This is my newly designed Wildwood tree in Illustrator.  The way I made this is much more simpler and straight forward than the last, however resembles what I want more.  This tree is much more natural looking and looks much more like a wild wood tree in itself.  I think the reasons for this are that there are no leaves of any sort on this one giving it an instinct look for being haunted/not looked after.  The branches are much more twiggy are more of them that gives a creepy feel about it.  I have yet to design any more but I will in the same style to maintain the resemblance between them.  The way I made this tree was so much simpler by just using the pen tool (P) and the pencil tool (N).  I'm pleased I re-thought the way my trees would look because this one takes less than quarter the time and looks more effective also.

I have now developed a few sketches for my book cover.  I have mostly looked into E.H Shepherd and Michael Hague who are the two main artists for Wind In The Willows book covers and illustrations in general.  It was interesting looking at each of their work side by side to compare techniques to convey visually the same message.  I did decide I would base illustrations on E.H Shepherd however,  I think it's important to develop my own style in my sketchbook using different media first.

I have since presented my pitch to the class with an outline of my proposed design.

Points to consider positives:

-Good body of research
-Influential Artists
-Started using Illustrator to design aspects of chosen scene


Points to consider negatives:

-No actual visual concept of idea
-Unclear visuals on proposed final design
-Lack of imagery for some artists

I agree with whats been said.  I think I have successfully been researching to discover book covers I like and appeal to me.  Also ones that don't so I can compare.  Since I choose the WildWood scene from the book to base my book cover on, I found some originals that gave me ideas for mine.  I found it useful using screenshots from the 1987 movie in my pitch too.  I liked how I found 4 or 5 well known illustrators for the Wind in the willows.  This is because I can compare their own individual style to maybe make my own.  Even though I've been told not to start using Illustrator to design straight off without sketches, I did find this useful because I felt like I was exploring the ways of such of designing my WildWood trees.  I have since changed the design of my trees to match the scene from the book more.