Critic of score images

[Nikolas]

Ok guys.

I need some ideas, critique, etc...

I'm not the artist here (but I'm the composer and publisher.

So, I wrote some rather simple piano music, for younger pianists (not little children though. Too difficult for them), and I decided to add some illustrations to them. I posted here as well, but finally found a great artist to work with.

He's produced almost all the images, with my specifications more or less, but upon inputting the graphics on the score, I can see some things that I don't like.

Here are links to the four images, examples. The graphics placement is mine, so excuse any misshapens...






higher resolution links:

http://www.nikolas-sideris.com/AGS/a1.jpg
http://www.nikolas-sideris.com/AGS/a2.jpg
http://www.nikolas-sideris.com/AGS/3.jpg
http://www.nikolas-sideris.com/AGS/4.jpg

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My issue lies mainly with the cirque de rien one. While the image is stunning, it appears that the artist took for granted that we had more space than what was left in the upper part of the score, thus he made it a tiny bit bigger than he should. The result was that I had to push everything together in the score (music score), and it's not too nice really.

The other problem with this image (and with others he's done), is the whole blackness of it. While as an image it's stunning, there's simply too much black and it doesn't bleed at all with the score.

I can of course edit the canvas of the image, but I'd hate to ruin his work in order for it to fit.

So, any ideas on what I could do?
Any opinions about the other three?
Any other comments? (perhaps they are too dark, too scarey, etc?

[CaptainD]

I like the 3rd and 4th images, not quite so sure about the 1st.

As for the second, it might not quite work but that image looks pretty good if you invert the colours, and it leaves you with a lot less black (though still quite a lot).

[Nikolas]

Yes, I agree that the 1st might be a tad too disturbing, but I like it...

For the 4th the artist has agreed to let go of the whole blackness, so once he's done with the new image, I'll post the result!

Thanks mate!

[antipus]

Quite frankly, I'd crop the Cirque du Rien picture in half vertically.  You really, really need the extra line to space out the score.  Each other song only has 5 or 6 measures per line, which is much more visually appealing than squishing all the notes like that.

As long as the music is uniform, the whole set looks visually appealing.  The pictures are fine in different sizes.  Just ask the chicken.

All that said, I love each piece of artwork, especially the "Truth be told, I..."  One of my favorite artists is James C. Christensen, and the style here is just phenomenal.