Abstract Illustration

For this exercise I decided to choose George Gershwin as I enjoy his Rhapsody in Blue and wanted to explore more of his music. I listened to a range of pieces and narrowed it down:

I narrowed it down to 'An American in Paris' because I like the feel of the piece and found it the most interesting. I researched colours and patterns, themes that would work with the music, the kind of feelings it brought up for me. I then narrowed down the colour palette to navy blue, cherry red, yellow ochre, lime green and sky blue. I felt these colours really represented the piece well, giving a sense of 'Paris', and the season of spring/summer. I wanted to try the abstract piece using Copic markers because they are one medium I want to learn to use better.

Here is my first attempt:

I really didn't like how this turned out. To me it feels muddy and hasn't captured the bright, fun feeling I wanted to portray.

I next attempted the exercise using acrylic craft paints, since this is a medium I am much more familiar with:

I am much happier with how this came out and feel it has some really interesting areas.

Re-created area:
My word is 'lively' and I used the acrylic paints again to get the right textures, marks and colours I wanted.

I chose not to add any further marks as I felt like the piece was 'lively' enough, however I did crop the area further to hone in on the parts I felt were the strongest and conveyed the message better.

I think this would look great for a cd cover for the music, it certainly has energy and vibrance about it.