FMP (BA): The Raven - Line Work

I wanted to try out some shading in biro just to lift the illustration off the page a little bit and make it look more 'finished', so I photocopied my biro lines that I had done in the previous post just in case I decide not to do any shading. 

It didn't take me as long as expected because I wanted it to retain that sketchy appearance, and I found myself doing scribbles most of the time (especially for the raven's body). 

My main worry with this now that it is all shaded in is that although the raven really stands out, the feathers now just make the whole illustration look too neat and subtracts the chaotic appearance that I was trying to go for. It is a lovely effect, but I still prefer my very first version where I roughly sketched it out in pencil. 

My next thought was to then try and combine the two versions (this and the "sketchy" version) by incorporating some more feathers in the background to fill in the gaps, but this time I won't be shading them. I did this by scanning the document in and reducing the size in Photoshop before printing it out and working with biro.  

Comparing this version to the one at the top, it has more of a chaotic appearance and is a mixture of the sketched-version and biro version. This mixture then creates a nice balance because it looks finished rather than a scribble in a notepad. However, I still feel it's a little bit too neat so I might add even more scribbles (feathers), but I'll work on this after I've figured out what to do with the type.

To make things a little easier I placed both version (the sketch-line version and biro version) next to each other:

I'm still a bit torn between the two because although I love how chaotic the original is, I feel that the raven looks a lot better shaded in and the feathers are more obviously raven feathers. There isn't really a messier way to shade them in so I'm a bit stuck.

My next step is to therefore concentrate on my typography and work on compositions, and probably just take a breather from this a little bit so that I could look at it with fresh eyes.

Learning Outcomes:

[5] Developed skills of independent study, resource utilisation, problem-solving and decision-taking.