Development of one spread using different media

Developing of one spread using different media:

Papercutting

Watercolour, Charcoal & Photoshop

Although I think the paper cutting technique is unusual and has a nice quality to it I feel the ink and charcoal drawings bring a lot more energy to the drawings. Therefore I am going to go with charcoal style drawings. I would like to experiment more with compositions using this style. 

Rough Dummy Book 1

First dummy book for Night Light exploring how genetic change can affect animals.

I have drawn this dummy book as if I was to create the book through cutouts. I aim to experiment to see which media I feel works more. 

Character Development

Storyboard

Story board for owl story

I have created a story board based on an owl who is glow in the dark. The story deals with the loss of who you are due to a trait that is not deemed normal. The owl in the story unknown to the reader will be injected with the glow in the dark gene for scientific purposes. When allowed back into the wild, the owl struggles to continue living as he way before. His glow gives him away when he tries to use his predatory instinct. Through trying to adapt his lifestyle and accept his new self he creates a companionship who helps him through the hard time. I have also attached the rough story below the storyboard.

Night Light:

       1. My name is Oscar

           I used to be a great Hunter.

2. There used to be nothing that could escape my grasp.
3. 3) And now… Now I am hungry… For the first time in my life I am unable to catch my dinner.
   
   Oh, And I am Flourescent green.
4. I awoke one night as a warning to all my prey.
5. Every park I would go to would light up from my presence.
   And every creature in the park would know of my presence.
6. At first I used to try to copy other predators to learn their hunting habits…
7. I tried the stealth approach…
   This did not work…
   I tried hiding and waiting for my prey…
   This did not work…
8. And I even went as low to try to steal other predator’s food out of desperation…
   This did not work either…
9. At that time I was living off what was left behind…
   
   (Image of owl with fast food box on his head)
11. Later on that evening I saw another creature that lit up the night…
    
    It intrigued me and I went to investigate…
13. Her name was Gertrude and it turns out she was a glowworm, even though she looked nothing of a worm to me.
14. I asked how she hunted with a glow giving her away.
    
    And it turns out she hunted slow creatures like slugs.
    “Why don’t you try?”
15. Sure enough I eyed up a slug and caught it. It was nothing that could suffice my appetite without catching 20 or thirty though.
17. "Can you help me catch some larger prey" I asked?
    "Of course" said the glowworm.
18. We started collecting twigs.
    And weaving them together.
    And assembling
19. (Image of giant trap)
20. Oscar and Gertrude lower the trap over some prey
21. Success, we trap some prey
22. We share the food.
23. Our partnership here on continues
24. Not only do I gain a social companion
    
    But I  learn to live with and adapt to my glow.
    Even if it does follow unconventional ways of hunting.

Childrens Book Research

Ralph Steadman- Little.com 

The thing that I have always loved about Ralph Steadmans work is the way it is not constricted by precision.

This freeness of the media gives the work a new personality in itself. This is something I aim to work towards as I feel at present I constrict myself too much to the use of the line. And its precision.

Alexis Deacon- Slow Loris

My favourite childrens picture book illustrator is Alexis Deacon. He creates basic stories and allows the images to do most of the talking with its personality. He experiments with the use of font with both type and handwritten fonts. The image below is a good example of this experimentation taken from Slow Loris.

He uses mixed media to create beautifully composed images.

Alexis Deacon- Beegu

Alexis Deacon- Croc & Bird

Deacon also paces his imagery really well to build up his stories.
This is especially evident in Croc & Bird.

In his imagery he creates images with ink and then defines them with charcoal. This is something I would like to experiment with to move away from the fix that the line has on me.

I feel this will give me the freedom to further develop my work and practise.

Childrens Book Research

Jitterbug Jam- Alexis Deacon & Barbara Jean Hicks

The illustrations throughout this picture book really create a great sense of atmosphere.

The text that is used throughout also follows similar frameworks to the Moby Dick by flowing around particular images. It experiments with a variety of fonts. The more personal hand written for speech, A serif font for the story, and also another font for noises. This itself seperates the story into layers.

Childrens Book Research

The Dark- Lemonny Snickett & Jon Klassen

Uses printmaking techniques combines with drawing to create this picturebook. The text used is a serif font but it is clever about the placement. When The Dark is talking the text is always placed within the black space, and likewise when the boy is talking it is always within the light.
The flashlight in this particular image directs your eye from the boy through to the darkness.

This particular image gives you various perspectives of the same thing.

The text that is used is handwritten

Picture Book research

With this version of 'Moby Dick' the book really stands out in the way that it is presented.
The illustrations are beautifully drawn and the use of the text on the page is really thought out.
Some of the points I have considered below within this book are important to consider within the development of my picture book.

Within this image in particular the text wraps around the image. The image also leads you towards the text. This is important to consider within the design of my childrens book.

This image is particularly striking through the use of perspective. 

The composition of this image is really well thought out in that it is an unusual angle to depict someone within the water. The perspective points start you at the bottom of the page and draw you towards the top.

The text flowing and wrapping alongside the whale leaping out of the water follows and emphasises the movement involved within the image.

Change of direction from magazines to children's books

I have attached all previous blog posts from the blog I created specifically for the magazine into my personal blog. All that is shown before now is research and development towards a horse racing publication. I have decided to take a change of direction back to my initial interest of creating childrens books.

I found I was trying to break away from my usual practise a little to try and learn some new skills along the way. I took to it in too broad a sense, therefore I have decided to go back to the practise which I had been developing throughout 2nd year and my summer project.

Childrens book illustration is my main interest and my intentions are to create a book continuing from where I left off on my project on horse racing.

The intention on the cover was to try to tackle genetics of horse racing and breeding.

The main thing that interested me here was the idea of losing the animal when you play with the genetics. For example, in horse racing, they are bred specifically for racing, and they lose sight of their true animalism that lays inside them.

I have done some research into genetics and I aim to write and illustrate a story based on the idea.

In this National Geographic Article:

 http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/05/photogalleries/glowing-animal-pictures/

It outlines scientists uses of glow in the dark protein being injected into animals.

This is going to be the underlying theme throughout the story where a predator is unable to hunt due to his glow giving him away and therefore having to learn with this new gene.

Cover Designs experiments

In my magazine, I want the feature cover piece to be an illustrative cover based on breeding racehorses. Race horses are bred by breeding past winners of the sport to try and get the genetics of the winning ways of horses to pass down through generations. Some horses can be related to up to 9 winners. Obviously this covers intention is to be a striking image that is to draw in spectators of the sport that normally wouldn't look twice.

Development of design:

The basic idea on paper

Montage of photographs compiled together of past winners in illustrator.

Ussing silhoette, applied color palette to horse in a seperate layer in photoshop

Blending of colours using opacity levels

Background applied to the image. This is just a phototrace in illustrator bought into photohop and placed behind the image.

Illustrator file behind the drawing, changed opacity to have horses seeping through.

Playing with brightness levels to get a good balance between the two images.

Another version of the same image with the illustrator images 'stitched together' as an experiment.

Put into context with the cover layout in Indesign.