503 - Penguin Book Cover - Experiments

With my next experiment I thought I'd begin exploring my idea of the cover featuring someone with their hands tied behind their back, maybe even tied to a chair, to see how I could achieve this more ambiguous, mysterious feel. I hoped this anonymous figure would provide this bit of interest for passing eyes to evoke them to take a closer look. I began roughly sketching round an image..

To follow on from my research and to try incorporate this technique of having a source of light defining the section of the cover which was to be illustrated in detail, I tried a basic hanging light... 
























...But I soon realised how the man on the chair was obviously at the wrong perspective for this to look physically in proportion - so I started re-evaluating. The idea of having the the light coming from an opening door or window instead began growing, but after sleeping on it and feeling unsure of how I would actually start refining the shadows and detailing on his back I decided to just move onto a new experiment featuring a different, more relevant character to the story.

As I looked back at all my researched artists work I realised how they all looked most effective by making use of cool shadowing coming off their illustrations to make them interact with the surrounding space more, and make it feel more connected. So instead I found a more simplistic and appropriate image of a girl this time, tied to a chair (stronger link to the plot) which I could base my illustration on and then start building the environment up around her to fill the cover, but still provide that plain space for the necessary text on the cover.