Character Change

Decided today that I don't like my fish characters at all (above)... They are very obvious and boring to look at. Also felt like they stood out too much when placed with the other characters... I want them to look like they all belong together.

Below are my new designs for Wassa and Kato the  fish twin sisters. I much prefer this version because you can see both of their eyes and also the fins and gills are more interesting. I also wanted the face mask on on fish so that they fit in with the other animal characters.

Characters so far in colour: Uganda Project

Have spent all evening adding colour to all of my characters... Really happy with them mostly but there are some areas I intend to change on final images. I also think that the fish could possibly be a little more exaggerated...

Uganda Book Sketches

Below are all the sketches I have been working on today. I have come up with a final design for each of the characters and have also included some development sketches so you can see how I  got to the final designs...

These first images are of the main character, a monkey called Asobora...

Experimenting with different poses and facial expressions

 The above image is how I would like Asobora to look in one of the pages I have to fully illustrate. He has to be listening for Christmas bells.

Below are some of my sketches of the elephant character called Magesi. 

The above image is the last sketch I did of Magesi which I am very happy with. In the book he is described as being grey with large grey ears... I'm going to add splashes of colour to his tusks, feet, toe nails and face so he will fit in alongside the other colourful characters.

Below are some sketches of the two female fish characters called Kato and Wassa. They are twin sisters but have different coloured eyes. I intend to have them exactly the same throughout the book but always reflecting each other and the difference in eye colour.

 The above image is how Wassa and Kato will look in the story. They are described as having shiny blue gills so I have added a flower shape around their heads that I will colour different shades of blue.

  

Below are some sketches of my crocodile character called Buzobosi. After the group discussion this morning I worked on trying to make his design more strong looking. I also needed him to look like he would crawl rather than walk... 

The above image is the last sketch I did of Buzobosi. I'm very happy with it and think it works much better than my first image. He will be the same colours as my first drawing but will have added areas of pattern on his feet.

The next stage will be to have full colour images of all the characters so I can figure out easily which areas will be which colours. I will then work on layouts for the pages I have to produce by next week... Wish me luck!

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.