For my Mystery of Cleopatra Conspiracy Plan, I had 9 different illustration elements – torn newspaper effect, map of egypt, Taposiris Magna, lined paper, Isis, Caesar, Anthony, poison plants and Cleopatra herself. I wanted to focus on the illustrations first as images alone and later on add the text elements outlined within my planned sketch – allows me to follow the plan of creating each illustration individually and to bring them onto the background as a complete illustration, and also experiment with drop shadows etc. My first 5 illustrations can be seen below:
Witht the torn/ripped paper tutorial fresh in my head, I decided to start the illustration process off for ths infographic with the torn newspaper. Like the previous newspapers, I used Adobe Photoshop to create this piece, and followed the tutorial to the letter to insure I have a well designed ripped paper effect. When I was creating this piece, I left a rectangle space within the design to make sure I remembered to include the illustration of a map of egypt (once I had drawn it).
As I needed this illustration to finish the newspaper, I thought it would be best to make it the next piece I focused on. To create this illustration, I used Adobe Fresco and followed my reference image closely to ensure I had a accurate map of egypt. The actual process of creating this illustration was quick to complete, the only difficult bit of this illustration was trying to line up where the labels of the city should sit. In my original sketch idea, there is a location marker to be used on the map and the image of Taposiris Magna to highlight a clear connection. But I knew from the Hollow Earth infographic, that my location marker would be added on Adobe Illustrator, so I needed to ensure that I had a small mark on this illustration to show me where the marker should be placed later on in the design process. That is the reason for three small dots on this illustration, but they will be covered later on!
And here is the final newspaper piece – minus the location markers ofcourse! The headline for this newspaper, doesn’t make complete gramatical sense, but that is because the headline is partially covered with a later illustration, I wanted to make sure that the headline, when covered, held the words ‘Cleopatra’s Tomb Dicovered?’. In addition to this, I was slightly nervous with working with an image instead of text, because I was unsure if the mask tool would create the same effect of ripped/torn with an image, but I was lucky and it did! Overall, I think this illustration works really well, and the idea of a newpaper or any ripped out article is very realistic and consistent with the previous newspaper elements.
The next illustration I wanted to focus on was Taposiris Magna, a possible location of where Cleopatra’s Tomb could be discovered. For this illustration, I decided small pieces of detail would work best. The image I was using as a refernce was very detailed, and the main building of the temple had different shades of colours to add depth to the image. I wanted to focus more on the shape of the temple, and as I have an aversion to shading, I knew adding that detail would look out of place with my other illustrations. So, I instead followed the colour scheme and the block flat vector fill effect on Adobe Fresco, and worked out that the best illustrative effect of adding detail to the my piece was to add small, little lines to the building to represent bricks. I think this small addition across the buidling adds a sense of detail and depth to the overall illustration, but also keeps the style consistent with my previous work in the series.
Because of my previous infographic, I already have a system to illustrating a human figure, basically, rely heavily on the reference image! When I started the process of illustrating Isis, I knew I could do it because I had successfully completed Osiris, and from Osiris I took inspiration on how my take of Isis should look like. The illustrative style for both Osiris and Isis are very similar, and I think this is a key element to include because they are both from the same place in time and history – consistency is key! For this illustration, I wanted to have Isis standing looking into the centre of the double page spread because this is how I want to also illustrate Cleopatra, I’m hoping the mirror reflection will frame the infographic nicely. For Isis, I used Adobe Fresco and followed the same idea of a strong outline that I can easily fill with the paint tool. Overall, I think Isis as an illustration is a success, but from the reference image, I was unsure on how her headdress would be like in the final piece, so I made the decision to take inspiration of her headress from a different reference image, and I have to admit that I prefer the circle headress – I think it was a good design choice!
There isn’t really anything else I can say about this illustration that wasn’t covered in the Hollow Earth section, because this is the same piece of lined paper! I couldn’t see the point of making a replica of this as this was already created for the purpose of this project.
With my first 5 illustrations completed, I thought I would include a screenshot of how my Cleopatra infographic spread looks like at the moment. Overall, I am really happy with how the design is coming to life, and I think once all the illustrations and infographic design elements have been added, I will have a well designed and consistent infographic style, that I can actually feel quite proud of! Whih is a new feeling for me, I’m normally my own worst critic!
Sources
- The Sun. 2020. Tomb of Ancient Egyptian beauty Cleopatra may finally have been found after experts locate mysterious site near Cairo. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.thesun.co.uk/tech/11826169/tomb-ancient-egypt-cleopatra-cairo/. [Accessed 01 December 2020].
- Taposiris Magna Photos from Taporisis Magna Pictures from Taposiris MagnaPhotos by Ehab Samy. 2020. Taposiris Magna Photos from Taporisis Magna Pictures from Taposiris MagnaPhotos by Ehab Samy. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.ehabweb.net/taposiris-magna/#.X7auOWj7TD4. [Accessed 01 December 2020].
- Freepik. 2020. Premium Vector | Ancient egyptian major goddess isis. deity isis, wife of osiris. cartoon illustration in old art style.. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.freepik.com/premium-vector/ancient-egyptian-major-goddess-isis-deity-isis-wife-osiris-cartoon-illustration-old-art-style_5794616.htm. [Accessed 01 December 2020].
- The Motherhouse of the Goddess. 2020. The Goddess Isis Portal Page – More Resources. [ONLINE] Available at: http://themotherhouseofthegoddess.com/the-goddess-isis-portal-page-more-resources/. [Accessed 01 December 2020].
HND2 Baxter's Designs 