To begin my project I decided to try my hardest to finalise the style and medium I was going to use for all my illustrations. Taking the first fairytale, Little Red, I started drawing up compositions, mock ups, testing with colour and drawing the different elements I wanted to use with different mediums.
To begin I quickly sketched different scenarios and perspectives to get an idea of what I was trying to achieve visually and see how it would work.
Little Red is iconically in a forest in the fairytale but as I’m making it modern and relating to Tinder, should it be somewhere else? Could I convey the idea of a forest in a different format? A bar or Little Red’s home perhaps with a forest wallpaper?
I then started character building with the wolf and Little Red, I didn’t want my characters to be too cartoony and I actually found I preferred them without a face. I played with different mediums like pencil, paint, ink and wax crayon to see what worked and I found my wax crayon wolves were the most successful and stylised.
I wanted the perspective of Little Red to be over her shoulder so the iPhone screen was visible to the viewer.
I tried different faces, styles of hair and a range of mediums to figure out which one my Little Red character would be.
Next I experimented with the idea of a forest – from using watercolours and creating a loose and abstract scene to drawing with detailed trees with pencil, I played with different effects and found inks, pencil and fine liner to be my favourite. I especially liked the black and white ones and thought maybe my illustrations would look good if they were all black and white except the main feature (Little Red).
Thinking of Little Red in her house (which is the place I found most fitting as people are most likely to be on Tinder at their homes when bored in the evening, maybe watching tv with a glass of wine etc). Therefore, I started to visualise the elements which would go into the house using inks and fine liner. I wasn’t sure what style I wanted to use yet so I tried multiple which I want to experiment with on Photoshop to see what works and what doesn’t once its put together.
I also illustrated a range of alcohol bottles and glasses with the idea I might create a bar scene. I really like these little illustrations and hope I can incorporate them in some way.
Finally, I created more forest trees with the idea I would bring them into Photoshop and play around with layering, sizing and colour. I want to create a forest wallpaper with these trees to represent the meaning of a forest but in a modern day setting.
I redrew the elements which would go into Little Red’s flat using inks and felt tip in colour so I have the ability to play around more with the use of colour on Photoshop, I might do my pieces mainly black and white but I am still unsure and plan on doing colour tests on all of my pieces to solve this query.
I also draw a new rug, plants to go in the foreground and a fireplace to test in the final illustration. I want the background to have lots of detail to entertain the eye and give the reader an insight into Little Red’s casual friday night.
I also drew fairylights, records, a record player, a painting in a frame, a new window and a wooden floor.
To finish, I drew two different chairs, a cabinet full of Little red’s belongings like DVD’s, books etc and I rew a liquor cabinet too. I didn’t use all these things in my final image but I tested them all out to see what did/didn’t work.