"Lynn's Lament"
The horses are not melting. . .it goes with a children's story I wrote. I plan to get that up soon, but here is the cover I created for it. The original pic is huge, and done in acrylic. Since I scanned this is, I did some minor changes to it. I fixed the disproportion on the main unicorn's head and created more detailed cave patterns in the background. There's more shadow on the main unicorn as well. This was my 3rd time using acrylic, but it turned out quite nicely. That one patch on the girl's face is gawd-awful, but you can't see it on the original pic. Scanners bring out the worst in paintings. . .

Update: I went to the regional art show and got a top score! I didn't move on to state, but I'm perfectly happy with my score. Another student in my class is going to state with his oil pastel piece though! I wish him the best of luck!
This is a perfect example of balance and hue. Since it IS a children's book cover, the more bright colors you have, the more attraction you get. When you want shadows on white, don't go with just gray, which is very bland (unless you want that). Color tones are mixed with greens, blues, and purples as well as reds, browns, and yellows. I created more shadow later on underneath the main unicorn's belly to give more emphasis on the head. I have one unicorn on the left and two on the right, but it is balanced out by the large rock and the horses tail on the left. This is visual balance, mostly used commercially, for a variety of artists use different techniques. In cinema, the same idea applies: if you have a cluttered desk on the left, you don't want all your characters situated there in a long shot. You want to place one person there, and the rest of the cast on the right. Not every shot is perfect, but it should be carefully composed, and helpful to the storyline.

I did sharp contrasts to draw attention to the central figures, which entails red against blue, and white against black. If you have a good contrast, you can help your characters stand out or blend in with the environment. In "The Matrix", the woman in the red dress stood out because of the bright contrast for the "background" characters. In black and white pictures, the subject can have a sharp contrast or bright lighting to exemplify who or what they are. "Citizen Kane" and "The Elephant Man" are perfect examples. They can control characters by creating a sharp shadow on their figure, and hide them with a strong backlight.
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