from abstract to illustration

This is the result of my first experiment with turning an abstract into an illustration, hopefully merging aspects of the two into one successful piece. See my last post for the original abstract that inspired these little birds.

Comments

I enjoy the design of this piece, especially the type. And I enjoy the whimsical nature of it. I do, however, have a couple points of constructive criticism, which I hope you don't mind.

At first glance, the shape on the larger bird did not read as a wing. It took a little while for it to register with me. My initial thought was that you wanted to expose a brilliantly colored tummy. That, of course, led me to wonder where the wings were, as the little bird had them. It then dawned on me that the orange shape IS a wing. The little one's read as wings because both are visible, the one in front and the one suggested in the back. Because of the style of this piece -which, again, I very much enjoy- the wings are not technically rendered to look like wings. I understand that is the point, but you might want to think about shaping it a little bit truer to that of a real bird wing so it reads easier, like maybe pointing the "tail" end, or perhaps suggesting the other wing like you did on the little bird. I hope that makes sense.

The other thing I noticed was that the little bird and big bird are not quite on the same plane. Not a major issue, but you might want to consider raising the big one or lowering the little one. It might not matter so much if they were not "nosing" (beaking?). But since they are, you have to be carful about where they are placed in relation to each other on the picture plane. Especially since the little one is in 3/4-back view.

Those are my thoughts. I hope they were helpful and not offensive. Overall, like I said, I really enjoy looking at this piece. The design, the colors, the type... yeah baby!

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