To explore the theme, I imagined cynicism as making up a kind of strange
wilderness, and looked to 17th century treasure maps for inspiration.
More about the process:
For this illustration, I thought it would be interesting to show a "map"
of the emotional landscape surrounding the heart.The heart is thought
of as an entity that is both in command, yet vulnerable to harm.This
fits in with the idea of a watchtower or surveillance device. I took photo-
graphs of my eyes, selected one and pasted it several times over the
heart drawing.
Then I brainstormed anti-romance qualities or conditions, wrote them
in pencil and scanned them into my computer, along with small draw-
ings to create the landscape.
Then I spent a while trying out the various words alongside different
geographical features and in different places to see what looked best.
The little ships at the bottom of the image could represent hopeful
adventurers coming to explore the island, so there is a sense of dramatic
irony as they don't know what is in store for them.. My favourite graphics
are the various monsters as I think they add an important element of humour
to the proceedings.
To go with the "cynicism theme", I decided to go for a black and white
colour-scheme with a slight tint as this looked quite gruesome and moody.
The client wanted more boldness and colour so I added colour, going
for a mixture of vivid red for the heart and more faded colours for the rest,
giving the image a kind of vintage/tattoo feel.
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