Starting Sketshes and Overal Design Idea

Wednesday, 26th of April

Selected Songs from Legend:

• Robin the Hooded Man: As he is the main character and cannot be left out
• Herne: he is a visually interesting character and an important part of the Legend element of Robin Hood, also known as Herne's son. His connection to the Druids and the Oak make him a vital element.
• Together We: This song marks the togetherness of the Merry Men and Marian. The circle of trees can help accentuate this idea

I would say these three are a definite must, picking between battles and Strange Land is a bit of a hard one, I think Battles will probably be more visually interesting. The next choice is between Scarlet Inside and Lady Marian. I think the addition of Scarlet Inside will be more interesting than Lady Marian, but then there's the factor that Marian is probably a more important part of the legend than Scarlet is. I start with the other songs and will make this choice further on. I think I'm leaning towards Scarlet thought purely because its more interesting with the split tree etc. and a good lead onto Battles.

So that potentially makes it the numbers: 1 (green Lush Forest), 3 (Old Gnarly Oak), 4 (Circle of Trees), 7 (Split Tree), 9 (Clash between Dark and Green). Luckily this is relatively wide spread so I don't have to fit loads of song titles onto one page and then only one on another. Jolly Good!

Booklet Insert: 242mm x 120mm (Fold on 121mm although the images with be based on the spreads and not the pages)

Allow a bleed area as will need to be cut off when stapled.

As I said in my post on the Hellblazer cover the previous image of Herne is not quite right, too much digital etc. I will colour the images with paint and ink. Then in photoshop I can enhance elements and potentially add light enhancements such as in the background of the Herne picture. 

Right well those were the general thoughts of the morning.  I then started by trying to sketch out page 1, Robin the Hooded Man.  The first couple of sketches were very dull, see images for comments at the time.

I decided I wanted Robin in the picture firing an arrow.  I wasn't quite sure how to draw this so I got out my camera, my hooded jacket (of which I copied the hood of Robin's) and Phoenix's bow.  I'm not holding back the string because the bow is too small for me.  I then roughly cut out the photos to see what pose angle and size was right.  I tried combining poses but I found this too busy and not clear enough.  The bottom one was the one I picked which I quickly sketched out in pencil.

 

 I then continued with Herne.  I don't even know what I was thinking during the first couple of sketches so I won't bother including them here, just bad composition, uninteresting etc.  I then had a look through my Robin of Sherwood photo vault and found this photo.

Here you see Robin holding Albion, one of the swords of Wayland, before Herne.  I really love the myth of Albion added to the story and I liked this idea of Robin kind of kneeling before Herne.  I tried it by taking photos but it really didn't work.

The idea that you're staring at the back of Herne, peering over his shoulder to see Robin.  The pose is wrong (the eyes are blacked out because they were looking at the wrong spot)  and the composition just doesn't work.  I carried on by just sketching without the camera.  Funny how it can work so well for one thing and not another :D

This was the first go. I thought possibly I could rotate the book so it was standing but when thinking about the other pages I changed my mind so I carried on.  At first I kind of just randomly added in Albion, more floating on top of the picture than actually being included.

I then drew Herne holding out Albion as if he were offering it to the viewer and left Robin out.  As we just saw Robin in the previous page he's not particularly a necessity and I'm better off to focus on Albion.  I will have to mirror the image though otherwize the enlarged close-up hand is practically in the same spot as the previous page.

Then I continued with page 3, Together We in the theme of all  the Merry Men.  I was getting a bit tires and didn't quite know what to do and just sketched directly from one of the photos which was a bit pointless as I can't just shove in a picture the same as the photo.  I then drew the circle of trees meaning to put the Merry Men in but wasnt really too excited by that either.  I likes the trees but I wasn't bothered about putting the people in.

I then had a look at my inspiration pictures and found this one. 

Ii was mainly looking at the head together in different scales, not the atmosphere.  Although it's an idea often used, for example numerous Star Wars and Lord of the Rings posters I always think it quite an effective way of putting a whole load of characters in one page.  I sketched it standing and lying down, both incomplete at the moment, as I briefly reconcidered using a standing page.

I had been having trouble integrating the tree concept into the pictures which I thought was a real shame.  I was thinking about something completely different when suddenly an idea popped into my head which was actually pretty cool!  My idea was to do have the printed image pages on paper and alternate this with painted trees on plastic see-through sheets.  This way I could still include the tree theme and in fact to more effect.  Each tree theme will lie over the top of the picture making you look through the trees to see whats behind.  Only when you turn the page/walk through the forest do you really see what's behind them.  I made a dummy version of the book, it was a bit tricksy at first but I've got it now.  It will be folding and stapled/sewn like a normal cd-booklet.  The pictures will now become squares instead of panorama.  The exception being "Robin" and "Together We", for those I have found a fold that will allow them to unfold.  Robin will start by looking like this:

and will then fold open to become this (as shown above):

This will even give the effect that the string is being pulled back as you open up the page.

The middle page of the booklet in a sheet meaning that there are two tree pages following each other.  This is perfect as it is before Together We.  This song is connected to the circle of trees.  The first page can be the front of the ring and the second page can be the back of the ring which will actually add extra perspective. It will also make the book less of a 1, 2, 1, 2, 1, 2 pattern.

And that was it for today :D