Reference Pigs

For my FMP I'm going to be illustrating a children's picture book about a blue pig :D
I've finally written the first draft of the story but won't be showing it on here until it's closer to being finished...


The main character of the story is a piglet so I've been looking at lots and lots and LOTS of examples of pigs. Photographs, videos and illustrations... Here are some of my findings including some more images from the MMU special collections library!

From looking at these images and from looking at the way real pigs behave I was able to start working on a design for my main character...


In the past my most successful character illustrations are the ones that focus on simple basic shapes. I wanted to keep up with this style for this book... Here are a few pig character sketches...

Rosie's Walk

Have spent most of today reading through a book I got from the library called Words About Pictures: The narrative art of children's picture books by Perry Nodelman.


Found an interesting chapter about colour theory and how it's used to convey moods in the reader. In this chapter Nodelman mentions a children's book called Rosie's Walk illustrated by Pat Hutchins, how she hasn't included the colour blue at all throughout the entire book. This has been done on purpose to remove any glum or sad emotions that the colour blue might convey.


I also really love the way the book has been illustrated in general. I found an animated version of the story on youtube.... enjoy

Video

Uganda Charity Children's book

Last week we were given the chance to chose between 3 different briefs. The brief I have chosen is the Uganda children's charity book. I had already been told about this brief during the holidays so had already gathered a bit of information and started to work on some character designs...

http://www.helpingugandaschools.org/index.html 

Below are some of the images I have used as inspiration for my initial character designs...

I really love the colours and characters in the Lion King. This has been a massive influence on the colours for my characters.

Have also been inspired by African art. They use simple colours and also include lots of pattern in their art.

This is the Ugandan flag and I was very drawn to the bold colours. I wanted to include these colours in my character designs and backgrounds.

 The above images was the main inspiration for my final monkey character. I liked how his hands and feet were darker, almost like gloves. I also liked the dark area that surrounds his facial features. It reminded me of African masks and I wanted to include this mask in my character designs.

The two images above are two different versions of my monkey character "Asobora". I personally prefer the block colour image over the textured one. I think that the colours stand out more and fit in better with the African theme I'm trying to get across.

I intend to experiment with other textures and may also try using the softer textures in the background scenery to make the bolder characters stand out more...

This is my first version of the crocodile character "Buzobosi". I'm not very keen on this design and have since changed it around a little. I'm fairly happy with the colours but may tone the green down a little on future images.

Today we had a tutorial to discuss out progress so far with this project. Some points mentioned were that my monkey character looks very human-like and could possibly be exaggerated more. People in the tutorial seemed to prefer the textured version of the monkey character so I definitely need to find a way of using textures but keeping my bold colours.

The comments made about my crocodile character were that his pose is too extreme for a crocodile and should be reworked and also that the character in the story "crawls" and my design has longer legs so wouldn't be a crawling creature...

I have spent  today reworking my existing characters and also designing the elephant and fish characters.... I'm now happy with all the designs and will be posting some of the sketches in my next post.

More Cookbooks!

I think I am becoming slightly obsessed with cookbooks at the moment...

This is a book I was given for my 21st birthday back in April. I was really drawn to the way the illustrations had been produced. I'm not a fan of producing collages myself but I really love looking at them and can appreciate the hard work that's gone into them.

This book is called "She's leaving home" and was written and illustrated by Monica Trapaga. This is an adult cookbook but was where I got my idea for my own personal project. It made me want to produce my own book that was both interesting/fun to look through and informative.

Below are a few photographs of my favourite pages in the book.

Children's Cookbook Research 4

This is the final and largest of the books I am going to be researching for now. This is the "Children's cookbook" by Katherine Ibbs 2004

Pretty basic cover but I like the inclusion of the smaller images to give the reader a taster of what the book will contain.

Just like in the previous 2 books I've looked at this book also contains a contents page. Will definitely be including one in my own book.

Another example of a "things to remember" page. This book also has a little diagram to show the layouts of the recipe pages and where to find all the information.

An example of a recipe double page in the book. Really love how the ingredients have photos, this would be helpful to kids who respond better to images than words.

Another double page. The end result is the main focus of the page. I think this is an effective idea because you will always be able to see what it is you are working towards clearly.

The beginning of each sections has one of these title pages with a little introduction to what you could be making with the recipes in the section.

Just like in the first book I looked at this book contains a "what you will need" page. However this time the objects are photographs rather than illustrations.

4 pages for a glossary. This book is for many different kinds of recipes so I wouldn't need a glossary as extensive as this.

Last 3 pages are for the books Index.

Children's Cookbook Research 3

This time I will be looking at an older children's cookbook layout... "Crazy Cooking" by Juliet Bawden published in 1995...

Quite like the font that's been used for the title but other than that this cover doesn't really inspire me at all...

Contents page included like in the other book I have researched. Quirky names used for each of the sections which is a nice touch. The amount of dots alongside the recipes represents the level of difficulty, this is a really good idea that I may use in my own book but perhaps with the colours red, yellow and green.

This is similar to the "things to remember" page in the first book I looked at. Obviously this is a very important part of a cook book and should be something I include in my own.

Once again a page similar to the first book's "helpful hints" pages. This book only has 3 pages of hints whereas the first one had hints at the end of each section of recipes. If my book is only focused on cakes then I should only need one double page of helpful hints.

A typical recipe double page. Black and white simple illustrations. Recipe broken up into 3 sections to make it easier to understand for the reader.

Children's Cookbook Research 2

Was being sneaky in Waterstones today and managed to get some photos of existing children's cookbooks covers. Didn't want to push my luck and start taking photos of the insides but did manage to get a varied selection styles out there already....

Pretty simple. No illustration throughout, only photographs. Larger size means you could have bigger font and more room for illustrations.

Cookbook from a kid's TV show. Again all photography but helpful step by step images to make it easier to understand. I really like the way the "I can cook" title has been produced. This is along the same lines as my idea of using ingredient spillage as backgrounds.

All illustrated cookbook/story book. Really lovely soft colours and friendly illustrations. Feel that this one is a little more focused on the stories rather than helping kids to understand how to cook. Love the font used for the title.

Very simple and easy to understand with step by step photos. No illustrations and simplistic use of writing throughout. Wasn't that impressed by this one, it's practical but not fun to look through.

Love this one! Photography used mainly but done in more of a collage style. This is how I want the photos to be in my own book. Love all the tiny words wiggling around the cakes on the cover... Might actually go back and buy this one!

Something I have learnt from this little outing is that books published by Usborne definitely seem to be on the same wave length as me. The book I discussed in a previous blog post was also an Usborne book. I will need to look at more examples of their books to help with producing my own successful piece of work.

Children's Cookbook Research

To help me create my own children's cookbook I will be looking at existing books for inspiration. This will help me to come up with my own page layouts, recipes and also help me figure out any other important information to include in the book...

First up is a book from my childhood that I found in a dusty box at my Nana's house :)

The Usborne First Cookbook, illustrated by Stephen Cartwright...

Front cover. Only basic information is included and the illustration shows that the book contains a variety of recipes and also that it is fun to look through with the little quirky characters.

I would want my own book to contain similar qualities.

Contents page. Simple easy to read font would be more suitable for younger readers. Illustration gives a clue to what the reader could cook without having to read the words.

Something I hadn't thought of initially. A "things to remember" page would definitely be needed in any kind of cookbook.

An example of a recipe double page spread. Step by step instructions in both word form and illustration form. Very useful for very young children who still have difficulty reading.

Close up of a recipe page. Ingredients list is presented like a shopping list which is quite a cute little idea. Important not is displayed in a speech bubble coming from one of the characters. This is effective because its like the characters are directly communicating with the reader.

"Handy hints" pages are after each different recipe section. Useful considering this is a book intended for first time young cooks. May include something similar in my own book but not sure if this is massively important.

Easy to under stand word index... "Cooking Words" is used instead of Index which is a nice touch as some children might not understand what an Index is... "Cooking Word Meanings" might make it even more simple to understand in my own book.

Again a very easy to understand page with a simple name "cooking things". This page will definitely be needed in my own book but less utensils will be included as my book will be focused only on cakes and sweet things.