Research

From the start when I chose the juniper tree, I knew I wanted to play with the form of the evergreen. I thought it would be interesting to tie story elements into a base and keep a central focal point from which to build. I started by just doing some rough drafts to see the direction I wanted to go in. 

One main issue I had when I started looking into images was that I could not find a tree that fit the direction I wanted to go in. I started sketching out a few ideas to see if I could find a tree that fit the look I desired. The next part I wanted to focus on is just the general placement of images and I see the direction I wanted to go.

Ideation

Once I developed different sketches I took them into Photoshop and found images I wanted to use. 

Image Links:

• Juniper Tree Image
• How To Draw a Portrait Old Woman _ Realistic Drawing (Time Lapse )
• Demon Horns Clipart
• Bonfire Image
• Big Gold Chain Necklace
• When Your Kid’s Life Becomes Their Own (running kids)
• 5 Songbirds To Invite To Your Yard
• Songbird image
• Vocal Learning Similarities in Songbirds and Humans
• Songbird flying images

The next part I wanted to focus on is just the general placement of images to see the direction in which I wanted to go.

The next step was my final composition. Playing with color was my toughest creative decision. Once I cut out all the images I played around with different color variations. I liked the way black-and-white looked, but I felt like it was a bit dull. I ended up going with a version with limited color to add a bit of color to the image and added a texture to add a bit of black contrast on top of the image for cleaner lines.

 Concept

For the composition of this piece, I want to play symmetry and balance, while basing the whole composition on the juniper tree itself. Each element of the piece balances out the other. It starts with three apples on each side of the tree and five birds positioned, so there are two on each side with songbird wings spread on the top. The old woman and evil horns are sublimated on top of the leaves centered in the tree. The gold chain was originally intended to do the same, but I had to move slightly over to make it look more natural hanging down from the tree. The next part of symmetry was a bit trickier. The bend of the trunk was pretty asymmetrical, so I positioned the two kids next to it to create a sense of unconventional symmetry. I chose to do primarily black-and-white to contribute to the mystique and deaths of the story. I think this was a great effect, with fire and fog to simulate the loss of the children. Originally, this was just black-and-white, but I realized it was missing some pop, so I decided to color the chain and apples to highlight important parts of the story.

Process

My process was to first sketch it and then cut out the images, and then arranged them in Photoshop. I added a black/white filter on top and masked out areas to add a pop of color to the piece. To create the grain on the image I ran my image through Topaz Adjust 5 Blue Print then multiplied blend mode on top of it.

Link to Portfolio