Project Type: Text heavy picture Book - an adaptation of Ovid's Metamorphoses story of Icarus and the sun
Specifications: 300 dpi, full colour (CMYK), 24 pages (including cover, spine and intro pages)
Timeframe: 5 weeks
Deliverables: 10 full spread illustrations, cover page/spine/back cover, end pages
Audience: Adults with an interest in greek mythology
Aims: To make the original story of Icarus and the sun accessible to wider audiences - bringing to life the tale told by Ovid,
in Metamorphoses
Specifications: 300 dpi, full colour (CMYK), 24 pages (including cover, spine and intro pages)
Timeframe: 5 weeks
Deliverables: 10 full spread illustrations, cover page/spine/back cover, end pages
Audience: Adults with an interest in greek mythology
Aims: To make the original story of Icarus and the sun accessible to wider audiences - bringing to life the tale told by Ovid,
in Metamorphoses
Icarus and the sun - version from the Roman poet Ovid, who included it in his Metamorphoses.
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Artwork inspiration:
The Lament for Icarus (1898) by H.J. Draper
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17th-century relief with a Cretan labyrinth bottom right (Musée Antoine Vivenel)
A fresco in Pompeii depicting Daedalus and Icarus, 1st century
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Mood-boards
notes:
- lots of structural details to mimic mechanical wings,
- capes and winged/balloon sleeves, skeletal bodices, feathers and wire,
- ocean themed patterns to represent the sea - shells and mollusks - blues and yellows
- he main anchors will be the "Sun" "Icarus" and "Ocean" - could also included Daedalus and the Tower.
- back details - focus on beading and structured open backed clothes - wings sprouting/collapsing/melding into models
- mimicking draping of fabric to the ocean waves - consider figures obscured with masks and veils
- warm colours of the burning sun - oranges and reds of the embers in the wings
Time to design the characters
The Ocean
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Colour Palette
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Sketches
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The Sun and Icarus
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Character designs
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Page 1-2
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Set dressing
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Making the architecture look like "Crete"
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Lighting and texture
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Adjusting type and background for final version
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Path made smaller, clouds have more contrast, mountain range is broken up against the sky more, changes to silhouette
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Page 3-4
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Final thumbnail
Drop cap hell.
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Refining sketch
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Subtle changes to typography to fit page better
Page 5-6
The sun and window of the tower
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Fixing composition and colours - added honeycomb texture to tie back to wings made of beeswax - refined the wings etc.
Change typography to be more self contained
Page 7-8
"omg dont die son"
"oki dad"
"oki dad"
Post crit
Change Icarus - isn't readable at all.
Page makes more sense with a different part of the text - fixed
Meeting the sun (and the other gods)
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Change position of background character to fit on page better
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Fix typography to fit better.
The fall
falling from the sky- into the water or above?
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too much negative space
typography the bane of my existance.
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This would be good as a cover instead of a page spread!
Cover ideas(?)
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too much christmas
hints of green light in the back
playing around with typography
First flight
Adding typography, cleanup lines of wings and arms
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Fixing the face :D
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Textures and placing Crete and the ocean below
the fall - figuring out the pose
into the sea?
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The arch needs to follow his body
chaos of wings - needs to be more readable
OH YEAH BABY THATS WHAT IM TALKING ABOOOOOOOOOOOOOOUT
way too much
Somewhere in-between(?) less is more
Crit notes:
- Goddess' page - arm needs move, colours need to be weaved in, lighten up moon goddess ✓
- Icarus need wings on the cover ✓
- Link the colour palettes together in first flight so that Crete has the oranges and yellows of Icarus in the sky ✓
- In the warning Icarus head could possibly be completely turned to the side in a show of disobedience instead of listening ✓
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He's got wings on the cover now
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Time to revamp this page
Ta-daa (weaving colour, way more texture, fixing characters, clouds etc.)
Fix Selene colours and type - warm her up
Editing Icarus face to look away (+ minor colour and shadow changes)
Wrong direction - time to bring the VIBES - more interaction between father and son. Daedalus gets his wings too.
Last pages
Icarus out of sight until final moment(?)
Nah take out the tower and go to the sea instead
In the sea
Typography fixed, boats and feathers added for colour and image balancing, waves moved out of the gutter of the page
Adjusting final pages - Daedalus getting the proper attention in the first page
Ye olde printing press - test print
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Final notes:
Oops I used a text that can be copyrighted - this can easily be remedied by using an older translation in the public domain (Henry T. Riley translation in 1851)
Oops I used a text that can be copyrighted - this can easily be remedied by using an older translation in the public domain (Henry T. Riley translation in 1851)
End page
Final edits to cover - spacing, typography changes etc.
Bonus pages at back of book - include header and annotations with correlating numbers
Placing of wings over middle is important - breaks up the images/adds interest.
Add in some vignette portraits to break up the monotony of the bordered drawings.
End with some freeform illustrations - portrait and full body of Icarus.
Second print - copyright free text version, rewrote blurb crediting author and translator, added conclusion page, annotated end pages.
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