I'm feeling a bit flat because I had so much enthusiasm for this brief when I first read A Clockwork Orange, yet so many other deadlines have cropped up in-between then and now. As a result I feel as if I haven't had as much time and energy to put into this brief as I had wanted, and therefore have been forced to work quickly.
Initial Ideas
In complete honesty, I bashed out the majority of my sketchbook work in a day. This wasn't necessarily a bad thing, as I sometimes find it more productive to have a high energy day focusing on one thing in particular rather than do little chunks of different projects at a in the same day. It kind of felt like an exam? That sounds weird but it was similar to revising a text and then remembering key points to write in a timed essay (the timed essay being my sketchbook).
I decided to use one of the themes from my book as a starting point, and in my initial sketches I explored Christ, evil as well as trying to incorporate the theme of thirds.
Things I tried but didn't work:
- Alex being targeted by the Government
- Lightness being surrounded by darkness (threat)
- Crown of thorns (christ)
These ideas seemed to work well in my head but when I got them down on paper they just looked like a dodgy version of the bible.
Refining Themes
I left the ideas for a while because they were really stressing me out! When I came back to it after having a think, I decided to go ahead and focus on the theme of 'Man vs Machine', which is one of the most important themes of the book. It picks apart some of the main principles like the Government having the power to 'wind up' and control the people below them.
Ideas:
- Man struggling under the weight of a heavy object (metaphor for the Government
- Resistance, choosing to testify the Government
- Showing the emotional torture of Alex
Important Details:
- Finger prints and Cogs/Mechanical imagery used as textures to refine man and machine
- Scale: showing how powerful the Government is and how weak man is
- Appropriate use of colour, I'm thinking of interpreting the light as danger and dark as safety element
Final Design
My final design illustrates Alex being tortured by the Ludovico technique, holding his hands over his ears as he cannot bear to listen to his once favourite classical musician Beethoven whilst simultaneously becoming desperate to escape from his unbearably warped and twisted situation.
In the opposite corner of the front cover, Alex will be trapped by a large mechanical fist (the Government) beating him down with their almighty power. I am unsure how to portray this fist, I wanted to use a texture of cogs but I feel that would be too cliche... But I will think more about this later.
The colour palette is extremely important. I will use white, orange and black, which seems stereotypical but all of the colours have appropriate symbolic references. White will be the background colour, as Alex feels endangered and at risk in the daylight, therefore being highly exposed to it will increase his feelings of terror.
Alex feels safe in darkness. The text and the hand will be black, as Alex initially trusts the Government to help him out of prison twelve years before his sentence is due to be over, yet they deceive him by torturing him to be good against his own free will. Finally orange will represent Alex himself; the only bright colour to amplify the main subject of the novel as well as tie in with the title.
Reference Imagery
Tom kindly offered to act as reference imagery for Alex, and the giant fist for which I was able to work out the correct proportions for the composition.
Productivity Plan
MAKE THE COVER! I only have FOUR days till the deadline now, I know what I am doing so just need to spend enough time (and not rush!) on the final illustration.
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