Play Play Play - Image and text development

I did some research into how the magic mirror in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs has been shown previously so this could inform my drawing. 

Blue and black wax crayon on off white background

Blue and black wax crayon on grey background

Orange and black wax crayon on off white background

I drew out part of the mirror in blue and black crayon as I had initially planned but then was concerned that the blue would not fit in with the other colours in the series. My images so far are red and yellow and the backgrounds I have used fit in with this warm colour scheme. Because of this, I tried drawing it again with black and orange and put them against the backgrounds I am  planning on using. I think the orange works better as part of the colour scheme but speaking to my peers in the studio, the general feedback I got was that the blue, red and yellow colour scheme is more recognisable and it makes each image stand out by itself rather blending in to a mass of similar colours. I understand the thoughts behind this so I am going to use blue for the mirror to complete the set. I can also experiment with eliminating the black crayon from the image to see what effect this would achieve. 

I wanted the text on this image to be quite angular and sharp, sort of representing the notion of broken glass but I also thought the harshness of the letters would represent the wickedness of the Queen in the story of Snow White where this phrase was used. This is some experimentation with media and type, it concluded to my typeface being constructed from an elongated hexagonal frame so that all the letters would be working to the same shape. If any of the letters are repeated, I will trace a pencil outline to work against to ensure that they are the same. I want to do my lettering in dip pens with blue drawing ink so that it works well with the blue on the mirror. I did consider black ink but black writing on a grey background might look quite uninteresting. I briefly tried out using the blue ink on the sugar paper I am using and it did bleed a bit but I feel this adds to the handmade aesthetic of the image. 

I considered putting something in the mirror because I thought this might add a story to the image. My ideas were very closely related to the story of Snow White and I wanted to move away from generic imagery in this sense. I decided to continue using wax crayons and ink to create the effect of a mirror. 

I used white wax crayons and painted over them in watered down blue drawing ink to create these roughs. I am going to use the pattern on the left for the mirror frame and then use the effect on the right to show the reflective surface of the mirror (in a paler tone). I like the uneven shading in this rough but this would look more patchy and uneven on a larger surface. I think I will use large, curved brushstrokes almost like a vague spiral towards the centre of the mirror, drawing the eye deep into the image.