FMP Blog 8: Into the Trees
With my plot finally in a more confident place, I needed to pin down my visual language approach for the final book too. I tend to overthink this bit and it turns into a messy mix-up of styles that I’m dissatisfied with.
I decided to set about researching through illustration again, taking note of what worked and what didn’t. I took to observational drawing, and what I believe to be reportage illustration, particularly when it came to the visual perception of a forest through the lens of a camera contrasted with the feeling of being surrounded by the wilderness. Embury and Minichiello elaborate that “the artist selects what to draw as they draw… steering the viewer’s attention to the essential crux of the story” (2018). The direct interpretation offered by a camera lens cuts out the “thinking” and “physical process” undertaken when drawing. The illustrator can be more precise and guiding in their depiction than the photographer.
As I leaned towards watercolours during this research, I enjoyed how imprecise and unpredictable the medium was. I continued to develop my characters using this medium and contrasted it with a few more character studies using colouring pencils. This helped to finally decide the design of the dog.
Another opportunity presented itself in the form of a visit to Lunuganga — a sprawling property known for its wild garden towards the south of Sri Lanka. I was interested in sketching a more jungle-like landscape rather than typical home gardens and investigating how I could manipulate tone and composition to evoke certain feelings in the viewer. Before setting out, I finalised three cover options for the book and posed it to my Instagram followers — which one did they prefer?
Of the three, option 1 got 8 votes, option 2 got 7 votes and option 3 got 10 votes. I considered why this might be the case — option 3 felt like a generic cover to me, where as 1 was exciting and 2 was mysterious. In the end I received more feedback about option 2 and was more convinced by the reasoning of these voters than the others, so I went with that one. Super undemocratic, I know.
I began documenting images as soon as the bus hit the highway. Due to the sped-up nature of the trip I had to use a quick way of capturing images so photos had to do. I made sure to capture landscapes that were more forest-like than obvious plantation land (i.e. it’s made up of the same type of tree), though you will still find dogs, snakes, scorpions and the like roaming around. I enjoyed how layered the various trees were from a distance. The blurriness of the photos helped me to perceive the objects as shapes rather than in detail, which was useful in loosening up my approach.
The garden was covered in fern fronds and looked almost prehistoric, especially with the large termite mounds and wild boar dung lying around (picture not included — you’re welcome).
Once I got back from the excursion I set about isolating the plants and trees with the most distinct shapes and painted them in monochrome. I then scanned them into Procreate and composed the final book cover by February 13th — a deadline set by the World Illustration Awards 2024 and one that I wanted to meet so that I would once and for all nail down the book’s visual language.
There are some finishing touches that I will continue to add but for now I am pleased with the way the cover turned out. Looking forward to seeing how this tree-search (sorry 🌳) translates to the rest of the spreads in the book.
References
EMBURY, Gary and Mario MINICHIELLO. 2018. Reportage illustration visual journalism New York: Bloomsbury Visual Arts.
