Hopes, Fears and Opportunities (pt 2)

During this last year I think my work has taken a massive step forward. The critical journal helped me learn a great deal about children’s book illustration and what makes a successful children’s picture book. It helped me to see where my Uganda book was lacking and how to not make the same mistakes for the Rainbow pig book.


I know that colour is greatly important. The Uganda book was overly colourful because I was obsessed with the idea of using colours inspired by African art. This could still have been achieved in a less over the top way.
For the rainbow pig book I have incorporated much more white space and subtle coloured backgrounds to allow the characters to be the main focus.
I have also taken on the ideas of colour theory by making the main character a striking colour against it’s surroundings and other characters.


I have also tried to create a more hand rendered feel by adding drop shadows to the characters to make them seem like layered paper. My hope is that this makes the illustrations seem much less digitalised than in the Uganda story.


Another new aspect to my work is the use of strong shapes. I think the monkey and crocodile characters were too complex when you consider the book was for very young children. The elephant character was much simpler and therefore more suited for the age group. Since then I have tried to use simpler shapes that reflect the animals I’m trying to illustrate. For example, my chick characters are an upside down egg with legs and the pig characters are mainly made up from a soft bean-like shape.


My fears are still the same as they were the first time. I worry that I won’t continue with illustration after graduation or that I will become discouraged from rejection.
I also worry that without the guidance of the tutors my work won’t progress any further and I will not be able to keep up with the changing styles in the illustration world.
This is why I hope to be accepted into an agency that focus on children’s book illustration. I wouldn’t have to stress too much about self promotion and could focus on sorting my life out in terms of learning to drive and having a secure income to cope with rent/living expense.


Immediately after graduation my plan is to focus on the other aspects of life such as getting more hours at work or finding a completely new job. I know that I’m not going to be making enough from illustration right away so I need to consider where I will be getting money from until it does pick up.


Once that is all sorted I hope to start producing work again by giving myself little projects and keeping up with the daily monster. I also want to try producing my own products to hopefully sell on Etsy and at craft fairs. I need to learn how to screen print first! 
I also want to try and find a way of incorporating my love of baking into my illustration work. Hopefully this will become clearer when the stress of the degree is over and I have my free time back.
Another thing I want to do once I have my free time back is to play with my Posca pens I got last year. I’ve seen some really fantastic examples of work using paint pens and would really love to try them out properly.
My main hope is to keep producing and promoting my work and to not fall into the 9-5 job and never peruse illustration work again.


Wish me luck…