During my mind-map stage I jotted down some initial ideas for this piece, and the one that really caught my eye was where the raven would be shielding Lenore from view. This would create an immediate connection with the narrator as he mourns her death and the fact that they raven replied, "Nevermore" when he asks if he would see her in heaven. It's strange how I haven't really seen many designs that incorporate Lenore, as they mainly focus on the raven itself. In my opinion, Lenore is almost as important as the raven.
I roughly drew a sketch of Lenore's face and had the idea where she would be facing away from the viewer, partly shielded by raven feathers in order to emphasise intrigue. It would also reflect the fading memories of the narrator and that he would never see Lenore again, so in time would forget what she looked like. I wasn't too sure how I would include the raven so I quickly sketched out some poses that I gathered on my Pinterest board.
I then moved onto drawing her hair and how the raven would sit around her, which proved to be more difficult than I had initially anticipated. I was getting worried that my piece would look too similar to John Howe's sketch "Angel Eyes" so decided to start afresh and first focus on the raven's feathers. However, I felt that just drawing the feathers would take out the most important part (Lenore) so I tried to incorporate her into the sketches without it looking too similar to what I had previously.
I tried to think of different ways to place the type - as I have not yet decided what sort of typeface to draw just yet - and my mind kept going back to having the type circling around her. I felt that this was too similar to my Moby Dick piece and tried to stray away from it, having been inspired by the British pound coin of the Queen.
After a quick break I looked back at my sketches and realised that I much prefer the original idea. After a talk among my colleagues and lecturer I decided to go along with this and keep to the "sketchy" feel that I had about it because then it would look completely different to Howe's sketch.
This "sketch" effect would mirror the chaos the raven brings to the narrator and instead of having just feathers cover her face, I did it so that the raven was actually shielding her and she's surrounded by feathers.
Once the sketch was done I photocopied it in order to work with biro.
What I want to do next is photocopy the biro version to try it out where everything is inked in properly because I don't want to do it to the original before deciding that I actually liked it a lot better. I was thinking of doing some areas with splashes of ink as well but I'm not too sure yet...
In terms of type, I might have it upon the largest feather to the left or just delete this space entirely to draw in the type. I shall look at images of Howl's Moving Castle - as this sketch really reminded me of it - and other illustrators to see how they incorporate type into their illustrations.
Reflective Thinking - Summary
I have realised that my pieces are becoming a lot more illustrative and found that I actually enjoy doing it a lot more when they were. I learnt this from my "Rocket" idea which I really disliked and it was purely because there was a lack of illustration involved. If I have the time I might go back to the rocket idea but I think I'll work on this one first.
In terms of structure and composition, it's mainly formed around the illustration instead of having the illustration based around the type (which I had done previously). This is quite different to how Jon Contino showed in his class but I find that it still works.
Learning Outcomes:
[5] Developed skills of independent study, resource utilisation, problem-solving and decision-taking.
[6] Developed skills of critical thinking, analysis and evaluation.
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