Making Up For Lost Sleep
Self-initiated project inspired by the article 'How Best to Catch Up on Rest and Pay Off Your Sleep Debt,' by Catherine de Lange, in New Scientist.
Initial Concept
I felt like the title itself was very suggestive so I played with visual metaphors to represent concepts like recovering lost sleep, time, recharging and the idea of reaching towards rest.
At this stage, I find helpful combining various words related to the main theme into simple symbols and rough sketches for potential further development. Below are some of those initial thumbnails:
Value Thumbnails
Here are the versions I selected, which best convey the main theme or idea.
It's time to start thinking about developing the composition during this phase and doing value thumbnails is a great way to establish a balanced hierarchy throughout the whole piece. I find that 3 values are usually enough to focus on the essentials. I'll add more, if necessary, in the final or colour stages.
Among the three versions, 1 and 3 best convey the idea of catching up on sleep and recovering. We have the concepts well represented and conveying the message straight away. The sleep mask and charging symbols have a similar effect, but I liked the more whimsical nature of the first version and decided to move ahead with it.
Although the version with the coins wasn't as obvious, I still like the humourous concept it portrays.
Colour Thumbnails
I experimented with the options below, removing the Z, obviously related to sleep, but I ultimately decided it was not necessary, as the image was already pretty clear. I added a support for the hourglass and added the stars later in the background, so that the image wasn't so empty on each side. I also experimented with adding windows and curtains, but I thought it distracted from the main point of the illustration. More often a simpler design will make the message clearer.
Eventually I picked the third option as it would fit the idea of a night sky perfectly.
Final Illustration
After adding the stars and other celestial objects, texture and final details, the artwork is finished!
Thanks for checking out my work!
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