In reflection of my children's book, I am pleased with the final outcome - as I managed to complete three coloured double-page spreads and compile them with the rest of the book. The final outcome was what I had envisioned it as, and I like that I am able to produce what I imagine.
On the other hand, I dislike that it was produced on standard paper. This was because of time constraints and having to use what was at hand. While the finished book may lack a more professional feel, I think the paper still shows the story at a good quality.
The design journey of the characters and flat plan felt natural, and I saw growth as more ideas and elements were added to both the character design and the storyboard. As the dummy book became the foundation of the pages of my final children's book, I like the confident use of line and colour that shows through to the finished book.
However, as I chose to work with a limited palette, I don't believe the finished scenes portray the level of intensity and pacing I was hoping for. Using a flat colouring, the images become more simplistic, and while this may be a positive for a children's book, the book's aesthetic moves further away from its real-life origins.
Overall, I like how my finished book turned out, and believe that the story is portrayed as I intended it. I also like the natural progression of my original designs and ideas, and my ability to confidently display changes in the work. While I have some gripes with the chosen use of paper and a limited colour palette, I feel that these drawbacks have an increased effect as a children's book. The experience of producing my own children's book was an enjoyable, yet challenging one.
Tuesday, 9 February 2016
Monday, 8 February 2016
Children's Book Research Task
As part of this research task, I chose a children's book to read and evaluate. The book I chose was The Iron Man by Ted Hughes. The illustrator of this particular version was Andrew Davidson, and the book was first published by Faber and Faber Limited in 1968 - this edition was made in 1985 by the same company.
I chose this book because I knew it was a classic tale, but not one I had previously discovered through reading. As well as this, the illustrations of the book and cover stood out to me, as they have a uniquely detailed and monochromatic look - as though everything is made of metal.
The story starts with a mysterious iron giant falling over a cliff and working to put himself back together. While walking through the area, a young boy called Hogarth spots the Iron Man and warns the other residents. Not long after, the residents find that their machines have been half-eaten, and devise a plot to trap the Iron Man, which initially fails. The young boy gets him to fall for the trap - prompting the farmers to bury the Iron Man in the Earth. The following year, he manages to escape the trap, wanting to get revenge on the residents. Hogarth promises that the people would not deceive him again, taking him to a scrap-metal yard where he could eat as much as he wanted. Some time later, a huge space creature comes to Earth, demanding food, and all the peoples of the world become fearful. Hogarth asks the Iron Man for help, and the robot sets up a challenge between himself and the creature. The Iron Man wins and makes the creature his slave, ordering it to sing for Earth every night. The song makes the population live in peace for evermore.
The themes of this book are about man-made objects versus natural ones, as well as the controversy surrounding what is seen as sentient life. While the Iron Man hungered for all things metal, the space creature hungered for all things that were alive. At the end, the people of the story came to respect the Iron Man and the space creature as living beings, learning to value all life equally. The Iron Man's relationship with Hogarth also grows throughout. The boy feels guilty for trapping him in the Earth, and the Iron Man slowly trusts Hogarth and agrees to help him when the creature invades. Without this trust between the two, the Earth would ultimately have been wiped out by the hungry creature.
The narrative is paced very fast, with short but descriptive sentences throughout. However, the initial section with the Iron Man rebuilding himself starts slow and builds to a sequence of events that lead to the final challenge. The book is written from a third-person perspective, as if from an onlooker that never reveals himself in the story. It is written using an interesting repetitive mechanic. Sentences would sometimes follow each other with the same structure, or the whole word or phrase would be repeated later on in the text.
"Down the cliff the Iron Man came toppling, head over heels.
CRASH!
CRASH!
CRASH!
From rock to rock, snag to snag, tumbling slowly. And as he crashed and crashed and crashed
His iron legs fell off.
His iron arms broke off, and the hands broke off the arms.
His great iron ears fell off and his eyes fell out.
His great iron head fell off." (1)
"One day there came strange news. Everybody was talking about it. Round eyes, busy mouths, frightened voices - everybody was talking about it." (2)
A particular metaphor in the story could be that the Iron Man is punishing humans for not using machinery with respect (as can be seen with the scrap-metal yard). A change due to this can be seen near the end of the story, as people across the world use vehicles of all kinds to come together and defeat the space creature. This results in a new-found respect for mechanical objects.
The characters in the story are portrayed as working-class people who have loyalty for organic things, such as nature. Because of this, they have no tolerance for the Iron Man when he begins destroying their machines, but are still afraid of him - as he represents what is man-made and unknown. The Iron Man himself is shown to have a limited array of facial expressions - one in particular is him smiling when facing the space creature. His lumbering walk and ignorance of the farmers suggests he is unassuming and vulnerable, which is ironic as he is one of the largest and most dangerous beings in the story.
The setting for this narrative is real, and is set in real locations on Earth. Most of the story takes place in what appears to be a British countryside, with detail of an English coast, and a scrap-yard full of old cars and steam trains. The rest of the story involving the space creature is set in Australia, or - more appropriately - on Australia. Because of these settings, the entire narrative is exterior and takes place in the outside world.
The edition of Ted Hughes' The Iron Man that I chose to research is slightly smaller than A5, in a common portrait rectangle shape. The book consists of 66 pages - with no end papers. It was bound through the use of a glue-binding machine. On the front cover of the book, the title is in large, blocky font near the top of the cover. A notable aspect of the title is that it is silver and reflective, to represent the Iron Man himself. This works in good contrast with the vast amount of black used on the cover. The back cover includes the publisher's logo, book title and author name again in smaller text, with a short review underneath.
(2) Page 40, The Iron Man by Ted Hughes.
[Illustrations taken from the following website https://bookillustrations.quora.com/Andrew-Davidsons-Illustrations-for-The-Iron-Man - Accessed 2/12/2015]
The story starts with a mysterious iron giant falling over a cliff and working to put himself back together. While walking through the area, a young boy called Hogarth spots the Iron Man and warns the other residents. Not long after, the residents find that their machines have been half-eaten, and devise a plot to trap the Iron Man, which initially fails. The young boy gets him to fall for the trap - prompting the farmers to bury the Iron Man in the Earth. The following year, he manages to escape the trap, wanting to get revenge on the residents. Hogarth promises that the people would not deceive him again, taking him to a scrap-metal yard where he could eat as much as he wanted. Some time later, a huge space creature comes to Earth, demanding food, and all the peoples of the world become fearful. Hogarth asks the Iron Man for help, and the robot sets up a challenge between himself and the creature. The Iron Man wins and makes the creature his slave, ordering it to sing for Earth every night. The song makes the population live in peace for evermore.
The themes of this book are about man-made objects versus natural ones, as well as the controversy surrounding what is seen as sentient life. While the Iron Man hungered for all things metal, the space creature hungered for all things that were alive. At the end, the people of the story came to respect the Iron Man and the space creature as living beings, learning to value all life equally. The Iron Man's relationship with Hogarth also grows throughout. The boy feels guilty for trapping him in the Earth, and the Iron Man slowly trusts Hogarth and agrees to help him when the creature invades. Without this trust between the two, the Earth would ultimately have been wiped out by the hungry creature.
The narrative is paced very fast, with short but descriptive sentences throughout. However, the initial section with the Iron Man rebuilding himself starts slow and builds to a sequence of events that lead to the final challenge. The book is written from a third-person perspective, as if from an onlooker that never reveals himself in the story. It is written using an interesting repetitive mechanic. Sentences would sometimes follow each other with the same structure, or the whole word or phrase would be repeated later on in the text.
"Down the cliff the Iron Man came toppling, head over heels.
CRASH!
CRASH!
CRASH!
From rock to rock, snag to snag, tumbling slowly. And as he crashed and crashed and crashed
His iron legs fell off.
His iron arms broke off, and the hands broke off the arms.
His great iron ears fell off and his eyes fell out.
His great iron head fell off." (1)
The characters in the story are portrayed as working-class people who have loyalty for organic things, such as nature. Because of this, they have no tolerance for the Iron Man when he begins destroying their machines, but are still afraid of him - as he represents what is man-made and unknown. The Iron Man himself is shown to have a limited array of facial expressions - one in particular is him smiling when facing the space creature. His lumbering walk and ignorance of the farmers suggests he is unassuming and vulnerable, which is ironic as he is one of the largest and most dangerous beings in the story.
The edition of Ted Hughes' The Iron Man that I chose to research is slightly smaller than A5, in a common portrait rectangle shape. The book consists of 66 pages - with no end papers. It was bound through the use of a glue-binding machine. On the front cover of the book, the title is in large, blocky font near the top of the cover. A notable aspect of the title is that it is silver and reflective, to represent the Iron Man himself. This works in good contrast with the vast amount of black used on the cover. The back cover includes the publisher's logo, book title and author name again in smaller text, with a short review underneath.
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(1) Page 12, The Iron Man by Ted Hughes.(2) Page 40, The Iron Man by Ted Hughes.
Tuesday, 26 January 2016
Children's Book Development
In developing my story for a children's book, I eventually settled on a flat plan and character models that would be suitable. My story is about a robin becoming orphaned, and having to earn the approval of a hawk king, in order to join their nest. Its underlying theme is "don't judge appearances." The original designs for my bird characters were too detailed for a children's book, and lacked the personality needed for characters associated with the ages of my target audience.
Before redesigning my main characters, I set about creating a flat plan to consolidate the image composition for each individual page of the book. While the removal of unnecessary scenes and planning for more double-paged spreads continued, this edition of the flat plan was scanned. While the final plan is still subject to further change, this edition presents my ideas for the story, direction and pacing of the book well.
The character redesign was a simplification of the previous designs. I made sure to exaggerate certain features for each, as well as give them their own personality. For Hawkins, I gave him a crown, and extended his long beard out under his neck. For Rob, I gave him a scarf, and a unique ruffling of the back of his head. I also provided accompanying expression sheets that portray some of the expressions each character uses in the story - also from different angles. One particular affect of the expression change in Rob's character is the ruffling on his head becomes a further indicator of his emotions.
Later, I chose to add further development for the character of Rob - focusing on his new scarf. The page above shows my ideas for patterns for the scarf, with a drawing of the character wearing my chosen pattern. I felt the vertical stripes would best show the creases of the scarf, as well as keep in line with the simplicity of the character's design.
I plan to draw out my scenes in traditional medium, before digitally polishing and colouring them. Then I will collate them all into InDesign to produce a preview of the finished children's book. Once I am satisfied with the design, I will print the book out and staple it together - I intend it to be at an A5 size when folded.
Above are my final double-page spread designs, along with the cover and palette of colours I used to digitally paint them. I chose to work in a limited colour palette - using red, blue and orange (along with the base white and black). Although I expanded on this limitation by using a few lighter and darker tones of these colours, which give a subtle richness to the images. I was able to balance the use of these colours appropriately throughout each double-page spread, finally being able to bring colour into the characters and environments of the story's world.
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