Idea's sheets and thesaurus notes!

Linda Mccartney inspiration!

I've decided i would like to make a childrens story book cover for my graphics final piece and really liked the drawings used in the Linda Mccartney t.v ad, so i screenshot them for inspiration!

Pinterest screen shots!

Here you can see that I took some screen shots of my pinterest boards.

Drawings of subject matter

Here are some small drawings i did of my subject matter; the seaside.

Photos of subject matter (whats at the sea-side?)

Conventions of the form!

Initial idea's.

Here i used a variety of media to draw and paint different artifacts that would be found at the beach or out at sea. I used pictures on the internet and drew from them. 

Artist copy's and emulations

Here i did an artist copy of an image i found on pinterest. I really liked he way the artist worked. When i did my artist copy i used acrylic for the background, watercolour for the rabbits and ink for the eyes and stitching effect. I found that it worked very well. I made an emulation in the same style of a seal because i wanted it to fit in with my chosen theme, 'whats out at sea' Therefore i also used a deep green colour for the background as its a sea weed colour and would fit the chosen idea.

This is the second image i chose to do an artist copy of. 

This is my version of the sailor.

  For the emulation i decided to make his 'wife' and also added some of her belongings to it to make it             more interesting and give it more of a variety!

Final Draft!

This is my draft for my final piece, i will be using water colour on it when it comes to the final, and will also add a blurb.

Further drafts

These are some small drafts i did of the front and back cover of my book and also the inside cover.

Experimentation with type!

I looked at a variety of type faces to help inspire me for my final piece. I chose the ones above because they looked hand drawn and appropriate for a children's book. 

Final piece. Graphics exam.

Here are some of the stages i went through towards making my final piece.

This is the type face i made for my book. I drew it in fineliner and then copied the layer on photoshop and coloured the 2nd layer in so that the font looked more interesting. I thought that using the rope and driftwood for the font title would fit in with the sea theme. 

For my final piece i had planned to make a childrens book based on the seaside. I created a rope title to fit in with the theme. Also i drew out all the elements such as the sailor and the waves in pencil, used water colour on them to give them colour, then finally i used a fine liner for the outlines.

childrens story book case study

Personal response.

The first thing that drew me to this book was the big bold ‘MOOMIN’ title at the bottom of the page, The colours work well because they are very bright and eye-catching. I also liked the hand drawn feel to it because i think it makes the book seem more child-friendly. For example most books make for adults feature real photographs, but children's books usually have lots of hand drawn elements which make it seem a lot more friendly.

I researched the book and the audience for the book are children aged 2-5, which is very understandable because of the vibrant use of colours and images. The illustrator ‘Tove Jansson’ was the creator of MOOMIN, as she used to make MOOMIN comics.

Form

The colour scheme used on the front cover of this book is very vibrant, the colours of the ‘MOOMIN’ text resemble the colours of a rainbow which makes the book a lot more child friendly and helps to brighten the mood, as rainbows are associated with happiness. The use of bold characters, italics and average characters on the cover also contributes to the variety used, making it look more interesting to look at. The rest of the elements on this cover look very hand drawn, such as the moomin character, the moon, and the boat. All these separate pieces were most probably drawn and then edited and coloured on photoshop to insure the chances of making the cover look perfect! This makes it obvious the illustrator has used a variety of media. The lilac/purple colour dominates the page mainly because its the colour used the most and is used for the background. Throughout the book similar illustrations are used. This helps the pages to flow, probably influencing the child to want to read on if they are enjoying the book. The book has been designed and has a story too it unlike some books which are very random and don't have a set story.

This is a very common layout for a children's book, as the usual composition usually consists of an image as the background and then a title either at the top of the page or the bottom in the foreground of the image. 

Context and content.

This ‘MOOMIN’ book, one of many is a children's story book, which means its very consistent and therefore follows a story throughout. The moomin character is used through the book with other hand drawn elements, that have been coloured and edited on photoshop. I don't think this book has any other purpose other than to entertain, 

there are a lot of primary colours used which are possibly used because at the ages of 2-5 children are starting to learn about colour paletts etc..

Process

There is no noise on any of the pictures so as we can see all the images are very clear and crisp. The colour palette chosen is a very warm selection of colours. The MOOMIN character is in white which makes him stand out from the background. There are some crosshatching elements used in the drawings which help to give it detail, unlike actual photographs which would consist of plenty of detail, the illustrator has to make a substitute for this. The techniques used for drawing MOOMIN seem to be either ink or fineliner. The character its self stands out from the page and looks like a different type of drawing, almost like a sticker. Causing him to be very eyecatching and therefore dominates the page. 

Personal Response .

For my second childrens book i looked at a book called ‘Arrrrgh! SLIMOSAUR’. This book immeadiately caught my eye because of the colour palett used. I liked the hand drawn elememts on the page which gave the book a more rustic look. The drawings in the book reminded me of Quentin blake’s drawings, and as Roald Dahl was my favourite author when i was little, seeing this book brought back memories :) 

Form.

The chosen colours used in this colour palette are very bright and although blue is used, warm. I found that the variety of very saturated red’s and orange’s mixed with the blue’s and green’s gave the cover more of a variety and therefore helped to make it stand out. Also contrasting with eatchother. The display type at the top of the page, (the title) is in a slanted jagged shaped text that goes from larger to smaller from left to right. I think the style of this typeface gives the book a handmade feel and somehow makes you want to read it more than a very basic formal looking text. The first word of the title ‘Arrrrgh’ resembles a sound, which indicates that this book is more ‘down with the kids’ and isnt formal and boring. Although the majority of the page is a bright ocean blue, i think that the green dinosaur and the green title dominate the page, due to the clashing of the colours, and the fact that the dinosaur and the title are in the foreground of the page. The dinosaur is made up by a variety of media such as water colour.

Context and content.

Arrrrgh Slimosaur’ is a book written by Alan Mcdonald, a writer famous for the series of books called ‘Dirty bertie’ This book follows a running story which helps to keep it on track and draw children in. Throughout the book there are hand drawn images probably coloured in on photoshop which help the book appeal more. The purpose of this book is to entertain. 

Process.

The process of this book is fantastic quality. Although its not a hardback the pages are very clear and contain no noise. All images are very clear and highly saturated and bright!

Only containing bright colours, such as yellow red blue green and orange, Typical colours a child would recognise. A variety of media is used throughout the book. On the front cover we can see that coloured ink and water colour has been used in a scruffy way, this helps to give the texture of the dinosaurs skin. It also looks slightly like tissue paper, maybe because it would make the skin look even more textured! There is obvious use of inking, around the outside of the dinosaur which again makes it stand out against the background and also against the title, in the foreground, as the title has a white outline which doesnt contrast so much against the blue as the black does.

On the inside of the book we can see that there are also very child like drawings. These drawings help to give it a more personal and heartwarming feel to it.

The illustrations are clearly shared between a professional and a child.

Throughout this case study have learnt that the majority of childrens books usually consist of bright highly saturated colours and bold images and text, to initially catch the readers attention. The images are clearly hand drawn, which makes the book seem more suitable for its age group. And some books such as the above have more than one type of illustration. This helps to give the book more of a variety making it more intersting and exciting to read! 

Unit 2 evaluation :)

Unit 2 evaluation 

For our Unit 2 graphics course we were told to design a Digi-pack, gig poster, children's story book or zine etc ...influenced by a word we could choose from a variety we were given. Straight away i decided i wanted to create the covers and the end pages to a children's story book! I decided on this because generally when i see children's story books they tend to include bright colours, cut little hand written elements and cartoon characters which influenced me into wanting to give it ago myself! Firstly i looked at types of methods in which people used certain media’s. Such as the drawings used in the Linda McCartney food advert. I thought the images used in it looked great as i could see that there was a mixed amount of materials used in it such as water colour, and fine liner. It was also visible that there was photoshop used within the process, Which made the piece seem more exciting and different to others! I then went on to do an artist copy of a piece that i really liked, so to do this i looked on pinterest to see what i could find. i came across a watercolour painting and went on to do a further emulation of this which was very successful. Along the way i picked up techniques such as the water colour and fine liner, i adjusted my piece on photoshop, and found that i really enjoyed this unit!

The first reason i chose the watercolour sailor painting was because it was a sailor which fitted in with my nautical, ocean theme. I really liked the way the artist had created this piece, the colours they had used looked very washed out and vintage looking, which i think added to the piece. I liked how the character had over sized features because it added emphasis to him and made him look very heavy-top and cute. And i think that although all of the elements to him weren't in colour, the piece worked very well and made it look quite minimalistic and cute. I then went on to make a further emulation of this and decided to paint his ‘wife’ I took on board the idea of emphasised features, such as the head, nose, and blotchy colours to make her look the part. I also decided to create all of her components that i would imagine her having ( all nautical ) such as an ice-cream, a handbag with an anchor on it etc..I firstly drew her out in pencil lightly on paper, and then went over it with the colours that i had strongly diluted, after it had dried i once again went over it in colour with the stronger colour on top so that the paper wouldn't get ruined, And finally i then outlined it with the black. I really enjoyed making this piece because i had never really worked with watercolour before and i found that i really enjoyed using it in a messy way and i really liked the final result! 

I thought that my final piece was the piece that had the most processes used throughout. 

I used a variety of media’s for my final piece, such as watercolour, fine liner, pencil’s and also i then went on to edit all the pieces on photoshop For example adjusting the hue/ saturation to make the colours more vibrant so that they would stand out alot more. I then used photoshop to re-size all the components so that the composition of my story book looked attractive and eye catching! I really wanted all the pieces to be neat so at first i thought that drawing out all the parts to the front cover in pencil would be a good idea but once i had scanned it onto the computer i put the threshold up and realised that the pencil looked grainy and rough and almost didn't show up so i had to re-do it again so that it would stand out. This time i just went over the pencil with a fine liner. 

I really enjoyed creating my final piece. I took on board ideas from one of my artist copy's because i really liked the way the artist worked. From it i decided to use watercolour, fine liner and also was inspired by the cartoon character and created my own sailor based on theirs. I really liked my sailor character because he looked very cute and nautical. Very appropriate for a children's story book. My first thing i did in the exam was to draw out all the separate pieces on paper. I drew all the elements separately instead of together so that if i went wrong on any of them i could easily re-draw them without having to start from scratch again. So my plan was to put it all together on photoshop, this way i could also re-size all the parts so that they were all in proportion and didn't look morphed. I drew them out in pencil, using my draft as a guide so that i knew what i was going to draw. I then used a thin paintbrush and some watercolour paints to fill the pictures i had drawn in. I made sure the paint was very watered down because i wanted the colours to look subtle and cute, i also painted in a scruffy way on purpose to give it a hand made feel. Once i had finished that process i then went over my pictures with a black fine liner to give it an outline and define the images more. Once i had finished making all the pieces i then scanned it onto photoshop and started to arrange it all! Again, i used my draft as a guide as i knew where i wanted to place everything, Once i had done this i thought that the back cover looked quite plain and that the anchor at the top looked too much for the piece as it didn't fit in with the style of it so ended up removing it from the page.

 I replaced the black anchor with some more subtle clouds that i drew in ink then scanned onto photoshop, Also i added a review and a bar code to make the book seem more realistic and professional! 

Towards the end of the exam i started to draw some very detailed shells in black ink for the background of the back cover, once they were on photoshop i turned the opacity down and changed the colour to blue so that it would look more subtle, helping the blurb to stand out more! I used the shells i had drawn again for my end pages. I placed them in a pattern and then copied the layer and placed it underneath in a block colour to create a shadow, making it seem 3D.

I made 3 versions of my end papers so that i could choose from a variety of colours.

 Overall i was very happy with my final piece as it had turned out alot better than i had imagined it would of. ( although i did spell my name wrong :(