Produce a body of work that explores a starting point of your own through different stages and development, materials and processes.
Think unconventionally, the starting point could be open like working with text or drawing.
Think of something no one has thought of before or done before!
Have an idea, test it, develop it in an unusual way and then take it somewhere even further.
A minimum of three finished pieces.
An element of unconventionality, or creative risk.
Document what you do as you go along.
Should take 90 hours of time, 75 hours for the making part, or 10 working days, plus two days for recording the process and reflection.
Write a short reflective statement at the end of the assignment and answer the questions in the brief.
After I got my feedback from my tutor for Assignment 4, it was suggested that I continue to explore further my idea of a children’s book called ‘bubble houses’, I had already thought that this might be the best process to follow, and helped me come to this conclusion, it answers some of the points above:-
- It’s an idea for a book no one has thought of before.
- It has an unusual storyline, and textures in the artwork.
- I can draw and paint another 3 illustrations for the book to develop the idea further.
Thoughts
I did a mind map anyway on all the things I had learnt, done and worked on in this unit, then highlighted the ones I felt I had the most connection with and also the ones that I could explore further.
I highlighted in green Character design, fantasy, characters, texture, Ferns, Woodland, Earth colours, and compositions.
I felt the characters and character design still need some work, and its something I really want to get better at and develop further.
I’m still really drawn to woodland, earth colours as these are outside my comfort zones.
I would like to explore further the fantasy concept that I enjoyed so much on the collage exercises, and see where that goes.
I wrote down a creative process to work on this assignment with:-
Thoughts – Mind map, words, questions
Research – other artists, processes, colour and textures
Generate ideas – mind map, Mood board, words, questions, colour and thumbnails
Design – more thumbnails, define, narrow down
Final artwork – Annotations, mock ups if needed
Reflection – write up, answer questions
Research
Character design
A few pointers I found on Google for creating characters for kids books:-
- Try to include only what is necessary for the story to make sense.
2. The reader needs to think of your characters as real people.
3. Take interesting bits and pieces from people you know, mix them up and create characters who are unique.
4. Characters act and speak
5. Kids pick out different books to what a parent may think.
6. Kids are drawn to Characters that are some combination of smart, brave and strong.
7. Using all three of the above could be intimidating for a child.
Weak Characterisation
1.Characters who are overly perfect and never make mistakes.
2.Characters who are inconsistent, oftentimes this means that their actions and inner monologue contradict each other.
3.Characters who do not have distinct personality or any defining traits that make them interesting.
4.Similar to the above, characters that think, act and feel the exact same way as all the other characters in the story.
5.Characters who are not liable or relatable in some way or form.
6.Characters who do not change or develop throughout the story.
Great characterisation
1. A great character will feel real.
2. A great character is someone who is memorable and stands out from the rest.
3. A great character is shown to the reader not told.
How to create a basic character profile:-
Name (easy to understand and distinguish from another)
Appearance (What do they look like, what clothes do they wear, how old are they, specific physical traits, birthmark, glasses, missing tooth etc)
Relationships (who does the character interact with on a day to day basis, which other characters will be important in the story)
Personality and character traits (How would you describe your character, what are their best qualities, what are their worst, what are some of their flaws that could get them into trouble)
Text in stories
I watched a few You Tube videos from Jules Marriner (a children’s book illustrator) to find out how she goes about using text with the images, and in what form that would be. Here are some pointers from her videos:-
- Reader age 3-6 year olds 500-1000 words considered a picture book.
- They use black text on a white background for ease of reading.
- Type face and font should be Serif or Sans Serif.
- 14-18 points in size for a picture book or 12 point for a older kids chapter book.
- Look at kids books around the age of your readers and notice what fonts they use and how many words they have in their books.
I then went and had a look at all my children’s books in my collection and looked for similarities to the different ages of books and also to the similarities to what I’m considering for my book.
Oliver Jeffers – How to catch a star, 32 pages long, 277 words, using what looks like a hand drawn or hand developed Serif font
Beatrix Potter – The tale of Mrs Tiggy Winkle, 52 pages long, 1395 words, using a Sans Serif type writer style font.
Roger Hargreaves – Little Miss Somersault, 31 pages long, 607 words, using a Serif Arial style font.
Beatrice Alemagna – The marvellous fluffy itty bitty, 42 pages long, 812 words, using Serif Arial style font.
I looked back through the books listed above to find out if indeed they did have black writing on white paper, a clear font and how the illustrations were set out, either spots, cameos etc.
So with Miss Somersault it did have white pages with black writing and a clear font, the illustrations were kept very clear and just one page was set to an illustration.
Again Mrs Tiggy Winkle was also set on white paper, and again with black writing and a clear font, the illustrations were set to one page, some were cameos and spots and some were the full 1/2 page.
With How to catch a star there was some slight differences and I think this was because the books are more contemporary. The book did have some white pages with black writing, but some pages were coloured and therefore had either white or black writing depending on the light or darkness of the background colour. The font was clear but in a more hand written style, the illustrations were mainly full page spreads and some across both pages, with a few spots included.
The Marvellous fluffy squishy itty bitty was similar to the book above in that it is more contemporary, this book I really love the layout the illustrations and the art work, so I wanted to pay close attention to how this was constructed.
Again some pages were white with a black writing, but some pages the illustrations were in the background but they kept the writing in black anyway throughout. This book has a lot of cameos and spots and unusual illustration placement which makes it different and interesting to look at.
Generate ideas
After setting up what I wanted to achieve written above, I then started on writing down the questions my tutor had given me from Assignment 4, which could be a starting point to further the story into Assignment 5.
1, Do they live alongside us like the Borrowers?
2. Is there a story that threatens their world?
3. Would it be told in text as well or just pictures, who is the narrator and what form does the text take?
4. How many fern creatures are there and how does their world work?
So thinking about my answers for these questions based on my ideas in my head I started breaking down what I needed to do:-
- A graph about the book or mind map
- Research text in stories and character design
- Generate ideas for the fern character/s and what does the ‘Bubble house’ look like
- Design thumbnails, photography composition, narrow down to three images.
- Write a bit more of the story to go with the illustrations and expand on from Assignment 4
- Final images and mock ups of what it would look like in a boook
- Reflection and write up
So starting at the beginning I started to do a mind map on the ‘ Bubble house’ story so far.
I then had a few days to think about the answers to my tutors questions:-
- They live alongside us like in Harry Potter, they are a world that only certain people can see and be involved with. People (Humans) can only see them if they are helping nature and the planet and don’t want to take down their woodland habitat.
- Humans that want to cut down the woodland and build concrete lands.
- I think due to the complex and in-depth base of the story it would have to have some text to explain some of the world. I think it would be a nice idea to use one of the characters as the narrator.
- There are lots of fern creatures in this woodland they are a family (similar to the Smurfs) and have different characters that are all different personalities and have different strengths. There are more fern creature communities around our world in woodlands across the land.
I then went onto my mood boards for the 3 illustrations I was thinking of, based on the questions my tutor had provided.
So to develop the fern creature and work more on character design, and think about a few other characters that might appear in the story.
The thinking about the ‘bubble houses’ and how they might look? They will look very similar to the image I created for assignment 4 on the outside in that they are circular, come in different colours and float around.
But the inside looks very different, and here’s a moodboard of the ideas I have in my mind.
So it looks a bit rustic, like a mushroom in texture (gills) has round windows, has plants inside, very organic, textural and natural.
Then I thought about how they would view their habitat, or people (humans) inside their habitat. Looking up through flowers and grass and plants, looking through burrows and holes in the ground, and people walking in the woods.
I then went back to my ‘bubble house’ mind map and highlighted some words that connected with me after the ideas and thoughts I had developed further:-
Timber, Forest, Frond, Autumnal, globular, can’t be seen and gills.
Thumbnails
I then started to think about some thumbnails and some new illustrations I could develop for the story. I created a few thumbnails on my iPad, I started with some other characters that might appear in the story and how they could be developed by their character design drawings, then I did three thumbnail ideas I had of another illustration and point in the story where the composition was from the fern creatures point of view (looking up).
I then went on to think about the ‘bubble house’ and the inside of that, and how that would look, I used one of my original thumbnails in Assignment 4 and expanded this further (top right), I also though about what the inside walls, stairs and textures there would be.
Then I went on to develop the original fern creature more (the last three thumbnails) I made him more robust and more rounded, then I thought about how they could camouflage themselves, so I did a thumbnail for that. I then thought about a female character and how she might look.
These all gave me ideas of where to go, and in my mind the illustrations where coming together, I just needed to work a bit more on the character design of the main fern creature , and maybe add a few more to develop this area.
Colour
I thought about colour and texture again, but I think I will stick with the original colour palette, this worked well for the first four illustrations, and I think would keep the story images consistent.
Character design
Main character information to create a rounded creature:-
Name:- Boston
Appearance:- A fern plant bush, green soft feathery leaves, which are its hands, feet, head and body, he has brown eyes. He doesn’t wear clothes, he is 31 years old, he has one rust leaf on his head.
Relationships:- He interacts with the female on the daily basis, he also interacts with two other male characters in the story.
Personality:- He is cheeky, funny and kind and has bravado. His worst qualities are that he is wasteful.
I started work again on some character design thumbnails and came up with the main character, a female version and two other characters.
This character is based slightly on my brother, he has a few character traits which are the same.
Female character
Name:- Maidenhair
Appearance :- A pale green plant fern bush, with soft feathery leaves, shorter leaves on the top of her head. Yellow eyes, no clothes, 26 years old, very long fronds on her eye lids.
Relationships:- She is Bostons sister
Personality:- She is generous, spirited and thinks she’s always right.
This character is based on myself, I thought it would help if it was me as the main character was based on my brother, I could use interactions my brother and I have for consistency.
I think I need to colour these as I think this will add more to the characters and make them come to life.
I made Bostons face more characterful and friendly, the ferns can fold there heads over to disguise themselves and hide from danger or humans (thumbnail 2)
I did some different expressions to make hime come to life more.
I added the character Maidenhair and some pre-sketches for the other potential characters Royal and Staghorn.
Compositions
I then went on to some larger thumbnails of the ideas I had of the three illustrations I wanted to try out. This was for the inside of the ‘bubble house’ I added some more windows and a door, and showed how the inside could look.
I then added more detail to the idea of the fern creatures point of view looking up through grass, and what if a human was walking in the woods!
I added a composition of the fern creature, this is the idea I had in my mind to connect the reader with the character for the first time, I wanted the character to be nice, and maybe a bit cheeky.
The second composition is again from the fern creature point of view, walking through the forest floor in the grass among the leaves.
I really liked the idea of the main character peeking out from behind something, so I added a tree trunk that he could be peeking from and made him wave, to show he was friendly.
I added another view of the inside of the ‘bubble house’ to see if this felt and worked better.
Research
I went back to my books and looked at another book I had forgotten about, and wanted to see for illustration placement. Duck, Duck, Dad by Lorna Scobie.
Duck, Duck, Dad had the same concept of black writing on white paper, but did have a few pages which were coloured different, but they kept to the black writing, the font was clear but again styled in a hand writing way. I liked some of the illustration placements and compositions like the split half page horizontally and also laying on some extra text for impact.
Final art work
I picked out three of these thumbnails to start to paint, I kept the original limited colour palette so the illustrations went with the ones from Assignment 4 to keep it consistent.
I started with the human walking through the grass from the ferns point of view.
I kept the colours quite bright but autumnal and used the red and blue to draw the eye into the illustration. This time around I decided to make the illustrations draw and paint them on A4 watercolour paper and then sort out whether they would be a half page, spot or cameo or other design after I had finished the illustrations.
I then moved onto the second illustration the inside of the ‘Bubble house’.
I used the self granulation paint Potters Pink for the ceiling to give a mushroom gill feeling to the inside, then kept the other colours very natural, using the Paynes grey for the door and windows.
I added some pencil detail to add texture and definition.
Next was the third and final illustration which will be of Boston the main character, I wanted him to be friendly and look kind at the beginning of the story, so I chose a composition that would see him peeking out from behind a tree trunk. I thought this would make a good full page spread and have him quite large on one corner of the book.
I changed the colour and paint I had used in the small thumbnails as I thought that green was too dark for the character, I changed to the green I had used previously, it was brighter and suited ‘Boston’ better.
Once I had completed all the illustrations I had another look at the story to see if I could pull together some of the first few pages that would relate to the images from Assignment 4 and also these 3 to start the book off.
Bubble houses
On sunny days do you see little sparkles in the air floating around? I usually see these in parks and woodlands.
If you love nature, animals and tress, look closely and these little sparkles are actually bubbles! Look even closer and these are little ‘bubble houses’.
Who lives in these houses?
I do! My name is Boston and I am a fern, I live in woodlands, under shady trees with mushrooms and my friends.
Humans come to the forest and woodland to take walks, get fresh air and exercise their dogs.
We live in our bubble houses, they are really cosy, natural and keep us hidden from humans.
Mock up’s
I am going to try and mock up the first few pages of the book with text, so I can see how it would work in reality, and if there is anything I would want to change in the future.
Page 1.
Page 2 & 3
Page 3 & 4.
Page 5 & 6.
It’s a very basic mock up and I would add a lot more of the illustration to page 1, have the ratio of picture to text as 75% visual and 25% text, so the opposite of what it is now.
I had another go and split the illustration in two so it went across two pages and made it bigger, this works better but would still need to be changed and made a bit bigger in the future.
I like page 2 & 3, I think I would blend out the edge of the art work to make it more natural.
Again I like page 4 & 5, I think I would make the spot picture bigger, and also the corner picture of Boston.
I like page 6, I need to think of a way to add some text into page 7 and the inside of the bubble house.
The text is a good easy to read font, it does look rather large, so I think I would take it down a few points, I experimented with colours, but I think I would stick with a black, or slightly dark grey so its less stark against the white.
Reflection
I am happy where the process is going, and although not finished to any degree of completion, its definitely a good start to continue the development of the book and the art work.
I kept the backgrounds white and used a clear font, I would like some of the writing to be over some of the illustration backgrounds further down the line to add difference, but tried to keep the concept the same as the researched books.
I would try to make the book in the future a bit more interesting and less plain, but as a starting point in pulling all the elements together its definitely a good start.
The story would go on to be a little action story, but for the first few illustrations I wanted the concept to be introduced in text and pictures.
It’s definitely got me to a better point in taking action to achieve whole backgrounds for my illustration work, its taught me a lot about characters and design, and also about my creative process and how this has strengthened more over this unit.
Questions from the brief:-
How did my creative approaches to image-making, design or photography develop over the course?
I used collage and photography and the design of those over the course the most.
I wanted to be able to create whole page scenes for book illustration at the beginning of this unit. Using collage to come up with unusual scenes, with characters and objects helped me to identify a fantasy style to my work. From this I went on to practise photography, panoramic and unusual compositions.
These gave me ideas for illustrations for books and helped me to use an idea I had years ago about bubble house to really develop and push this concept forward.
Taking these few steps and exercises helped me to create a body of work that could develop into something in the future.
How did my use of observational drawing as a form of visual research and idea development change?
My rough sketching drawing from words has developed in a faster way, I use my own personal sketchbook more on a daily basis.
I like creating sketches on my iPad more and more for thumbnails now, I find especially with character design its easier to create different poses and movements in this way, as you can move the sketch around using the lasso tool, I find this is like a animator uses a light box process to make small movements on drawings.
This has helped my visual research in a more effective way and I have experimented more with design because of this. My thumbnails are one of the most important elements of my creative process now, as I can draw quicker and create those illustrations more without thinking too much about it now, I guess practise and the right processes make perfect.
Which creative strategies like chance, process or collage worked for me and produced the most successful outcomes?
I think the process that had the most impact and quickest results was the photography and composition. This gave me the confidence to use those photos as backgrounds for my illustrations and to build the art work around them. The collage gave me ideas and imagination and thoughts from back inside my mind to use again. The mind mapping strengthened with the use of the thesaurus and quick sketches, which moved that process into a more deeper creative space of ideas I might have not got to before.
What do I feel and think about the processes of experimentation I have undertaken with a range of materials and processes?
one of the processes I was unsure of in the beginning, for example collage, its not really my thing, but I can see the benefit of it now as a process. I don’t think I will do collage as art, but as a process if I’m stuck or need another direction for some illustrations, it’s definitely a worth while process.
I use photography with flowers, plants and animals already for my Surface pattern design as a creative process, so I am used to this way of working. Using panoramic photo-by and using the process to help with backgrounds and compositions has really helped my confidence with my book illustration work.
The origami also helped with character design, from the Japanese lady I created out of card I was able to create different poses for her, and made her have different expressions and come to life more. The dragon and the bird also helped me to think about secondary characters and how they interact with others.
How was looking at other practitioners’ artwork expanded my understanding of creativity?
The practitioners art work that had the most impact on me was Stephen Johnson, I liked how he explained that taking time was ok in your art process and can help creativity. Also Bryon Eccleshall with his 365 projects that some processes take a long time and the longer they are the better understanding and practise you get out of them. I feel that this is a good thing to have learnt, especially from creatives that have been doing this a while, we are all very instant in our society at present, and its calming to know that you can take time and its ok to do so.
I was also influenced by Eugina Loli, I really enjoyed her fantasy and unusual collaged work, it was very bright, impactful and such a talking point, and fab art. This was the one that really expanded my creativity and imagination, and got me thinking about all those ideas I have at the back of my mind, which once I was so excited about, they had returned and I could see how I could use these in the future.
I was also taken with Emma Stibbon and her large scale work and the texture she had created in the pieces, these really got me thinking and expanded my desire to add textures to my work throughout different paints, granulation fluid and how the textures can add atmosphere. It also expanded my research into different paint companies and how the paints differ and the ingredients change the texture, it has really expanded my mind.
Also Haruki Nakamura had me thinking more about characters, the design of them, and how making your own can help you to bring them to life, interact with them, even if you paint them as 2d after, it gives you a better insight to creating characters and how they would move, pose and stand, sit, etc.
What does visual dynamics mean to me?
Visual dynamics means to me the composition, the colour and texture, the way the viewer interacts with the art work and how it makes them feel. It’s about does the composition draw them into the picture or around it, does the colour evoke a reaction, happiness, darkness, does the texture add depth, how does all of that make them feel, are they immersed in the piece, does it create thought, does it take them on a journey?
After feedback from tutor 23/05/2023.
The feedback points from my tutor for my final project were:-
The human treading down illustration needs a little more work as the angle is difficult to read as you can’t see the tread down of the foot.
The interior scene of the bubble house is also not as readable as some of the other illustrations, it doesn’t read as an interiors scene.
I have re-looked at Both the illustrations and I can see what my tutor is saying, I think when the images are in your head it’s easier for me to see what they are compared to other people.
I started to re-work the human treading down illustration, I scanned in the original into my computer so I could work on the angle in Procreate, so I could easily move elements around and re-place or take out areas if needed.
This illustration is now looking as though the boy is looking down at the ground, so it could even be looking down at the fern creature in the story. I think this angle does make it look better, and now has a better connection to the story as I feel the boy is interacting with the reader.
It was quite hard to get the angle right and took a while to get the composition correct and the scale to fit the original illustration, but I think it looks better for it.
I also did the same with the interiors scene, but added more elements to this illustration, so it looked more like a home. I found this one more difficult to do, as my idea was that it wasn’t like a home or house that we would have, it’s a fantasy book so everything will not be the same as what us humans have! But I went with the idea, as this book is for children they might not have the level of imagination needed to identify the bubble house as a different type of home or dwelling than what they would have at home themselves.
I added in some furniture to the scene, but left the original illustration as the background element of the picture. I added in a coffee table, a chair and a large plant, I wanted to keep all the elements natural, neutral and as though they had organic parts to them, so drew a basket chair, a wooden table and some plants to add that outside in perspective.
I think this now reads as a room, and a home, and a child could identify this as the fern creatures bubble house in the story, obviously this is still just a rough draft for all the illustrations, and would go through lots of annotations before a finished book would be ready, but as a starting point I think this has improved them enough to be read and understood.
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