, the colours don’t show through as clearly as they do in the raw, and that’s a shame, because colour is what drew me to oil pastels in the first place.

So, I kept editing and tried to come up with a solution, before I had to decide between delaying the release, or releasing it in a cover I wasn’t entirely happy with. Here’s what I’ve done so far: 

1. Played with the original art, redefined the lines, thickened them, and added more.
2. Scanned, trimmed and darkened the scan.
3. Played with the font on the title.

The cover before I played with it:

The cover after I played with it:

I still don't know if I like it... but, let’s see how it goes.

Photography: People and Action - Lessons Learned on the First Attempt (Part 3)

With thanks to the Ancient Arts Fellowship of Canberra for both letting me train with them, and then take photographs.

There was one final important thing to note about taking photographs in public places:

Public grounds have other people… and cars… and things, which will show up in your background.

Two background items  - rubbish bin and the woman on the right

Note the car...

And then there's the toilet block...

...another cars, some Coppers Log fencing *and* the road signs.

It is, however, possible to blur the background in shots taken of individuals.

"...and then I just came in low and..."

The AAF fighters work very hard!

Sometimes it is possible to avoid unwanted background features:

... or to crop unwanted material out of shots to achieve a more ‘natural’-looking background.

Cropped - no car, but we lost a fighter

Uncropped with car in background

And sometimes you can’t:

The woman is gone from the right, but I still have a garbage bin dead centre

The close-up lens will do both close-ups and group shots, while the short lens just can’t get close enough.

Close-up of the warrior-in-red

Group shot including warrior in red

As close-up as the short lens can get

Group shot with short lens

And, finally, be aware of the good influences that can happen with people in the background. These shots are more interesting because of the female fighter in the background.

Photography: People and Action - Lessons Learned on the First Attempt (Part 2)

With thanks to the Ancient Arts Fellowship of Canberra for both letting me train with them, and then take photographs.

 As well as learning that there is a difference in the type and quality of photographs taken using the short lens and the close-up lens (which has a filter), I also noted the following from my first time out photographing groups of people:

Sports setting is good for getting a series of continuous shots of movement, which provide good references for drawing. Take note of the two left-most fighters in the first three photos and observe how the sports setting has provided a good sequence of movement for the same people. This will provide a good sketch reference in future.

Shot 1 of 6

Shot 2 of 6

Shot 3 of 6

Shot 4 of 6

Shot 5 of 6

Shot 6 of 6