Narrative Illustration (changes to cover)

I decided to change my book cover last second because i really didnt like the one i had done. I felt it didnt look as professional as i wanted it to. i wanted it to be of less colour and more power. Luckily i had drawn a skull a while ago in pencil and had not used it for anything so far, so i used it to make a quick cover from what i had.. i am very pleased with the results and feel it looks how i originally wanted it too now . below is the one i had first.. and the one i have now changed it too .

Narrative Illustration (changes to final pieces)

 I have made a couple of changes to a couple of my final pieces, the ones that i changed i did so because i felt that they looked flat.


 For example, the image with the dead baby, after i had completed it i kept looking at it and something didnt feel right, what came to mind was that Rentz was hallucinating at this point, big time style... so i messed around with the hue/saturation and levels to make it look more psychedelic and scarey, with toxic blues and purples. see below...

This one i felt was way to dark, not muched was changed to this piece other than brightening it up to make it more visible and not such a strain to look at... i also slightly edited the hue and saturation to make the green colours more vibrant, i felt this was important as the toilet is described to be pure disgusting.. and i associate that kind of filth and grime with green colours.

Narrative Illustration (rentz image)

This piece is different to the rest, as this one has a limited colour pallet of orange shades and tones.

The reason i did this is because i wanted at least one illustration, showing one of the characters high on heroin.. in a glamourous way, not in the vile way that i see it, but in the nice way the characters describe it.
The effects have been described as a warming feeling of peace that covers the body and brings on total relaxation and clarity. This is why i have chosen to do the whole thing with an orange pallet, because orange is a warm, calm colour.. and resembles the colour of the drug itself.

Narrative Illustration. (processes)

I'm now coming close to the deadline, so currently im finishing my illustrations so that they are fully realised, the right size in relation to the specifications of my copy of the book that i own.
I thought i'd shed some light on my process from a sketchbook drawing to fully finished piece.


So first of all i scan my image and email it to myself, then i download it and open it in photoshop.
I then use the magic wand tool to select everything except my line work on the drawing, and delete it all.

I then make a layer behind the line and start to colour it.

I do this by selecting sections in the line work as to not colour out of the lines, and use the brush tool to colour in the gaps.

Once i have laid down a basic flat colour layer, i then go back over the edges of the patches of colour adding tone with darker and lighter hues of the colour. 

Once i have finished colouring the piece, I add a water colour filter over the whole thing to smooth out the line work and tone work to give the piece a more smooth, finished consistent look.

Then i cut only the actual drawing from surrounding sketchbook carry on.

I open a new file in photoshop the same size as my book ( 19.7x12.9cm).. i use the rulers on photoshop to measure out my 5mm bleed, drag and drop my image into the new file and fit it to size... then its done.

Narrative Illustration, Rentz

Here are a few drawings showing my progress in development for my character Mark Renton from my first sketchbook on this project.
I feel that the representation in the film was way off, as Rents is described with scruffy ginger hair and a resemblance to footballer Alex McLeish shown below.

There is much more work on this character in my sketchbooks, this is simply my initial development. I did not spend as much time on my other characters as once I had decided I was happy with Rents, I had a basic face template that I wanted to keep for continuity, and I put this into practice on my other characters adding there individual features and changing the shape of the head etc where appropriate to give em their individuality's.

Narrative Illustration, work in progress.

I have measured out the size that my illustrations need to be, in accordance to the size of the copy of the book that I own.
The dimensions of my copy of Trainspotting are,

Height: 19.7 cm (197mm)
Width:   12.9 cm (129mm)

So after taking away the 5mm on all sides for the bleed, the dimensions for my illustrations are,

Height: 18.7 cm (187mm)
Width:   11.9 cm (119mm)

Here are some finished line work illustrations.
The next step in my process is to scan in the line work drawings and open them in Photoshop, delete everything but the line work and edit it so that it is smooth and looks more finished. I will then digitally colour the piece, and finally edit the hue, contrast, saturation and brightness levels until I am happy with how it looks. Then it will be finished.

For Fun

I drew this last night kind of just for fun, think im gonna keep doing things like this and see where it takes me.

Narrative Illustration (bookies toilets)

For this piece I decided to draw the scene where character Rentz enters the toilets at the betting shop after having placed suppositories in his anus, the toilet is described as being sooooooo disgusting its unreal. This is how i came about Illustrating it.

Narrative Illustration

Some Development work and an ALMOST finished piece.
   This piece of work is intending to Illustrate the part of the book where the character Spud, wakes up in an unknown bed after having defecated, vomited and wet the bed.

I tried many times to draw this piece subtly but it didn't capture the intensity of the situation... so I thought, "Well its a very graphic, adult book.. it deserves very graphic and adult illustrations". And so i decided to just draw it as I saw it in my minds eye and this is the outcome.

Narrative Illustration.. Help with composition

While I have been working through my Narrative Illustration brief i have noticed that alot of my drawings, although detailed, have seemed quite flat and slightly boring to look at.
   I felt that this was likely down to my composition when planning out my drawings... I have/had a tendency to draw my main image in the center of the page, and then fit in the rest of the piece around it.
  This makes for a very plain composition........ Looking around for ideas I found this video from Mark Crilley, I have used his videos for help, advice and insight into techniques for years and this semi recent video was exactly what i was looking for, i will continue to focus on my composition as i feel it is a weekpoint.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tPW4FA0FMs