References & Inspiration
First Composition
Final Composition
Final Illustration
Final Illustration With Text
Reflection
Throughout this process I wanted to keep in mind the golden age of illustration, but specifically the 1930s is what I chose to focus on. I found some references online and chose to combine 3 or 4 different styles to create my magazine cover. I wanted to start with clean lines and a simple outline, but I liked the illustrations you could see the clear strokes of color and decided to exaggerate them to make the front page feel blurry and not quite right while also keeping in the clean line work to help define shapes and not lose the inspiration of the 1930s.
For the composition I chose this out of about 20 that I did, quick thumbnails of it is composed of a girl sitting alone in a room that's empty. I wanted the feeling of loneliness, but I also wanted a clear sense of space. The woman is drowning but the rest of her face is covered with a sticker of a smiley face meant to look like it was placed on the magazine’s cover. This was to hint at the fact that depression isn’t always noticeable and like it reads on the cover “ the outside doesn’t reveal what’s within”, so we can’t always take smiles at face value. I knew there would be text so I wanted to leave enough open space in the original illustration so that it wouldn’t feel cramped or cluttered. I also added the price of the issue at the bottom mostly for fun, but also to get the feel that this is a magazine cover.
The concept behind this was depression and how what’s on someone’s face doesn’t always match with what is going on inside of them. That is why I chose Plato as my philosopher because he deals with perception vs. reality. I wanted the magazine to read one way upon first glance, but to reveal its true nature upon further inspection, much like what happens when you interact with people, they tend to hide what’s really going on just below the surface.
