Cleopatra: Set of Gesture Drawings

This set of gesture drawings of Cleopatra shows some of the planning and preparation that went into the final illustration of Cleopatra by D.K. Pritchett. In the earlier sketches (not shown), Mark Antony was not present. The client suggested that I add a "ghostly" Mark Antony. That is, he wanted to suggest a figure, but did not want the secondary figure to detract from the main one of Cleopatra. Quite a few simple gestures were done first. These gestures are some of the ideas that came out of those early gestures. They work up toward the final idea, that will be shown in a later post.

I liked the idea of the top gesture drawing, but it was immediately clear that the figure of Cleopatra had to be larger and more dominant than shown here. Once I'd settled on the composition and the idea was set in my mind, it didn't vary much. However, I did have to work within the confines of the layout of the final page, leaving room for the chapter title and the page text. I had to go with more of a horizontal retangle for the compositional space than what I'd originally envisioned.