Idea #3: Vintage ladies on the telephone to a modern girl

I've taken onboard a literal illustration for a 'directory'. I drew four panels in which the flapper girl, 50's woman, 60's mod girl and a modern girl from today's time are sharing a phone conversation. The phones represent each era as well as their clothing.

1920's telephone. Source: www.t-minus.net

 

1950's telephone. Source: www.rubylane.com

1960's telephone. Source: www.blackboxav.co.uk

I coloured this in the style of Tove Jansson's Moomin illustrations: black, white, with two primary colours. I don't feel this looks as vintage as if I would colour it completely. It looks unfinished.

  These are the outcomes when I colour digitally on Photoshop. They took approximately five hours each to complete. The outlines are a darker shade of the colours within the boundaries. I used the same colour palette as before, as they look authentically vintage:

Final outcomes:

No text. Same background colour as previous outcome (the ladies sharing the directory), within the same palette.

No text. Colourful pop-art style.

With text (official logo).

Sepia, with official logo.

I prefer this sepia outcome as I feel it adds a vintage effect. My drawing style is obviously very contemporary and I haven't been influenced by any traditional artists. I feel maybe the modern girl in the bottom right corner doesn't suit being in sepia tone as she is from today's period. However, putting her in colour would disrupt the harmony of the images together, so I'm keeping her sepia.

I may call this my final outcome, as opposed to the colourful one.

The coloured outcome is a little more suitable as a children's illustration, simply for its cartoon style and punchy colours. I don't feel it works as well as directory front cover because the target audience is a little ambiguous.

I can see the sepia version being published, but I think a graphic designer would have trouble knowing where to compose all the text. It will look too cluttered if text is placed over some of the bold lines. I am pleased with this result, however, and prefer it to the inital idea I originally made.