Thursday, March 4, 2010

West_Proj. 3 Roughs



One composition is me trying to recreate a duck and the second one is me trying to create feathers floating down to the ground. (Showing the aftermath of what had happened) The story is that my mother was attacked by my pet duck and ran screaming around the back yard being chased by this duck. Then she retaliated with a broom and this time it was the duck "Quacking" around the back yard while she chased it. I used Bembo I thought it offered a lot of different ways of using it's font. I am very much stuck on the creating feathers bit. I'm really not sure what or how to create the feather look but I'm trying.

7 comments:

  1. First can I say that I love that you had a pet duck? Secondly I love the rough of the duck. I’m not feeling the feather rough though. I think because the duck rough has this character about it that is immediately attached to the story inside the form. I Love your choice of font and I think your illustration is great! As far as the layering of the feathers I think you have a great start. Try using different sizes of the form (I think there m’s?). Maybe you could stick with the larger m’s for the big wing and then for the body feathers maybe smaller m’s? I think you have a great rough. I think you should definitely stick with this rough over the first one. I think you lose the hilarity of the story (at least the way you described it in your paragraph was kind of funny). I really like the character of the duck rough!

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  2. I like your second composition better than the first one. The head of the duck is strong but you loose the body. Look at pictures of ducks to get a better idea of their body shape. Also fix the text in the neck to make it more legible. Another idea is drawing the ducks body with the story rather than using the text as shapes, or combine both ideas. Also you might want to make the duck look like he is in motion, running, so the duck connects with the story or show a broom coming down towards the duck to show action. You could also use your idea of the feather in the first composition in the second composition. You could show feathers flying out of the duck.

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  3. The feather definitely needs work. I would say search for pictures of real feathers then place a good high-resolution picture in illustrator. This way, you can really focus on the contour lines by tracing over the feather. Really emphasize the outline to make the feather look and feel like a real feather. Do the same for the words that are “floating” off the feather. You may also try making the words below the main feather look like feather hairs. You can try doing this by really emphasizing the two end points of the hairs. One size is really thin and sharp as the other side is usually thicker and softer. You have a good start on the shape of the feather. As weird as it sounds, research feather and I think you will have more fun at producing a feather for your project.

    As for the duck, I didn’t notice the duck right away. I saw the shape of a bird but wasn’t able to make clear it was a duck. Work with the beak. See how a duck’s beak looks. Work from that. Maybe have “QUACK” coming out of the beak.

    Good story and good effort, though. Keep it up!

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  4. West,
    I feel that the second rough better conveys the duck message. At first I thought the first rough was a leaf and it wasn’t after I saw the duck that I realized it was a feather. Also, it was harder to read the font on the first rough, whereas the second it’s easier to read. And, I mean, come on, you made a duck with type! That’s awesome. It looks like a duck and the font you used is appropriate. It does get kind of hard to read in the “s” character. You might want to tweak it to where the words aren’t overlapping on each other. This will make the story easier to read. Also, the font in the “d” gets hard to read. Other than that, I think your second rough is stronger than the first one. Awesome job!

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  6. Amazing job on the design of the duck, your use of the glyphs balanced the composition perfectly. I agree with that you do loose a little bit of the body, but scaling the letters larger for the feathers would give movement, or making the duck lean a bit forward would help out with movement of the “quacking” duck running around the back yard. You could work on the feathers, merging your first rough into your second would give more detail, it will help out with movement. The face of the duck is perfect; I would not touch or alter it in any way, just work on the butt of the duck. Use of different font size for the feathers will benefit, in order to make the duck look like it was chasing your mom. Strong composition. Great rough, funny story! This is my favorite so far!

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  7. I like the poetic nature of the feather. It does need some refinement though. Maybe do a few floating with a small pile of them on the floor. It reminds me of falling leaves. If you add movement marks it may give it motion. I like the duck head of the second one but the body needs work.

    Try combining the two. Just the duck head going off the bottom as if it were running off the page then feathers floating behind it in the distance.

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