Before I began this book I did some test images as I began to define my stylistic parameters, and one was a statue bust of the tragedian Aeschylus, and a scroll laying below. So when it came to creating a piece to introduce the playwrights, I chose to stay with that theme. Although looking back, it might have been better to portray them as living men, but sometimes its nice to explore and experiment with different concepts. Even if you fail or it doesn't work the way you'd hoped, its always better to try new things for growth. "Fear is the mind killer" after all.
You can see from my thumbnails page that I explored different values, with the busts as light on a dark background, or dark on a light background. I think in my thumbnail I was considering an early evening scene with candles lighting the figures from below. But it would have felt too spooky, like a vigil or underworld vibe.
I also didn't want the overall composition to feel too symmetrical, so I brought the warm lighting in at an angle on the theater steps behind the busts. In my color sketch I portrayed the scrolls as vertical, but someone told me that scrolls were typically read horizontally, so I changed it. I added little symbolic "trophies" at the base of each figures as a little Easter egg references to some of their plays.
Before I began this book I did some test images as I began to define my stylistic parameters, and one was a statue bust of the tragedian Aeschylus, and a scroll laying below. So when it came to creating a piece to introduce the playwrights, I chose to stay with that theme. Although looking back, it might have been better to portray them as living men, but sometimes its nice to explore and experiment with different concepts. Even if you fail or it doesn't work the way you'd hoped, its always better to try new things for growth. "Fear is the mind killer" after all.
You can see from my thumbnails page that I explored different values, with the busts as light on a dark background, or dark on a light background. I think in my thumbnail I was considering an early evening scene with candles lighting the figures from below. But it would have felt too spooky, like a vigil or underworld vibe.
I also didn't want the overall composition to feel too symmetrical, so I brought the warm lighting in at an angle on the theater steps behind the busts. In my color sketch I portrayed the scrolls as vertical, but someone told me that scrolls were typically read horizontally, so I changed it. I added little symbolic "trophies" at the base of each figures as a little Easter egg references to some of their plays.
