updated colour

I decided the colour really wasn't looking great - especially since it dried lighter - so I went over with  wash of acrylic. I also added more brown so it's a bit more natural looking (both in terms of trees = brown and the paper originally being brownish.

  

I used blue/purple for this one - since it's cold and dark with regrets - plus a little bit of red for danger?

the dancing is mostly yellowgreen - happiness and brightness

this one is mostly orange - aka the fire and also danger, with the greenbrown to contrast, and represent the faery=nature.

plus some gifs of the inside pages: 

Rationale

The song I chose was Shake It Out by Florence + The Machine. My interpretation of the song was that it's about having a lot of regrets and being haunted by them (the song uses a devil as a metaphor) and over the course of the song, learning to let go and embrace them. I decided to base my story around someone who does a deal with a faery ('the devil') and is haunted by that (regrets), but then lets them go and goes to dance with the faeries. But because it is non linear, it could be read in any way, for example: human dances with the faeries, regrets it, then makes a bargain with one of them to overcome the regrets.
I presented the three sections each in a separate book, with a blank cover so that the viewer doesn't know which one to open first. In order to make it even more random, I also drew an image in the back cover of the book - the same scene from a different viewpoint. The old book format also links to the subject matter of faeries - fairytales are old stories. I used pen and ink to draw the compositions of dark creepy forests, because the song is dark.
The layers of the cut pages, and curved trees create a focal point around the human character, as well as rhythm and movement - as if the forest is alive. The antlers and clothing of the faery echo the forest to show that he is part of it (or possibly he controls it).

workbook pdf pages

Finals

the colour ended up turning out....not that great. you can't really tell in these pictures.

progress

I painted the covers a bit more.

final front images: 

final back images: 

I ended up changing a bit from my original tonal tests - i realised the front ones looked better with the back layer being black, not white, which meant the right side of all the back images needed to be dark rather than light.

I used pen/vivids initially, then went over with indian ink - this a) added more subtle shading in places i needed it, b) made it a warm/brown black rather than a cold/blue one, and c)  took the shine off the vivid.

inking progress

I've started with the front illustration of all of them - because that's the most important one. Then I'll do the back, and if I have time will do the inside pages (the ones closest to either end, at least.)

there are still some slight tonal details I need to change (and also the deepest layer on all of them are still blank since that's part of the back image). 

I've made sure the trees on the edges of all of them match up when you put them beside each other, more or less.

Tone and Colour tests for drawing

tone:

colour: I'll probably only use a little bit of colour as a highlight to add some mood

Book cutting

I spent the weekend gluing the pages together (which took about...nine hours....) and then drew and cut out the shapes.

book cut/style test #2

the actual inking and drawing is still pretty rough because my pens are running out and I need to get more -

the first layer I cut without gluing it, which is fine for big parts, but thin branches splay out.

The second I did the same, but then glued it afterwards - which works alright, but the layers tend to not quite glue in line

the next two layer I glued before I cut them. this makes it a bit harder to cut, and the pages buckle a little, but I think it'd better in the long run. the last layer I didn't glue, but it doesn't matter so much since it's just a small circle.

I also realised that if I cut to the edges with the branches it ends up looking like this on the outside so...I should avoid that.