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.

Birthday Gift Illustration

Recently produced the above image for my friend Mil's 21st birthday. She and I are both fans of the children's tv programme Adventure Time created by Pendleton Ward. Below are some images from the show.

I do draw inspiration from this show. I really love the crazy character designs.

Stanley Chow

Came across this illustrator whilst browsing through Tumblr.com

I really love his use use of simple shapes/lines and bold blocky colours. When you really look at the images you see how simple they really are and yet they work brilliantly. I particularly like the image below because the dinosaur's skin texture has been created just by adding some simple shapes and different tones of colour.

The backgrounds in these images are also very simple and yet are still able to create a feeling of depth within in the image.

I think I need to experiment more with using sharper lines and including shapes to add texture and shading to an image.

http://www.stanleychowillustration.com/

Inspiration

Whilst looking around on DeviantArt.com I cam across this illustrator. There sadly isn't much information on her so I don't think she has any published work... yet...

http://oly-rrr.deviantart.com/gallery/687043

I adore the style she has used for this project. I love how the characters stand out from the soft pencil backgrounds. I also like how the characters go beyond the background to make them stand out further. I never thought that coloured pencil images could work this effectively.

Photograph illustration merge

In an earlier post today I mentioned how I wanted to merge illustrations with photographs... I've had a little play around with this idea and come up with the image below....

I really like how this came out. Each of the recipes will have their own double page and an image similar to this will take up most of the 2nd page.

I think the photos need to be bigger so that the reader can see the end result clearer. Could possibly have two smaller bumble bees holding up the photo.

I also think that the photo and the illustration still feel too separate. I will try out a similar image but with the character holding the image within an illustrated frame.

Background Idea

Have been trying recently to come up with ways of including backgrounds in my character images. I've always struggled with this.

The image above is one of my background attempts... I think it works well but I don't think it would be suitable for the monster cook book.

Was searching through DeviantArt.com the other day and found some images that gave me a possible idea for backgrounds...

http://squeedgemonster.deviantart.com/

I really loved how the backgrounds are so simple and yet still work effectively to make the subject stand out from the white background.

I want to try something similar but with cake crumbs or spilt ingredients. I think this would look brilliant along side the monsters and the recipes. Will look like the monsters are creating utter chaos on the pages.

Something I love about cooking and baking is making a mess so I'm really excited about this idea! I would plan out the pages layout before and then create the spillage after so it fits where I want on the page.... would photograph the spillage and then Photoshop it behind the elements and text on my pages.

In the meantime I will experiment with producing random spillages that could be used to fill in blank areas of the pages :)

My Personal Project

For my 3rd year personal project I am hoping to produce a children's cook book with a monster theme...

I am planning to make the book focused on just cake recipes to make life a bit easier for myself. I have been looking through my own cook books and ones in shops to get an idea of how the book should be set out... It will contain a contents page, a "what you will need" page, all the recipes starting with the most simple working up to the more complicated ones, a page for notes and possibly a games page at the back because it's a book intended for children.

The book will be aimed at young children (Aged 3-10) and their parents so they can cook together.

I want each recipe to have it's own monster character along with a little story to make the book more fun. So far I only have one monster idea for "Bumble Bear Brownies" these will simply be ordinary brownies with honey drizzled on top. There will be a short story or description of the Bumble Bears, the recipe, illustrations and a photograph of what the finished thing should look like.

My hope is to work the photos alongside the illustrations. For example, have one of the monsters holding up the photo of the finished cake so it seems more interactive and more fun to look at.

Best texture so far

Despite not being very active on here with my daily monster I have been keeping up with it... I have over 90 monsters now and have been thinking about making a book of them once I have 100...

Have also been working with a new stronger paint texture... Was finding the other ones less effective because of all the white spaces and areas with too much detail. This took away from the monsters so I came up with a more subtle texture with much stronger colour. I'm very happy with this texture and will be using it on all my future monsters...

Here are a few examples of the texture in action...