Illustrating Sound

The current assignment for my Concepts and Composition class is to make an illustration that visually represents a sound.

These are my initial concept sketches, which are on the tighter side of rendering. The advantage of clarity is that it's easy to see if the composition will work out and my "client" has a clear idea of what is going on. Also, I am learning to be selective and accurate with my lines as to expedite the sketching process. Something new that I tried was drawing the borders after I roughed out some of the basic composition. This resulted in a greater variety of borders and creative cropping of figures.

The sounds that I made attempts to visualize include scratching fingernails, sanding with sandpaper, the overtone series you hear when you blow in a straw, the Doppler effect, tinnitus, and television static. If you have never made music with a straw, I suggest you listen to the overtone flute or overtone singing.