Looking back over the unit I feel as though a lot of things have come together, I struggled a lot with drawing people, and knowing how to create characters out of them. I had problems with composition and proportions.
I found doing a lot of research really helped me to gain an understanding of these areas, and focusing on just a few meant that I could work on them more intensely. Watching You Tube videos and doing a few small short courses worked well, and looking into other illustrators work and processes added to the research.
My main aim of the unit was to illustrate one of my own children’s books, and although I didn’t go with the original written story that I thought I would, writing a new story and linking this to my critical review, made the unit work as a whole project on the environment, which helped me to pull everything together. Working on research like the language of text, helped me to check my writing, and was it suitable for the age range my book was made for, also could they understand all the words? Thinking about this bought in to focus that the writing needed to be simplified, and modern, using correct and appropriate words in this day and age.
Finding out all about children’s picture books helped me to get off to a good start, working out the common amount of pages the book should have, and how many words there should be, all helped me to move forward with the project. Having a book plan from the beginning helped the process, and although it did change throughout, having that down on paper worked with the planning stages.
Working on some composition research and what makes a good page in a book, was helpful, as was reading ‘How Picture books Work’ by Molly Bang. This book was fascinating, although I knew some principles already, it was great to read and something I can use going forward and in the future, this research was invaluable. Working on research for children’s picture books, both classic and new books, was also very interesting, I found a few new authors that I really liked and there processes in illustrations was something I was keen on, and that gave me inspiration.
Character design and working on my proportions was a big section of this unit, I really tried to get the proportions right for my children’s characters, It was hard as they seemed to end up bigger and older looking than intended. I feel as though they are better, but I think there’s still practise that needs to happen to get a lot better, and more confident with drawing them. I did enjoy drawing Flora and working on her outfits, I didn’t realise how much work went into what they were wearing! Also I really wanted to get the colour tests right, making a limited colour palette, I thought was the best way forward, it would make the book less busy, as there was going to be quite a lot of texture anyway, I thought this would be a good idea. Making the first part of the book quite dark with muddy colours, then the second part really bright and light would show the contrast off to its best.
Doing more research on surface pattern design and how other authors/ illustrators use it in their art work really helped to solidify where I would put the patterns, and also what type of patterns would be best, thinking about things like, the colours, the textures, the simplicity of them. Lots of illustrators use pattern through collage, which was something I didn’t want to do, but even though my process would be different, it still helped me to see what designs would be right for my pages.
My tutor suggested adding a few more characters of extended nationality, so I added in Grace and also changed a few of the characters to better show the diversity of them. I also decided to use certain colours on their clothes to represent where they had come from, or what they would wear. I also completed a lot of extra smaller more detailed illustrations, this was easy as I like to create these in my spare time, so I had a good handful of ones I had created over the last few months, then some more specific ones that I wanted for certain pages. These help build up the art work, it gives more dynamics to the pages, and also layers the illustrations. I looked into digital brushes, most of these I used when building up the pages as the last steps in the unit. These where in the form of texture, detail and backgrounds.
I learnt a few more beneficial bits for InDesign, that I used for starting to mock up the book in the earlier stages of the layering process, although I will use this research more in the period of getting my work ready for assessment, it has really helped my confidence in learning more about InDesign, and what more things I can achieve on the software program.
My critical review process and the subject worked really well with the practical side of this unit, I think they linked extremely well, and also helped me to focus more on the writing, and the pictures. Was the moral correct, did this work with the age range, and would children of this age benefit from a book about the environment, and also would it have any impact? I really enjoyed working on the review, looking at two points of view and seeing how they could work, also the benefits for the children and their parents. It gave me a lot more confidence in writing and illustrating this book, knowing that there was a important benefit and understanding to the children, and how my book could influence children and families to make changes, and learn from the environment.
This unit has been my longest in time yet (the longest it has taken me to complete) this was due to two factors, one I wanted to spend more time really learning and getting this right, and the second was the problems with moving house. It’s been frustrating in the last few months not being able to properly have all my bits I need spread out on a large table and being able to just really concentrate on what I needed to do, but I have managed by setting up a small table to complete the art work, unpacking some of my bits. Having my computer and printer at my mums for wifi and the later stages of the process. I am hoping to be moved so I can work on getting my unit ready for assessment, finishing mocking up the book and really adding in all the other bits of work needed to make it complete.
Overall I am happy with what I have achieved so far, I feel a lot of the work came together at the end, and I can see all the pieces I have learnt that have built up this puzzle and made a really good book.
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