merry merry

Some birds fly south

Double page spread, full size too I might add :)

miaw

I'm REALLY REALLY...

....struggling to get my final's up to standard with my roughs....do you think it might be worth me making nice smaller pieces and scanning them in at a larger dpi? :(

some tests with the dreaded bear.

I still think I might hate him.

It's been one of those days...

Where everything I try and draw looks damn awful, anyway, here's a rough idea for a bear that's a little tinsy bit scary, any thoughts? :/

I think I hate him, but I'll sleep on it and look again in the morning....

Watercolour birds

Just testing watercolour still, not filling as much with the lines. Think these blue ones look much better than the brown birds in my sketchbook

ROUGH with text again

I think I love this type face...

I'm working on the final piece of this today, this is the rough for it :)

Do they curl up by the fire?

Text testing....

ipad books.

Not a reason to buy an ipad buuuut, looks quite nice :)

experimentingg

had a go at using waterproof ink fineliner in 0.1 and 0.8 and then using watercolour to fill in, might try screenprint the black and do watercolour on top.. also going to try acrylic with acetate on top for the details any other ideass would be appreciatedd :)

question

chiu ive got the book together and penciled out in the correct size, with penciled text, but ive only got the first few pages inked, do we have till next week to complete them fully?
thanks

Best Illustrated Children’s Books of 2010 By THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW

http://www.nytimes.com/gift-guide/holiday-2010/best-illustrated-childrens-books-2010/list.html

from two weeks back

Introducing The Picture Book genre

Found stories – Copyright/Authorship

Fractured Stories

http://www.anholt.co.uk/bookshop/seriously-silly

Self-written stories

Concept books

http://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/concept-picture-books

Introducing simple narrative structures and manuscripts

Books for Young Readers Submissions Guidelines

http://www.walkerbooks.com/info/index.php?wb_section=about&wb_page=submissions

Peggy Tibbetts on what makes a good story

http://www.writing-world.com/children/sparkle.shtml

The Slush Pile

http://somethingsbegun.com/slush.shtml

Task 01 Find, Fracture & Write your own 24 page stories

Task 01x Make some rough thumbnail designs & character sketches for the puffin comp

Task 02 (research) Having chosen the narrative genre that you want to work in, find similar picture book examples and break down the story into a simple narrative structure

+ Reverse-engineer them into just written scripts!

RCC rough ideas.....

To begin with I felt very lost

Memories of the desert entwined with the winter

And created a block in my mind.

But slowly...

Things began to make a little more sence

And after finding my feet again

I saw the end was in sight

Just a little red book in my blue hands.

The formatting on this post has gone to pot and I can't seem to sort it, but I think it still gets the idea across.

I have tried to make this more about experimentation and design and my journey of trying to work past a block....but is this enough for an RCC?

There are 3 double page spreads missing which I'm working on, and obviously the text isn't on yet, but I just wanted to play around with much more collage and work on the backgrounds first.

The 4th image down will have collaged clocks on it which are not there yet, and the 2nd and 3rd needs much more work but these are just preliminary ideas and I'm not even sure if the story is appropriate!?

Any feedback would be great. :)

Lou

My Manuscript

This is my new improved Manuscript that follows the existing formula of the three bears but parodies elements of it and tries to recreate it in to a school scenario 

target audience i am aiming for is 4 to 8s. 

Rough Flat plan keeping it fairly linear layout for the moment 

The only concern i have with this sprit is whether to call them bears throughout the whole story or teachers as its supposed to be a cheap gag just like how Russell Ayto nick names characters in his story Captain Flinn and the pirate Dinosaurs. 

here’s an example...... 

(Mrs Pie) 

And the three protagonist names are parodies of different bear species.

I also began thinking about what media would work well for my story and looked in to watercolour for my scenes and objects the characters interact with.

week 02

Character development based on narratives or concepts - narratives or concepts based on Characters – The chicken or the egg?

Characters in Action

Characters within Scenes/Backgrounds

Developing media

Oliver Jeffers

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnPk8gmwPuQ&feature=player_embedded

Carson Ellis

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLQfgag-uqs&feature=player_embedded

Emily Gravett

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrO-6fRO8gM&feature=player_embedded

Task 03 Developing your characters (possible group project)

i) Write down detailed descriptions for a character from your manuscripts

ii) Expand the family of characters drawing friends/family/enemies/groups

iii) Invent sub plots and backgrounds for these characters

iv) Draw character scenes with backgrounds.

Task 04 Create Thumbnail page Sequences

Task 05 (research) Find out how applicable/related picture book artists get inspiration for their character development.

Wonderland Characters

Since 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland' is one of my favourite books (and also happens to be in the public domain) one idea I have for this project is to recreate certain scenes from that story, but in a way that's more suited to a full-scale picture book. The main idea I have is creating the characters in doll forms from the initial sketches, and posing them with armature wire, and then taking photographs of them within an illustrated set.

I'm not sure if that veers too much away from illustration or not, but there are other ideas I'd like to look into, most of which involve writing the story myself.

The above picture is two experiments with creating Alice and the White Rabbit in doll format. The button-eyes was heavily-inspired by Neil Gaiman's 'Coraline'.

Manuscript

• 32 page Picture book
• Narrative structure: Intro, activating agent, rise in conflict, climax, resolution

• 	Narrative structure	Description of images	Story text broken down onto each page
  Front cover
  End paper
  End paper
  Copyright
  Title page
  1
  2
  3
  4
  5
  6
  7
  8
  9
  10
  11
  12
  13
  14
  15
  16
  17
  18
  19
  20
  21
  22
  23
  24
  End paper
  End paper
  Back cover

Puffin Children's Prize

James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl

An enormous, angry rhinoceros that has escaped from London Zoo has eaten James’s parents. And it gets worse! James is packed off to live with his two really horrible aunts, Sponge and Spiker. Poor James is miserable, until something peculiar happens and James finds himself on the most wonderful and extraordinary journey he could ever
imagine …

full brief here:

http://www.penguin.co.uk/static/cs/uk/0/minisites/penguindesignaward/puffin_brief.php

Emulating Cezanne

Not sure this really works as a piece but I was just testing out different painting styles, looking at painters like Cezanne.

Cards for Book fair?

I just knocked together a couple of cards that I thought I could make for the book fair, I thought about screen printing them, but I quite like the watercolour background.

Test piece done

Put the two images together to make the double page spread, text would go on the second page in the white space.

Compositions in colour

This is one single page of my story to see how they will look with my finishing techniques. It's quite time-consuming, I've been doing this one for days. I'm trying to use pen more and use the lines to add detail.

Dissertation Presentation Notes

Dissertation Presentation (presentation will be up on Moodle at some point.)
• To be submitted end of January, week 15.
• 90% will be the 5000-6000 word essay or critical commentary
• 10% will be seminar presentation.
• Think about the link to Negotiated Project.
• Mode and Topic.
• Research and References
• Time management (production plan)

Action points:
1. Devise a coherent argument underpinned by appropriate use of scholarly research from primary and secondary sources.
2. Communicate an understanding of the theoretical and philosophical aspects in your chosen area.
3. Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the key aspects of a defined area of your subject.
4. Reflect an effectiveness of research and its impact on your development.
5. Construct a well presented and referenced dissertation with good English.

Mode 1 – Illustrated Essay
• Should be a sustainable topic closely related to your Negotiated Project.
• Presented in an academic form.
• Structured in a recognisable way;
o Contents page
o Chapters (Should include 3 – 4 chapters)
o Bibliography
o Appendix (Everything you have gathered whilst researching and referenced, for example questionnaires, interviews, surveys, telephone conversation transcripts/evidence.)

Mode 2 – Reflective Critical Commentary
• Should reflect an intellectual journey tailored to suit your practice.
• Develop and reflect your visual and intellectual practice.
• Organised and critically structured interpretation.
• Should be a linear creative journey.
• Consider research areas and content analysis.
• Make sure you state your reasoning for the routes and decisions you make.
• Evaluation of your own work – concepts/ideas/visual language.
• Reach a conclusion.
• Keep in mind layout and it’s potential as a creative and designed document.

George kept saying how important it was not to forget to put your research and references into this as a lot of students didn’t last year.
There’s no word limit but should be the same amount of time spent as the Essay.

Dos and Don’ts
Mode 1
• Must relate to Negotiated project.
• Must include Primary and Secondary research.
• Be academic in structure but should convey some personality and your area of interest.
• Investigation, Discussion, Proposition and Argument.
• Plan your essay, consider its structure and make sure it’s clear and coherent.
• Should be a clear thread of investigation.
• Must include a bibliography (Harvard referencing)
• Must be informative.
• Should be intended for yourself as well as others – make it interesting and engaging.
• Check grammar and spelling.
• Make sure you leave enough time to get it bound appropriately.
• Don’t waffle – be concise.
• Don’t plagiarise – reference all material used from other sources.

Mode 2
• Show your design process and journey.
• Should be a marriage of research and its effect on your own work and your thinking.
• Should be an evaluation/analysis of your work and research
• Include a bibliography.
• Make sure the overall design matches your area of practice.
• Be creative.
• Check grammar and spelling.
• Don’t fail to include research and its connections.
• Use your time wisely.
• Don’t rush the design; show creative design skills.
• Deadlines – think ahead if using things like Blurb to put journal together.

Advice and Help
- Help at the Academic Skills Centre on Campus North. Tutorials on academic writing for example.
- Ask for guidance.

Seminar
- Should be used to structure presentation
- Include introduction, chapters, people to interview etc.
- Highlight line of discussion/interrogation.
- Show clearly proposition and research area.
- May include written piece also.