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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