Second Illustration Friday Illustration: Stretch

This is my second Illustration for Illustration Friday- the topic being "Stretch."  The process for this piece was very interesting as there was a pretty well-improvised manner in which I came to creating the final image.  I originally wanted a more anatomically correct, yet deformed individual who was suffering because of the stretched parts of his body.  I also wanted to reinforce the idea of this already lanky individual so the stretching can seem to occur naturally, rather than a sudden change. 

No matter how I drew it, it always came out a little inhuman.  The elongated jaw and bald head made it seem human-like but I grew to accept it.  Later on, the piece seemed bare.  I thought about how it would be seen and I really liked the small and confined body language of the figure, if the entire image was only the figure, enlarged to whatever frame, then a lot of the mood would've been lost. 

As I kept drawing it, all I saw in my head was this figure being in a frame, so I thought why not a frame?  That led to the second frame pattern as, in my style, geometric shapes, sharp corners, and other conceptual objects don't really appear so it was a bit experimental in my nature.

However, as I kept looking at it, there was something missing.  The image still seemed bare, and it seemed to have lost the "Stretch" aspect of the original drawing (as per IF's topic).  After looking at it for quite some time, these bubble like objects kept popping into my head.  It was almost like free association; I thought about "stretch" and these popping, growing bubbles was what succeeded.  Eventually, the image you see is what I ultimately decided to do.