As a compromise between the comic and single image ideas, I decided to go with a triptych, a composition of three scenes. This is a sketch of my plan for the piece; the final composition will created in photoshop by piecing together several photos, paintings, and images from the internet.

The scenes are chronological from left to right, with the center being larger as it depicts the main part of the narrative. The smaller panels to either side are kind of the introduction and conclusion; the first sets the scene with the sick brother, and the last shows the end of the story with the younger brother on his own.

The leftmost panel will have an orange tint, like the room is light by a fire or candlelight, and the rightmost will have a slight blue tint and be set against a bright, clear, blue sky. The center will have very low color saturation, being almost grayscale, as it's taking place outside in the middle of the night. Not only are these colors appropriate to the scenes, but blue and orange are also complementary, so I think having just a bit of these colors at either side will balance the overall appearance and not distract from the actual images and forms. The general lack of much color is also appropriate since (a) the whole story is set in the middle of winter and takes place mostly at night, and (b) the music is fairly simple and mostly focused on lyrics, without a huge range of sound or many layers.