Illustrated novel, part 4

This is part 4 of a series of illustrations that I developed for the book A Wrinkle in Time, by Madeleine L'Engle. This is earlier in the book when the children (Meg, her brother Charles Wallace) discover a grave threat to our planet.

Illustrated novel, part 3

This is part 3 of a series of illustrations that I developed for the book A Wrinkle in Time, by Madeleine L'Engle. This is near the end of the book, where the main character Meg finds her father on another planet.

Illustrated novel, part 2

This is part 2 of a series of illustrations that I developed for the book A Wrinkle in Time, by Madeleine L'Engle. This is the introduction to chapter 2, with an illustrated capital letter.

I chose to do a starry background, since the novel is science fiction and involves space travel. The manner in which they travel is by tesseract, or a "wrinkle in time." A tesseract involves passing through the fifth dimension; the concept is explained to Meg (and the reader) with the demo of an ant travelling across a string. So, I also included a string to represent the tesseract for the letter illustration.

Biography book cover final

Changes I made for the final were adding details to her face and changing the pattern on the chair to be less distracting. People seemed to like the 'melting' chair effect.

Here's a mock-up of how the book would look:

Illustrated novel: title page (part 1)

The next few weeks I will present five illustrations that I developed for the book A Wrinkle in Time. This is the title page with Meg and Aunt Beast, full page in black and white.

The title page illustration features Meg, the main character, being carried by an alien who helps her recover when she is almost frozen to death. The aliens live on a planet that gets hardly any light so they are blind. They also happen to have four arms with lots of tentacles. Meg fondly calls her alien caretaker Aunt Beast. It was perhaps my favorite part of the whole book, and I remember Aunt Beast fondly myself.

Biography book cover proof

And here it is, the proof! I think it turned out pretty well. While I was making it, I decided that I really liked the idea of parts being unfinished and having her face have the most detail for emphasis. I will probably add even more detail to her face--blending the shadows and adding highlights to make it have more depth. I changed the background from grays to brighter blues (too depressing otherwise). The spine design is there as well. Click for bigger images.

Interesting tools for colorblindness

Have you ever wondered what it's like to be colorblind? Do you wonder what your website looks like to someone with colorblindness?

Here is a website that will let you know: Colorblind Filter

Just put in a website and you can view it like someone who is colorblind (my own colorblindness is most similar to the 'anomalous red cone' filter). Some websites, like those with flash applications, don't work.

I occasionally try tests to help myself learn to compensate for my colorblindness--although it is a biological and inherited trait that has no 'cure' or 'fix,' I think that to a certain degree, familiarity with color can help anyone with color recognition and discrimination.

I found this website today, a Hue Test that will tell you what hues (colors) you have trouble discerning.

Take the simple test yourself, before you look at my results below (I don't want to give it away).

Take the Hue Test here. (Takes about 3-5 minutes)

Here are my results below...
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(Click to see bigger images)
Were your results better?