Assignment 4 - Magazine Illustration - Lost

For the still life I chose a selection of items that get lost. I could have chosen items within which you could get lost, buildings streets etc. but I'm not sure that they would count as a still life? 

I did a collage to try and get some ideas going. The drawn in figures are looking for the things that they lost..... (the dog has nothing to do with this brief - he crept in when I was wondering about this years Christmas card design)

I thought of an item lost because it was burried by brambles

or lots of missing items swirling around or dropping out of reach. Maybe a remote control to bring them back? Following the swirling around idea I thought of a coloured background and had several  failed attempts at mono printing.

So I went back to my trusty pastels

and had a little play with the effects program on the computer

Didn't like that so I smudged the pastels with my fingers and drew over them with charcoal

There are elements of this that I like but the phone is very badly drawn. So I drew some more items in a different arangement while I thought. This was supposed to be a more dense pile of objects, you can just about make out the hat and sock behind them. The glasses don't make sense at this angle and I was getting bored with the drawing

I drew my favourite bag because I liked the way it hung on the door and bags get lost too but I'm not sure where it was going. Maybe a bag spilling out the lost items? The brief does say that a character can be added to suggest a narrative. Maybe the person who lost the items could wonder where they were? How do people look when they've lost something? I pulled faces in the mirror (but the face isn't me just a made up person!)  

Could the person have the lost items swirling around her head? 

So reviewing what I've done so far I think the pink swirly idea with charcoal drawings is the strongest idea and I'm heartened by The Times this week which has a whole 2 page spread on the resurgence of drawing, could I be ahead of my time?

I could just add the face but it doesn't work. However charcoal is very forgiving and can be rubbed out.....

I searched for fonts and was very taken by scott yoshinaga grunge 1995 and Cage.gif so I used a fusion of the two

and added a pair of glasses and some scissors. Does this work? I'm not sure. Part of me feels that my first attempt was actually the strongest image and that I haven't developed from there.