Early Readers Illustration.

3/1/2021

The new brief that we have been given gave us the choice of the type of illustration and text that we would want to respond to. I have decided to tackle the children's book option as that is what I would like to specialise in in the future if possible.
To start, I have read over each of the texts to see which one attracts me more. 'How the Elephant Got Its Trunk' is what I have decided to go with, as I felt that visually it could be really fun.

Research.

Book Readings.

To begin, I looked up the text and found this video of the book being read as a bedtime story. It helped me gain a sense of flow of the story hearing someone else reading it.

From there, I was lead to watching other stories being read that have a similar target audience.

I loved the art style of the book that was displayed and animated in this video, so I went onto to look at the other work of the author and illustrator of 'Arnie the Doughnut', Laurie Keller.

The style and texture used in their work compliment each other so well, creating such a fun and playful aesthetic. You become excited and enticed to read the text as the art stands out so much. I can imagine it appealing a lot to children.

Anoosha Syed.

Anoosha Syed is one of my favourite illustrators, who specialises in picture book illustrations. This video contains an in depth, step by step guide of her process for working on an illustrated children's book . It was extremely helpful to see an established illustrator's method of working, and the thought that goes behind each illustration within the book. Specifically the areas of the video about composition and colouring was very helpful. She also explained how to best approach illustrations specifically for children in order to visually cater to the audience and context of the book.

Examples of the book spreads from 'I am Perfectly Designed':

Mary Blair.

I also wanted to focus some of my research on the art and illustrations of Mary Blair - who is another one of my favourite illustrators. Her style is timeless, and captures a sense of child-like wonder.

Sha'an d'Anthes.

Sha'an d'Anthes is another established illustrator who had uploaded a video displaying her process for creating her children's books. It wasn't as in depth as Syed's however, still was helpful as it allowed me to gain more insight into the picture book process.

When looking at her work, I specifically love how she draws nature. I really feel that I could draw inspiration from her stylisation, and show that in my own work.

Africa.

Africa is the setting of the text so reference is needed.

Elephants.

Experimentation.

In my head, the first logical step was to gain an understanding of what kind of style I wanted to do the project in. I started with just pages of brainstorming, and just getting ideas down based on my research, and seeing what came of it.

I wasn't very happy with where I was at, and was a bit stuck for ideas so I went back to do a little more research and found Mid Century Illustration, mainly through the work of Cliff Roberts.

I loved this style of illustration, and thought it would lend itself perfectly to children's picture books. Because of this I decided to focus in a bit more on trying to replicate the Mid Century feel in my experimentations.

Although they weren't perfect yet, I knew that this was the direction that I wanted to take my work, so I began thumbnailing page ideas.

Single Page Spread.

Thumbnails.

I started off by thumbnailing for the scene involving the elephant tripping over the crocodile. I kept the quote directly next to my work so I had the reference right next to my work as I was going. However, I felt very stuck with this idea, so I decided to try a different scene.

I then moved onto thumbnailing for the scene involving the elephant experiencing things with their new trunk. I found that my ideas were much more successful and easier to develop with this scene, so I stuck to it.

Development.

I wanted to take on each section of the page individually and then put them all together in the end.

Image 1:

Image 2:

Image 3:

I then mocked them all up together on the single page, and began to play with the type and layout.

Final Spread.

Double Page Spread.

Thumbnails.

When I first read the text, I immediately had this idea in my head for the double page, so I really wanted to play around with it. I mostly focused on the body language of the animals in order to portray the story accurately.

Development.

After the initial thumbnailing, I developed my ideas slightly further, focusing on the body language and interaction between the elephant and the snake. I also took the opportunity to figure out the background at the same time.

I then worked on top of the developed sketch and experimented with colour.

The next step was to mess around with fonts again, to see if they suited this illustration differently to the single page.

Final Spread.

The last step was to move onto creating the final spread! During the process, I decided that I didn't like the complete linework around the characters, therefore, I just left the lines to create details. Once the illustration was finished, I was very glad that I had made that decision. Overall, I'm so proud of how this has turned out. I really worked hard and I think that it shows.

Front Cover.

Thumbnails and Reseach.

Just like the other sections of this project, I began by trying to get down all of my ideas for a front cover. I had to do quite a bit of research for this specifically as I wasn't sure what was typical or worked for a picture book cover.

Development.

I took the initial thumbnails to the group feedback session, and deduced my two best ideas that I then worked up further with colour.

I also tested out different ways of creating fonts on procreate, and another handwritten style aside from the one that I had practiced in the colour thumbnails.