I have now finished reading 'The Wind in the Willows' and decided on the main imagery I would like to include on my poster. As I have said in a previous post, the thing that stood out most to me was the contrasting lives of the main characters of the book. Badger, Toad, Ratty and Mole all represent different social classes, and the descriptions of their homes and life style is was something that I enjoyed reading. I found myself trying to imagine how I would visualise and create representations of their homes in my own way. I also want to go ahead with my previous idea of creating a poster that will show the contrast between the lives of the upper class (Toad) and the middle and lower class (Ratty, Badger and Mole). Below are a selection of quick sketches.
Ideas of split images, to show two different scenes/lifestyles
Trying out different viewpoints of Toad Hall
Final Sketch of Toad Hall scene
After trying out many different compositions, I decided that it would be fun to play around with scale and put the house at the top of a hill, with toad whizzing down the drive way in his car. This way there is room to include little details that i picked up from reading the book, like how Toads Hall is next to the river and how he owns many boats, and how the 'grand house was made of red brick with flowered lawns'. I'm hoping that the water fountain and house will successfully show Toad's wealth.
As well as show the contrasting lifestyles of the characters, I also want to show the contrasts of the seasons, as they are a big part of the story. Mole, Ratty and Badger are all animals who mainly live in burrows during the winter, and their burrows are very important. So I want the underground section (badgers burrow) to be the representation of winter with blankets, an open fire, food supplies etc, and Toad Hall to be the representation of summer, with brightly coloured flowers and blue skies.