Interpreting Scenes In Different Ways

Having another look at my timetable, the deadline seems to be coming up closer; although I still have 5 weeks to finish everything I still need to leave time to send my work off to be printed, then bind my book with Katherine. 

So this week has been another solid week painting. Even though some of these might not be used in my book, I painted some different interpretations as afterward I had thought of another idea for portraying a particular scene.

At first I painted the old lady with magic cropped in. I liked this version as it made the focus primarily on the hat which is poignant in the story. However, I felt it was lacking something, and it was quite difficult getting the head proportionate with the hat!

1. The Old Lady - I tried a full body illustration instead which I think works 

better as you get more of a sense of mystery with her 

cloak and her hat still stands out as I made the rest of the 

image quite simple in comparison. You are now able to see a contrast between the size of her hat and body.

2. Kai and Gerda - This was another try at depicting the scene at the very

beginning, which again I think is an improvement. It is meant to be polar opposite to the one with them looking through the window at each other, therefore I emphasised the sense of closeness and used brighter, vivid colours. Green and orange for their clothes are to symbolise youthfulness and cheerfulness. 

The Robber Girl - I feel like most of my images so far don't feature very many characters up close, which kind of detracts from the story a little. So I thought the entrance of the Robber Girl would be perfect to illustrate in this way as she is a very prominent character in the story in terms of personality. This scene is much busier/crowded than usual as it is a very action-packed description in the paragraph.

I've been keeping the symbolism of the moon throughout as well. Here the waxing moon was suitable for this moment as it represents growth - the Robber Girl's story is halfway through Gerda's journey and I think is the main stepping stone for when she is truly "grown up" at the end of the story. 

This is a scene that I hadn't thought to do before as it was not as obvious as others, but I quite like how it captures the suspense and mystery as Gerda is about to see whether it is truly Kai.

The two above are variations of Gerda when she is carried away by the boat. The first I like as it captures the movement and danger of the description. The other I am not sure about yet; it emphasises more her feeling of being lost and not knowing what to do - I do quite like the juxtaposition of the shoes but it may be too similar to other illustration compositions. That will be something I need to be careful of. 

In  the previous version of this painting the characters were depicted more closer to life, in this one they are more stylised. This is because I feel it gives the characters a bit more personality/quirkiness. I feel that children would then be able to identify with the characters more than if they were simply drawn true to life with every detail.