Perseus and Medusa Trail: First Sign development and mock-up

 

Here's the first drawing I did for the sign. When I did this, I realised that it would look better if I did it in black and gold. This is the boat that Danae and Perseus travel on to get to the island where King Polydectes is. 

Here's the version in black and gold. This illustration looks more similar to the style that Ancient Grecian artists would paint on a vase. I really like the contrast as I think it really pops. 

Because I did the boat in the black and gold, I decided to create some of my characters in that style. I think they look really eye-catching and distinct. However, because they are all the colours, it could be hard for a child to distinguish who's who. So, I will just use these black and gold illustrations for part of the sign which isn't the main story. In this illustration Danae is holding baby Perseus this is to represent the start of the story. 

Here's Zeus drawn in that style. It looks really striking. I think that creating them in this style could be fun for the places where the children need to put a sticker on the map too. 

For the first sign, the main image will be of Polydectes with Perseus's mother standing behind him. I was going to add Perseus into this drawing but I think the two of them is more effective. The only issue with this is the background. I don't like how it looks as its too square and if I put it on a sign it wouldn't look great. 

I changed the background for this main illustration on the sign. This is because I thought the previous looked boring. I also wanted the background to match how I drew the people for the trail so I stook with jagged lines and its turned out really effective. 

Here's my first mock-up of the sign. When I had a plain white background I really liked how different the black and gold illustrations looked compared to the coloured illustrations. However, when I added a background it looked off. 

Because I wanted to use different coloured backgrounds for each sign it was really hard for me to find a single colour that tied in with black and gold and the coloured illustrations. I ended up using this light blue shade. However, I still don't like how the two different styles look. Moving forward, each sign will have fully coloured illustrations throughout for continuity.