As the landscape was developing I began to add more elements to the double page spread to make it more energetic and exciting for the demographic as well as developing the profession outlook of the page and the setting.
With the monochrome theme which I took, it made it easier to set out the page and divide it up amongst the double page spread. I knew how I wanted the page to look, as well as it having the crease in the middle of the design so nothing important should be placed here. As you can see, the tree trunk/bridge that bends over the gap in the landscape divides up the setting adds a slight perspective to the illustration, while allowing the design to have a flow. Above this in the empty blue space is where I think that I will place Nessie as she will be easily recognised in silhouette form, while having the text placed over the dark mass on the right hand side to divide it up slightly.
Progressing onto the colour palette and design which I am incorporating into this design, I changed the colours and style of the layers to see how I could add more of a perspective as well as making it obvious that it is underwater without it being too overpowering. I used a fade for this, having the dark shades of navy and black so that it stayed to the general palette of the whole book. But, with this it created a subtle contrast between layers- however, making the illustration extremely dark. I didn’t mind this because this is the stage of Nessie’s realisation of depression as she is running away from her monsters so it fits the lines of the narrative; however, I will continue to develop the palette so that it is suitable for the young target audience and capture their imagination while reflecting the style and theme also.
As with the previous development above, I played around with a few different colouring techniques and styles to find out what worked best for the style of this double page spread. Whereas the last design was a lot of monochrome colours as well as having lowered the opacity of the background so that the blue wasn’t as bright too. Though, on this page I went back to the original background to see how it would work when the foreground illustrations are in a different tone. I chose a darker black and navy fade on some of the forefront layers because this juxtaposes against the dark background and gives me more scope to crete a perspective. On top of this, I refined some of the layers and altered them slightly to fit the surrounding more. I’m happy with how this colour palette has developed for this page because it is bold and distinctive, and with Nessie now placed as a silhouette it makes her look connected to the darkness (which is a visual representation of her struggling with her mental illness) as well as helping the illustrative flow of the design work better.
In a further refined version of this double page spread, I continued making more layers and slightly developing the contrast of layers juxtaposed against each other. I added more detail into this because of the density and darkness of the page so that it would still be interesting for the target audience. Furthermore, the composition of layers allowed me to experiment with the layer juxtaposition and shading of these. Because of the difficult lighting in this scene, I used slightly subtler tones within the navy and blacks so that it would till be obvious that they are different layers while fitting the illustration and encompassing the detail that I wanted to include in the design of the page. Thus, with this in mind, I will now begin to add the narrative into the page and polish off the illustration so that it looks professional and publishable.