I'd buy it the way it is now on Light Blue.

I'd have the marionette turned around and actively pulling the string and, perhaps, still having the crossbar (whatever - the thing that the strings are tied to) in the person's hand. Just my opinion.

man kemmler..........you put up sooo many desings, and for the ost part their pretty good.......you're also like the king of the threadless blogs..............

I'd go with JuiNoon's comment as well. Having the strings suspended by the floating crossbar, then the hand hovering above it is neat, but I think it would look better if you had the strings attached to the hand in some way or another. Neat idea, though.

it looks great, but the problem is with the strings and the bars. they look lik e they are floating, rather than being pulled from the hand. either have more of as tumble and slackening effect or make it taut. show us the action at one extreme or the other, not in the middle.

perhaps have the marionette holding a crossbar as well with strings that attach to the hand's fingers. Color would be good as well, but not necessarily normal marionette and hand colors.

thanks guys, these are good suggestions. I think it would be much more clear to have the marionette pulling on all 5 of the strings, perhaps, and facing the hand. Like pulling backwards instead of walking forward. What do you think? I agree with a lot of the comments so far and will probably implement them, but you all probably know it's hard to let go of the original concept... heh, I'm keeping every version as a PSD though... just in case I want to go back. Also, do you think it would be better to have the crossbar closer to or further from the hand?

It would help to have whichever cross arm is being pulled with the most force leaning towards the figure. (As well as tighter strings as suggested) Maybe even ripping the cross out of the hand?



Looks very nice so far though

some more detail on the bottom of the hand.

Maby you could loose the outlines and add shading (light gray shadows). I think that would be really neat.

The one on the khaki background is much better. I like the way the figure is directly engaging the hand. I think the hand still needs a little more detail on the palm.

This is a ridiculously great design: the one on khaki. The figure facing the hand is a much stronger image than the ones on blue.





Currently, you have only two colors. You could potentially add shading like n.persson suggested, but I think it's print-ready as it is.

I realize your goal is to show that the marrionette has escaped from the hand and all, but i really think having the "crossbar" just under the had is a little confusing. To me it almost looks like you just drew it wrong, of the crossbar is floating or something.

For these reasons, I would recommend you just have the hand holding the crossbar. It still has essentially the same effect (and I think we all know the marionette is gonna win the tug-o-war eventually...) but i think it would just be a little more clear.



Regaurdless, great design! I 'd buy it!

nah, zuleger, I see what you mean but my only task right now is to get it to look right with the crossbar OUT of the hand. The shirt doesn't mean nearly as much to me if it were still holding the crossbar. I agree that it looks a little funny, but there's no point in having the hand hold onto the crossbar. I'm trying to show victory after struggle, not struggle- struggle is ambiguous- the marionette might not win. Even if you think it might, there's no victory shown.

Great concept, but I'm not sold on the execution yet. Something about the vector work bugs me. I would almost say that it'd work better with just white. Use larger gaps in the negative space to separate the shapes. The uniformity of the black doesn't sit right visually to me, maybe if you varied the line weight that could help, but I'm not sure. Maybe you only need the black for the strings.

The top design but in blue

Add shadow to the hands and puppet (and marionette)

I suggest a greyish shadow. The whole design looks flat in just white. I like the idea by the way.

There isn't any 2d vector work here actually. I guess I could lose the outlines, I'll see how that works too. I'm thinking I'm gonna add shadows but I'm not convinced that it will be very helpful. Thanks for the comments though, I really appreciate them, and keep on the lookout for upcoming versions that incorporate them.

this is a little off the topic, but how do you put pictures in the blogs?

nevermind

by the way, about the designs:

i like the bottom one the best, but i think i like the guy's position better in the first one. if you could get that to look a little more natural, i think i would like that more.

I think shadows would detract from the graphic impact of the image. Try it anyway though, you never know.

I like them both but if I had to choose it would be the khaki.

Domino, I agree but I figure I should take the process as far as it will go- it might defy expectation. I am going to try to get the khaki one to look more 'right', sorry I haven't posted a new version, school is keeping me really busy lately.

i like it much better on the blue. it gives a better contrast so that people really look at the puppet and the hand. and it makes it look more like the puppet is winning, because the hand is farther away. i like the style, try designing more with these really sleek, defined, contrasting lines.

yeah, the crossbar farther out of the hand on the blue looks better, but the way the strings are hanging on that one looks bad. It still looks like there is some sort of invisible resistance on the crossbar (almost like the hand is "using the force" on it) because the strings are so taunt. Play around with the strings between the puppets hands and the crossbar to make it look more like the crossbar is falling.

^^^ i was refering to the first blue picture

ok, so how about this: keep the position from the khaki, but have the crossbar further away, like in the blue? Also, make the strings more slack like in the khaki but also have the puppet leaning back further like it was more of a struggle? Or should I just move the hand further away? I'm probably not going back to the position of the puppet from the blue, just because the action is unclear at first glance that way.