The Kangaroo and the 'Honourable but Deluded' Seahorse

After reading through the story, I have selected 7 different parts that I would like to illustrate and make into postcards for my final products. This is the first one that attracted my attention.

The writing in blue is an indication and description of what needs to be drawn for each page.

These are the preliminary sketches.


Feedback:
'Nice start, only first thing is the seahorse looks female. It's interesting seeing them coming to life. I like the initial drawings though.'

This is the second attempt at the 'honourable but deluded seahorse'.

I tried incorporating the characters into the background, which I felt was not successful in this piece. The aim was to use watercolours to create the more 'natural' effect and I was also using pen and ink for the outlines. I have not used watercolour much before and here, I felt the brush strokes were too tight and too confined.

Feedback:

'The characters need to be more prominent. There needs to be more focus on them and I find the image too busy.'

I decided that to achieve this, I would revert back to my usual technique, by using the brush pen to create thicker and bolder lines. I also made separate pages of watercolour, so that there was more freedom in the strokes and I wasn't confined to work within the lines. Then using Photoshop, I pasted the two layers together.

This is a demonstration of the process. I felt this was an appropriate technique to use, as the lines are naturalistic and loose, as is the colouring, which provides more depth to the image.

I carried out the same process with the background as well. I got inspiration for the layout from images on the internet, all of which will be documented in my bibliography.

The next step, was to combine the characters with the background. 

This was the result. It is much simpler than the previous version and everything about it is much bolder, vibrant and more colourful. I also added in fish characters for detail.

Feedback:

'The image is too bright.'

To combat this problem, I made the water darker, so it appeared to be more at night as it is written in the story.

The darker water shows up more of the details and I think helps in making the underwater scene look more bold and eye-catching.

Feedback:

Richard seemed happy with the end product, saying it looked of a 'professional standard'.