'All Eyes & Beard' - Re-think & re-work

To my 3rd and final print, and back to the first design i created on this project. I had left this one for a while to concentrate on the other designs, and also because comments in a peer crit a while back indicated that i could do with developing this one bit more. At the time i was a bit put out as i'd got the final imgery ready to the point where i was going to take it to screen print & didn't really want to go back on myself re-doing it all. But after not looking at it for a while i can see that they were probably right. So i went about changing the features of the 'Gatekeeper' character so they didn't reassemble "eggs and chips"anymore. Wanted to try and some larger areas of orange in there too as the black was overpowering the image at the moment, and with my history of pulling black the more i could reduce it the better.

Original proposed "EGGS & CHIPS"design

Taking things back to a previous development sketchbook doodle.

New modified sketch, featuring newly designed, more realistic eyes & beard

Although i d initially set out o make quite an abstract image,i was aware of making something that looked too realistic and literal so tried to kep things quite shaped-based without using lots of small details.

Photoshop mocks with 3 various beard options

(Further development in Photoshop & then Illustrator)

                   
After making some quick beard sketches, took them into Illustrator to fit them onto the existing 'Gatekeeper' keyhole/silhouette shape. I'd made his body the shape of a keyhole as a whole reference to him being the gatekeeper and the only person qualified to open th gat to the Town, but realise it might not be so obvious with the arms being out on there, but the arms holding the flaming knife and sun glasses is also a reference to a particular scene in the book, so everything featured in the composition is there for a reason, some more obvious than others. Well, i suppose if you haven't actually read the book, then none of them are obvious, so i guess it does really matter what i put in the picture?

The issu publication above bones on to show the other other various elements i added along the way - The new beard, which is now purely shapes with no black outlines, which will add some bigger colour to the proceedings.The cracked ground through the other side of the keyhole, the unicorn silhouette, texture masks to simulate the big wooden planks of an old door. The textures were the last thing i had to make a decision on, i.e.: wether to keep them on there or not. I say this as although it does break up the big area of flat black in the background, it has been made from a photograph, something which isn't present in any of the other designs. So there's an danger that it will look a bit odd & won't really work together as a series?

Final revised image ready to print.

In the end i held off from printing today,as i'm not convinced there's enough happening on this design. Compared to the other two images its seems a bit empty and underdeveloped and I'm not that happy with it. I printed it out at a3 to get and idea of how it would look at full size, and put it next to the other existing prints, and it just doesnt feel like its part of a set. But at the same time i really just want to get this last print out of the way and crack on with finishing the sting and the rest of the blog work needed for the deadline next week.