Sunday, April 21, 2013

You are the art director!


I'm planning a larger dragon picture. It will be in digital format and I hope it will be a worthy portfolio piece. The title will be "Dragon and Refinery" and it will depict a dragon looking with admiration and perhaps hunger, at an oil refinery with a flaming gas flare. I have drawn four small sketches, "thumbnails," of designs for this painting. This is what I would show an art director in the first round of design approval for a book cover.

Since I don't have a real art director for this piece, I've decided to make YOU the art director for this project, at least at this stage. Which one of these sketches do you think would make the best artwork? I've increased the resolution so you can click on the picture to see larger more visible designs.

So, is it "A" or "B" which show the dragon in full figure from the back, with the oil refinery and flare at night or twilight in the top half? Or "C" which shows a dark or black dragon by daylight, with the refinery in the background? Or "D" which has a closer view of the dragon, with only its head and parts of its wings showing? The colors can be chosen later, you need only to choose the composition. Remember that I will have to add extra space at the top for the title and other words.

I know that there are only 17 or 18 of you so if only one person chooses, I'll go with that choice. If there is a disagreement between two or more, I'll decide myself which one makes the most sense. Here's your chance to participate in one of my projects.

Sketches are about 2 1/4" tall, greyscale markers on sketchbook page.

4 comments:

MKS said...

I like the drama of "C". Though it would depend a little on how much color you intend to use for the "daylight" view of the refinery. In black and white like this, I think the high contrast makes the dragon really stand out. But if there were a lot of color in that background attracting attention away from the black foreground, I don't think I would like it as much. So "C" as long as the background stays pale and washed out, but maybe "D" if you want a more colorful final version...

Tristan Alexander said...

Ignoring that it will be digital...just from a graphic/visual impact point of veiw, I would say C or D. The one that stood out most in the very small version is C and that is becuase of the strong contrast of the dragon against the lighter background...I would say make it a bit less centered on the page though. D would be my second choice but only because basci composition on it is good, you would have to be very sure your colors made the dragon and background stand out from each other!

Rae Trigg said...

I think I like D best. To me, the refinery would look most striking at night.

Mike (Altus) said...

"A" in twilight, followed by "D".
I'm looking forward to seeing the final piece. :)