Prep work

I started working on my own pre work for the project, I like to add in these steps to help me come up with ideas and how the project will start off:-

Spider diagram:-

From the spider diagram I take out (highlight) some keywords for the book, and the direction I want to go in to.

My keywords were:-

Environmental, Picture book, country/ urban, mixed media, Angel and competition.

I then started to write a brief, I have found this quite helpful in the past, it has all the information in one place, and sums up the project in simple terms.

Now we have got to this point, I like to make a mood board, it puts all the written ideas into pictures, which can help visualise them and also as a quick reference point.

I then went on to look at the Illustrators I like the most, and also the same one’s are similar to how I want to show and create my own illustrations for this book:-

Emily Hamilton

I enjoy Emily’s style and simpleness of her illustrations and how she tells the story, I like the natural texture of the crayons (although I assume these are actually digital brushes).

I would like to create the same natural textures through my book, but focus more on the painterly feel. I like that she has lots of full page spreads with different and fairly unique compositions, it makes the book feel more exciting.

I like the fact that its very colourful, this is great for engaging children and also good for some disabilities (visual impairment), it also add’s lots of interest.

Emily has some cute spot illustrations and also some great 1/2 page illustrations, which work well together but also individually, they help move the story forward.

The main ideas that I take away from Emily’s work and the inspiration she gives me are the textures, and the colourful illustrations.

Helen Kellock

With Helens work the thing that strikes me the most, especially with the book ‘The star in the forest’ is the use of colour to portray light.

I also enjoyed how she didn’t always finish some illustrations, or they weren’t complete, this gave an opens to the illustrations, as though your brain was allowed to interpret some bits for you.

I really liked the painterly textures in her spot illustrations, and how it looked like the paint was spreading at the edges.

Again as with Emily’s I really enjoyed the textures of Helens illustrations, she uses paint as well as pencils, maybe some crayons (or digital brushes|).

Also Helen had a great limited colour palette for this book, which carried all the way through all the full page spreads, half pages and spots. Helen added a bright pink in some bits which helped make these bits pop, but also made it dynamic.

The inspiration I have gained from looking at Helens work is: The limited colour palette, the painterly edges to the spot illustrations, and the sense of light and dark in the story which translates to the illustrations exceptionally.

Lucy Fleming

I have looked at Lucy’s work for a number of years now, and the big thing that always strikes me is the level of detail in her illustrations. She puts so many little elements in the pictures, that it is immersive, you can spend ages just looking at one page, looking at the tiny jars the plants inside, the texture on the mushrooms. It makes it a wondrous and magical feeling and world to be part of.

Even in the small spot illustrations there is plenty on little details that really capture the sense of the story. Again I love the textures that she uses in her mediums, I believe most of her work is digital, so these would be digital brushes.

Also I love her unique composition styles, this one in particular caught my imagination. It is a full page spread, yet half the page is of a landscape, but the way you are seeing it is from around a tree in front of you. The in that tree trunk is the little house hole for Ella the moth, so the tree trunk is in the foreground and the landscape is in the background, yet they are side by side, very clever.

Victoria Semykina

Victorias book ‘The real boat’ was the inspiration I had for adding surface pattern design to my illustrations. In this book Victoria uses collaged bits of paper she has previously painted with patterns either simple textures or more complicated patterns.

Here you can see the captains beard is a collage, also most of his face, which adds great texture and interest to the spread.

I like that Victoria uses very simple illustrations/ collages in the book, it helps the story breathe but also moves the reader on.

Again here you can see the collaged patterns of the sea, and how much movement and flow it add’s to the scene, it’s very clever and unique.

This page was just something I noticed today, and that is the confidence to use words as a main illustration, and also across a full page spread. I love the typography and different styles of writing/ painting it. The shapes add flow and movement and something different to the book.

The three things I would take away from Victorias style are: adding pattern in a unique way, being simple sometimes with your illustrations and not being afraid to do something different, just because you illustrate the pictures doesn’t mean you can’t illustrate words!

Beatrice Blue

This book ‘Wonder’ by Beatrice is not a children’s book, but its a good book that tells you about how she illustrates her books, comes up with ideas, her processes, and also her life. There are hints, tips and tricks to help other children book writers and illustrators.

The thing I liked the most about this book and also about Beatrice is her characters, they are different, unusual and wacky. She doesn’t care if they are realistic or look normal, they come from her imagination, and they can look like anything. They are from a fantasy world that comes from her head and brain.

It’s lovely to see her process and how she works, comes up with ideas, her mediums and where she started to where she is now.

This is a good example of one of her characters, you might think it was a penguin or a fish, but no its neither, its from another planet, made up from Beatrice’s imagination.

The inspiration Beatrice’s book has given me is to be more confident, different is good, unusual is good, don’t be afraid to express yourself and your imagination, even if it is a bit wacky.

Lorna Scobie

Again Lorna has some really good characters, hers are cute as well as funny, and I think children just love them. Her unique big eye style, stands out from the crowd and you know its Lorna when you see the illustrations and characters.

Again she has a unique way of illustrating spots that also join together to create a 1/2 page spread, this add’s fun for the children looking at the pictures, as well as the parents reading the books.

Again the texture of the medium is shown in the illustrations, and also the level of detail in the characters, each one of these little chicks has a different character which you can identify by their expression, and body (texture and colour), they are super cute.

From Lorna the inspiration I get is characters that children would really love, attention to detail, and unusual compositions.