From Rough Sketch to Final Draft 3
February 7, 2013Currently at Space 55 we are running a puppet show about recycling called Of Plastic Things and Butterfly Wings. I made the poster for the show. I started by reading the script and getting an idea of the main characters and their personalities and the setting of the story.
Then I sat down and made this rough sketch and sent it to the director, who sent me some notes on things to change and move around, etc.
Once I got the go ahead to move forward I drew a cleaned up version of the two characters, scanned them in, and worked with them in Illustrator. I also created the beach, background, fonts and sizes, and came up with this image.
From here I started showing the image to some friends, who gave a lot of great feedback on things to tweak. I got some really enlightening advice from my friend and children’s book illustrator Molly Idle.
I went back in and changed the title font to look more like it’s made of plastic, added in the butterfly, and also added the shadow of the birds over the pile of trash in the background to try to give a hint of something a bit sinister. I also roughed up the Space 55 logo and the tagline at the bottom so that they blended with the sandy beach a little more. Here is the final result.
When I initially started working on this project I was a little worried that I would not find as much motivation to make this postcard as I do when I make the ones for my own plays. But I actually got really into it and had a blast making it. Thanks to everyone who took the time to look at it and give me their thoughts. All the advice I got really helped.
sketchbookfactory 
I like how the shellfishes mouth is like a scalloped edge of a clam and how you made that into an expression by making one eye bigger and adding the eyebrows.
I have this card and I love it but until I came to your site I failed to recognize the subtle detail that the lettering looks plastic. Very clever.
I think the font for “And Butterfly Wings” somehow looks like butterflies, not sure how but it’s a perfect fit.
I like how you brought the theme into every aspect of the picture in one creative way or another. Something to keep in mind for ads.
Thanks!
[…] I turned to Molly for help last year when I was making a poster for a show called Plastic Things and Butterfly Wings, and despite being a very busy and high demand illustrator, she still took the time to give me a ton of great advice, which really helped me to improve the poster. I wrote all about it in this previous blog post. […]