THUMBNAILS

For my first couple of thumbnails I really liked the idea of having mice and umbrellas, and in an early group tutorial the composition of the thumbnail with the cat is particularly eye catching, and I like how it frames the image. After thinking about the combination of mice and water I decided I would like to put the mice in a bathroom. I also wanted these images to look quite busy with multiple characters in them, much like the page of mice I drew early on.

Although I like the detail in the background of the bathroom (the shampoo bottles etc.) I prefer the composition of the bottom thumbnail with the mice all in the bath together. I developed this idea further and changed the viewpoint for the thumbnail below:

I wanted the top thumbnail to be like Frida Khalo's 'What the water gave me' ( but with mice) and I wanted to experiment with composition as I usually just put things in the centre of the page. The bottom thumbnail would be experimenting with negative space, much in the style of my summer work, with a mouse looking like it is submerged underwater. (The bottom thumbnail with the foot was something I drew after these initial thumbnails when I was experimenting with colour and changing the image)

After drawing mice for several thumbnails I wanted to look at a more metaphorical side of my proverb, and I decided to explore the idea that we shouldn't pick on people that are already down, or to ignore people who are already ignored. I enjoy the 2nd composition more than the girl sat at the top, and I think the sense of scale in this composition will be able to communicate more emotion to the audience. Looking at composition and colour last year in our experiments and our semiotics workshop has really helped with creating images this year.

I also tried to use the umbrella motif again to link my ideas together, still focusing on a person in the centre of the page.  Below I went back to cats and mice, and again I like how all the cats frame the page.

I wanted to maybe do a design like my children book, and I thought I could incorporate a jungle/forest like scene. Here a girl is hiding from her bullies in woodland.

I also explored the idea of 'cat calling', and used a ratgirl character that I drew over summer for a couple of thumbnails. The lower one is a more developed version, also with the characters more anthropomorphised. 

For the thumbnails above I returned to a literal interpretation of the proverb and had the mice being drowned in tea at a cat's tea party, then cropped this image up close and added more mice- which replicates the bathtub ideas.

For a couple of the thumbnails I tried to think of bigger issues globally- and when I thought of 'don't afflict the afflicted' I thought of fishing and the ocean. I liked the idea of having lots of cans and whilst some depict the usual seafood such as tuna, salmon and prawns- there are other more usual creatures that have been canned, to show what it would be like if we actually had the bycatch from fishing on our tables. I also thought this idea would like nice in a block colour, Louise Lockhart inspired illustration. 

I went with a similar idea with a man eating a plate of coral reef. The very last idea I went as literal as possible and had someone throwing water on a drowned mouse who has jumped out of the toilet- again referring back to the bathroom themes from before.