Sunday, July 26, 2009

Shy Rhino Before and After

This is the image before I changed it up some. I needed to add something to it to make it relevant for a children's book portfolio. I thought making it an Alphabet book page made perfect sense.



There was also some concern that the grass in his/her mouth doesn't look like it was actually in the mouth. And that the portion of the rhino's body below the face was hard to read and understand. I wanted to address those issues too.



At the end of the day I did struggle with adding the letter in. I wanted to make it composed of grass or 3-D in some way. But I settled on simpler being better. I integrated the letter into it's environmemt but kept it fairly non-rendered and easily readable. The objective of the piece should be that the letter is legible and easily identifiable for the young reader. I think this change makes the piece have more of a story and purpose and considerably more relevant to my portfolio.

I'll probably also submit this piece to Illustration Friday for the word this week, idle. It'll be my first time and hopefully it'll be received well. Here's hoping!! :)

-Wilson

16 comments:

joseph's art and stuff said...

powerful, well done!

MrBibleHead said...

Wow! Great work! Love yous style! Those penguins in your previous post are fantastic! Love them!

Nessa Dee said...

Very cool perspective! Nice illustration!

Shirley said...

Oh my goodness, you need not concern yourself of a great reception to this piece. Your work is beautiful! And the execution of your letter R is great how you've placed it and made it so legible for the early-reader. The thinking behind placement and color is right on - and it's that kind of stuff that makes it a good picture book (at least that's what I think). Wonderful piece!

Artist at Play said...

Nice Beasty! Is this done in gouache?
http//www.rhinoink.ca

Samantha Hughes said...

Beautiful work! The finished piece has a great impact! Well done. :)

Kim Stramat said...

Great illustration. I really love the coloring and stylization of the rhino.

WilsonW said...

Joseph-Thank You so much!! I appreciate your compliment!

Jack-So glad you like the penguins! I was so worried that I may never get the same energy into my work digitally that I do traditionally and that piece gives me great hope that I was wrong!

Nessadee-Yay!! I'm glad you like it! Thanks so much!

Shirley- LOL! Thank you for helping to quell my fears in regards to the reception of this pice and my approach to problem solving it!! Glad I'm going in the right direction!

Evie-Thanks! And no gouache on this one. It was all done in Photoshop. :)

Samantha-Thank you, thank you, thank you!! :)

Kim-Thanks so much and I'm glad you like my style!! Or at least the Rhino's style!

Thanks again to you all!
-Wilson

Anonymous said...

Really love it a lot! Perfect solution to make it kid friendly.

Devas T. said...

Very nice stuff you have! Thanks for popping in so that I could discover your work.

Don

Don Tate II said...

OOps I forgot to log in...Great stuff here!

Amy C said...

fantastic piece

ToƱito Avalos said...

Fantastic illustration!Great work,Kwan :)

Regards of Peru

WilsonW said...

Thanks so much for the compliments everyone! It's very much appreciated!! :)

AdamFF said...

I agree with you -- simpler is much better. The Rhino is great, I get a real sense of character on his face. The large simple R is very nicely integrated with the grass beneath it, I would really like to see some more of the alphabet now please!

WilsonW said...

Thanks Adam!! :) Not sure if I'll be doing more though! We'll see!!