Project planning
Plan to formulate a document that maps out your trajectory for a self-directed project you plan to develop across the course of the ten-unit projects.
I have broken down the exercises and exercises after this, and come up with this list of plans, this will work alongside my main plan, and be incorporated into the master plan for the assignment.
I started with some keywords: children’s, illustrator, books, trends, publishing
List materials and resources
Books I already have :- Thinking Visually for Illustrators by Mark Wigan
Book design by Andrew Haslam
The Illustrators guide to law and business practise
Visual Communication from Theory to Practise by Jonathon Baldwin and Lucienne Roberts.
Children’s Picture Books The Art of Visual Storytelling by Martin Salisbury and Morag Styles.
Photoshop, Illustrator, IN design, Procreate digital software
Watercolour paint ( Windsor and Newton Cotman)
Watercolour Pencils (Faber Castel)
Granulating watercolours (Schminke)
Honey watercolours (Roman Szhmal)
Daler Rowney FW acrylic ink
Carand’ache neocolonial two water-soluble wax pastel
Windsor and Newton designer gouache
Derwent Inktense watercolour pencils
Specialist help
Exhibitions, performances or talks
Online course: Domestika, Illustration for picture books, combine digital and Analog techniques.
Domestika, picture book creation (use illustration as a narrative base for your book and create a model ready to present to an editor).
Domestika, Illustration techniques for children’s books (Learn the process of telling a story through a sequence of illustrations).
The V&A museum has a collection available on Illustration, it is intended to inspire artists and showcase design processes.
Planing my time
I am gradually setting out my plan and also completing the exercises for this unit, I am working backwards from when I want to complete this unit by, so I can plan out my time effectively.
I will email my tutor in the next few weeks with a guideline of when to expect my assignments by.
Once I have my initial plan for this unit in place it will be easier to plan my time, although the plan will change an adapt with the content the time should still stay on the same track.
Online searches
The V&A museum has a features section the their website:-
Watch illustrating wonderland with Kristjana S Williams.
Interact Alice through the pages.
Watch Chris Riddell drawing Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.
Search and research word counts for book illustrations, cameo, spot, half page etc.
Current trends
Children’s books are going through a trend of interactive storytelling, which helps children to interact and engage in a different way, this includes interactive illustrations and choosing your own adventures ( a story that has different endings).
Diversity is another trend at the moment, social issues, the environment, big feelings and mental health.
Fantasy and magic continues to grow, with magic realism on the rise (where magic and real life become one)
Mythology is expected to be popular for the next few years.
Science fiction, what the world might be like in the future, creating fictional worlds.
Websites
Library/ book shop
Waterstones : Beatrice Blue wonder, Victoria Semykina The real boat,
The OCA library
Creative practitioners
Emma block – join her Patreon for behind the scenes content.
Anoosha Syed – watch her You Tube videos on how she puts together her illustrations for her author/ illustrator books.
Physical searches
I thought I could get in touch with Emma Block and ask her a few questions about her work and job, I would list a few questions first so I could see which one’s would be most beneficial to my plan.
Work or enter the Folktale challenge again in November 13th – 19th, work more on adding surface pattern design into my illustrations, think more about the word prompt and come up with creative illustrations that would visually represent it.
Look for an online course to improve my InDesign skills
Reference
Illustration collection (2023) http://www.vam.ac.uk.
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