I decided to go back and have a look at my book covers now that I have some spare time on my hands. Even though these adjustments aren't necessary I thought that I might just play around with different effects as I really want to bring out the swirl of feathers/quills.
This worked really well because the darker and lighter areas have created depth and made the swirls more 3D rather than just lines.
Reflective Thinking - Summary
I am glad that I had taken the time to experiment a little bit more with my front cover because it is one of the most important factors of a book; it has to attract the viewer so that they would pick it up and flick through, so I need to make it stand out from the rest of the leaflets handed out at the Oxford Literary Festival.
The swirls now have more depth and it adds more colour to the design overall, even if it's simply different shades of one of the main colours. This gives me the idea to maybe use gold thread... Well, that'll all depend on whether or not my prototypes turn out as planned.
They also bring out the banner and books because those are so light in comparison, and lifts it up from the background. This design now has three "layers"; foreground, middle-ground (the swirls) and the background.
My next step is to move onto trying out some prototypes. Even though I haven't technically finished my designs nor have I tweaked my existing ones, I really want to get the printing side of things sorted as the tweaking wouldn't take too long to do.
Learning Outcomes:
[9] Developed their ability to work with complex material, analyse problems and identify appropriate solutions.
Out of curiosity, I tried to create a shadow with the swirls but because I didn't draw the swirls separate from the banner it did cause some problems with gaps.
My first try was with the "drop shadow" in "blending options":
I then tried it by simply duplicating it again and lowering the opacity.
The reason I lowered the opacity instead of changing it to black/grey was because the drop shadow effect that I had done previously made the design look slightly "dirty" against the soft grey/cream background. I wanted to build up on this gold and "heavenly" effect so that it softens the overall appearance.
However, that didn't work quite as well as I thought because it made the design look far too busy and confusing:
My first try was with the "drop shadow" in "blending options":
I then tried it by simply duplicating it again and lowering the opacity.
The reason I lowered the opacity instead of changing it to black/grey was because the drop shadow effect that I had done previously made the design look slightly "dirty" against the soft grey/cream background. I wanted to build up on this gold and "heavenly" effect so that it softens the overall appearance.
However, that didn't work quite as well as I thought because it made the design look far too busy and confusing:
With those experiments done - and with them not going as planned - I began to think of other ways to improve the swirls. I then came up with the idea to darken some of the places where the feathers "fold", and then do some lighter shading on where the light source would hit.
To do this I simply duplicated and then locked my swirls layer, took a soft brush tool, and began to paint the darker areas.
This worked really well because the darker and lighter areas have created depth and made the swirls more 3D rather than just lines.
Reflective Thinking - Summary
I am glad that I had taken the time to experiment a little bit more with my front cover because it is one of the most important factors of a book; it has to attract the viewer so that they would pick it up and flick through, so I need to make it stand out from the rest of the leaflets handed out at the Oxford Literary Festival.
The swirls now have more depth and it adds more colour to the design overall, even if it's simply different shades of one of the main colours. This gives me the idea to maybe use gold thread... Well, that'll all depend on whether or not my prototypes turn out as planned.
They also bring out the banner and books because those are so light in comparison, and lifts it up from the background. This design now has three "layers"; foreground, middle-ground (the swirls) and the background.
My next step is to move onto trying out some prototypes. Even though I haven't technically finished my designs nor have I tweaked my existing ones, I really want to get the printing side of things sorted as the tweaking wouldn't take too long to do.
Learning Outcomes:
[9] Developed their ability to work with complex material, analyse problems and identify appropriate solutions.
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