Self-Assignment, Part Two

 Okay, so it's not a book cover, but instead of writing my 10-page paper this weekend, I decided to download free trials of Photoshop and Illustrator and mess around with those. These are just a couple sketches of the two main characters from the story I'm writing (the ones I posted a few weeks ago). I took them into Photoshop and Illustrator and basically did a lot of the same stuff to them that we did for the Winona book cover. It was a lot of fun and I actually managed to figure out a few new things in the programs!

Final Book Cover

Here's my final book cover redesign! I'm pretty pleased with it...at least, I think it's a little better than the original. I had a lot of fun doing it, especially after we did the Winona exercise, which helped a lot with the image I found for the cover (which was actually an image of "ghosts"...but I think it works for a fantasy novel, too).

Book Cover Redesign

The book cover I'm redesigning is Stalking Darkness by Lynn Flewelling. It's the second book in one of my favorite series, but I don't think the cover design is all that great. There's a lot going on, it's kind of confusing, and the colors clash. I really just don't like it. I took a look at some of the other fantasy-genre books I own to get an idea for a redesign, and I think I ended up with something pretty good. Hopefully it actually turns out that way.

The Walking Dead

These are basically different versions of the same thing. On the left is a poster advertising The Walking Dead, a TV show, and The Walking Dead, the graphic novel the show is based on. After doing our exercise over corporate logos and how they can convey different emotions or ideas just based on color, I figured the same idea can be applied in what typeface is chosen. In the image on the left, the typeface is sans-serif and looks a little threatening, especially when paired with the image of the single guy on an empty interstate lane. In the image on the right, I think the typeface looks kind of lighthearted and humerous when compared to the subject matter of the cover (and as we all know, zombies are no laughing matter, right?). At this point I'll admit I haven't finished reading the first volume of the graphic novel yet, but it's definitely anything but funny. Guess that's the difference a typeface makes.

Color and Emotion

Because we usually think of the color blue as being associated with sadness, I thought this painting was particularly interesting. The girl looks sad, but the dominant color scheme of the image is shades of red. There is a little bit of blue, but it's mostly used as shadow, and doesn't really pop when compared to the bright red of the girl's hair, under her eyes, and lips. I don't think it'd be easy to mistake the sadness in this painting as another emotion, despite the color scheme being so bright and in-your-face.

Self-Assignment

So this is one of the sketches I made of a couple characters from my zombie story. For a self-assignment, I'd like to come up with a cover to the story featuring these two guys. They're kind of cartoon-y, so it might be fun to create a cover that's got elements of comic books or graphic novels to them, or at least reflects that somehow. I've been working on this story for a while now, so I've grown very attached to these characters and just think it'd be fun to add a little something to them.

Color Balance

Another weird, abstract-y image. I thought it was a good example of color balance because it's got the big, bold blue streaks along the right of the image, which is balanced out by the single blue streak on the left, as well as the more neutral-colored circle that sits more to the left. The color scheme looks like it's not quite complementary, but pretty close to it since the main colors appear to be red and blue.

Map Project

Yupp, I'm doing a Pokemon map for Project 3. This is the Kanto Region from Generation 1 of the games, and I thought it'd be really cool to redo it. My plan is to include all the towns, routes, and landmarks on the map itself, and then have the more "recreational" sites (like the Safari Zone, Cycling Road, etc) in the legend. I've been a huge Pokemon dork almost ever since I can remember, so I'm really looking forward to doing this project.

Radial Symmetry/Spiral

Radial symmetry is one of my favorite kinds of symmetry (although it's weird enough actually having a favorite type of symmetry, I guess...). I thought this image was pretty cool because the focal point isn't directly in the middle, and is instead placed near the lower right corner, making the entire picture more of a spiral. The focal point is also lighter in color than the rest of the image, which also helps to get our attention. Then the petals start spiraling out, and the further out they get the looser they become, creating a nice pattern throughout the picture. This pattern actually creates movement, bringing the eye from the center of the flower to the far edges.

Depth

I thought this photo really shows depth because of the way the giant appears to be falling into the columns. I've always been a big fan of street art like this, because it looks so real and sometimes you really have to look at it for a while before you realize that, oh, it's on a flat surface. This one's really cool because you can see the people surrounding the piece, which makes it more evident that it's actually art and drawn on a 2D surface. Foreshortening of the giant's limbs, in particular its legs, also give the illusion of depth.

Rhythm

I think that this image does a really nice job of conveying rhythm. There is a repeated pattern of circles, which are all different in size to help move us through the painting, and I definitely think they seem to have their own beat. They actually remind me of ripples in water, which could also be considered rhythm, I guess. The bright colors are a nice touch too. They're energetic and, well, kind of make me feel happy. :)

The Rocky Horror Picture Show

The movie I'm doing for Project 2 is The Rocky Horror Picture Show. The opening credits aren't much--just a pair of lips singing the opening song while the credits roll. Overall, they're fairly simple, which should mean redesigning them won't be too hard. I just really wanted to do this movie in particular because it's one of my favorites. The credits are really interesting, but they don't give you any idea what the movie's about, which is why I'm really looking forward to re-designing them with that in mind.

Balance

I found this image online, and thought it depicted balance pretty well. The image is placed in the center (or pretty close to the center, at least), and while the left and right sides aren't symmetrical, they balance each other pretty well. The shapes all have really sharp angles and reflect each other, and the color scheme stays within the range of blues and purples. Overall, I think this gives a pretty good impression of balance. Plus it's really cool-looking. :)

Emphasis

I think that this image really shows emphasis. The red dot stands out from the rest of the image because it's red. That it is also outlined in white helps to set it apart from the green background. And red and green are on opposite sides of the color wheel, which means that they naturally conflict. Although the image is very simple, even with the two shades of green to look at, I think that it really gives us an idea of what emphasis is all about.

The Grid

This image suggests a grid to me based on the layout of the buildings within the city and the way everything is laid out. I would put the headline on the top horizontal line, with the subheading beneath it. I would place other text within the larger box that takes up most of the lower right-hand side of the photo.