Ego In Different Setting – Process 2

In my previous post, I mention about how I get to Me being a middle child, using my friend’s Caught in the Middle book as reference and also some artist references. And now I’m going to start with my development for my illustrations.

Firstly, I start with the easiest frame; Shopaholic me.

At first, on the top left frame, I wanted to use pink to represent me (pink shirt) then purple for the background – analogous colours. To make the shopping bags stand out I use a contrasting colour as it it the focal point. Hence I also play around with the colours. I kind of like the turquoise background (bottom left), however I would not suit my overall concept with is the use of pink and purple.

Secondly, unnoticeable me.

Originally, I started with the polka dots. However I didn’t like it and changed it to stripes which can be a representation to see the next frame beside it. When I was doing this, I tried out illustrating different facial expression and I did not like it. The facial expression on the left looks to cartoonish which was not the concept that I was going for. The concept that I was going for was a bit of realism which is also why I use humans instead of replacing myself as an object. Hence for my first draft, I left out all the facial expression.

Thirdly, hardworking me.

From the original frame till the selected frame, I added in more hands to exaggerate ‘hardworking me’.  As in my ‘shopaholic me’, I exaggerate it by having a lot of shopping bags. This is to have a consistent art direction. And obviously the turquoise background just don’t work because it overpowering the subject and its too bright for the eyes.

Fourth, me cleaning after my sisters.

At the original frame, I feel that my sisters’ clothes are blended into the background as I wanted to only use pink and purple. However Mimi suggested to incorporate another colour in it which was turquoise.

After when she suggested that, I faced another difficulty.

For this equation, I feel like the colours does not flow from one frame to the other frame. And I reallyyyyy like the ‘unclean dishes’ frame where the purple contrast with the turquoise. So Mimi suggested to have all the three colours – Pink, purple and turquoise – in every frame. I tried this and I will post it in my next post.

So here are some of the illustrations that doesn’t need more attention than the ones above. Not in any sequence/equation.

Another challenge was that some frames, I find it flat and plain. Example is the ‘sisters quarrelling’ frame. So Mimi suggested that I research on spot illustrations, which is something new to me. So spot illustrations is having a small part to distinguished the background and subject. With spot illustrations, it helps to emphasis the message clearly.

Examples of spot illustrations