Animal II

For March 16th

Thumbnail sketches page with class notes removed.

I first made 6 different thumbnail sketches since the piping plover is endangered in several different ways, like habitat loss from construction, being trampled by people, or litter attracting animal predators to the beach. In later explorations I redrew the one on habitat loss by refocusing the view to be sort of from the birds’ perspective — they are looking back towards the beach rental houses. In the other 3 sketches, I explored variations with a fox silhouette, but I think these look cartoony, since the fox naturally stands out on the beach setting.

Rough Photoshop draft of what I want to create in Illustrator.

In Illustrator, I’m planning to make the background less saturated to direct more focus to the birds (aren’t they cute? and Momma bird has little babies underneath!). I’m worried my composition is still too boring since there’s a lot of sand, but I also like that there’s “breathing room” between elements.

For March 18th

Original iterations.

It was only after my made my second and third iterations that I realized how dull the colors were in the first iteration. At the end I went back and adjusted the colors. I also later changed the subheading; “Masters of Camouflage” just didn’t fit. I think that title belongs to chameleons. I wouldn’t want to disrespect the chameleons.

Change to chick under wing, poking its head out more; added a grid to adjust elements.

After I observed my design with a grid, I decided to make the houses smaller. This helped to make them seem more like they were in the distance.

Change to the houses; versions of house windows; grasses.

My progress before I went back and changed the bottom left iteration; final palettes.

Iterations 1–3.

For March 23rd

Changing up scale of houses.

Added more spacing in text, deleted chick under mom and resized body; Before and after; Layered moms.

Before more houses added vs after. Was worried about not having the green for more color.

More houses drafts.

Settled on this one, resized birds to add emphasis to them.

Thickened strokes of feather detail.

Changing tints of black; Changing tints of brown (not noticeable though). Tried to add more contrast and make the orange stand out.

Iterations; tried to be more bold with color, added more houses for depth and to add to the story.

For March 25th

Took away details from the houses like the bars and middle of windows.

Experimenting with adding shade, then started to consider color of sand overall.

Switching up position of horizon and houses. Increased size of shoreline.

Found out Medium messes up the colors.

2 iterations; second has stronger orange, bigger shore, larger back row of houses, and wider text box.

Edits made by Q.

Making houses less detailed.

Houses more aligned to the left, and are now a more unequal size with the sky.

Higher amount of detail in shoreline.

Palette.

Final PDF!