I used Naguib Mahfouz description for the alley and i tried to portray and capture the mood of it, where he states that: the alley returned once more to that hour of murky shadows. Hamida set out, wrapping her cloak around her and listening to the clack of her shoes on the stairs as she made her way to he street. She walked slowly, conscious of both her gait and her appearance, She was well aware of her attire; a faded cotton dress, an old cloak and shoes with timeworn soles. Nevertheless, she draped her cloak in such a way that it emphasized her ample hips and her full and rounded breasts. The cloak revealed her trim ankles, on which she wore a bangle; it also exposed her black hair and attractive bronze face.
Making such description as my main focus, I decided to reflect the haziness of the alley through the color palette and the posture of Hamida the novel heroine, Conceptual illustration was the best way to reflect my vision of the cover; the pose was picked carefully where it conveys hesitation as if she’s giving that one last gaze to the alley before leaving it, I used Hamida as a separator between the two worlds the narrow alley she’s willing to leave - represented in the main cover- and the vast world of the city - represented in the back cover.
Going through the novel i decided to portray the events that are the turning points for our main character , i used the technique of “line drawing” and i painted some areas in tones of black to make the characters’ expressions my main focus.
The first book scene portrays Abbas -The hair dresser - in his gray suit, which was also his only one it appeared fairly neat -true desire for hamida where she was playing on his emeotions as she was only delighted in his words because it gave her feelings of pride and vanity
The second scene portrays Hamida where she was looking through the “Mahsrabiya” on Farag , her posture reflects frustration and admiration towards Farag wondering why wouldn’t he admire her like the rest of men of the alley.
The Third scene conveys shock! How a fool she was losing everything for the sake of farag and by the end he tricked her .
The final scene portrays Abbas dashing in the streets to catch the cart that has hamida -his true love-.
Presented at Design species Exhibition
