My Final Major Project

In my Final Major Project I will be creating a Children's Book. I want to target my book at an age range of 5 - 8 year olds. I want my book to help children through feelings of anxiety. 
It will be 210mm x 210mm and will be 32 full colour pages long which includes a matt laminated cover. The artwork will be created using Water Colour Paint and Colouring Pencils.  
My books artwork will be put on InDesign to structure the layout and will be professionally printed to give it a perfect and professional finish. I will use a font that is clear and easy to read, yet has a playful character to it with some curving to the letters. 

My book is called Just Ride Through It and is about a young boy named Saxon who suffers from separation anxiety. He fears going to school and leaving his Mum. When he looks at the school his view of it changes and the school turns into a deep, dark forest.
On Monday, he complains of feeling sick, not wanting to go to lessons, not being able to play with other children and wanting to go home. At the end of the day Saxon goes home and tells his mother how he doesn’t like school.
On Tuesday, Saxon wakes up feeling scared again. By the time he gets to school he gets quite upset. Saxon’s mother explains to him that what he is feeling is called anxiety and that it can’t hurt him if he doesn’t allow it to. She tells him to be brave and 'Just ride through it.'
Taking on his mother’s advice, Saxon decides he will ride a race car through his anxiety, and feels much better as he’s sped very fast through the feelings.
On Wednesday, he rides a giraffe through his anxiety. He’s so high up he looks over his feelings of anxiety and feels much better.
On Thursday, he rides a roller coaster. He’s doing too many flips and having too much fun to feel anxious.
On Friday, he rides a space ship. When you’re up in space it’s hard to think about being anxious.
By the end of the week Saxon has found a way to overcome his feelings of anxiety. He’s happy to go into school, go to his lessons and play with other children.

Other Children's Books and Illustrators who have inspired me

The main book that has really inspired and influenced my own children's book is 'Back to School Tortoise' (1) by Lucy. M George and illustrated by Merel Eyckerman.

I like everything about this book from the story, to the artwork, to the layout.
I like that the book is square, this makes for a very pleasing layout which is easy to hold for adults and children and makes the images easy to follow on the pages. I am very fond of the simplicity and clean, fresh appearance of the artwork and the layout of the pages. The book is friendly and relaxing because of these factors. As the books theme is dealing with the feeling of worry, I feel that the relaxing nature of the images makes for an attentive book. As I am creating a book based on the feeling of anxiety I feel that I also want to translate this feeling of calm in my book to balance out the negative feelings the child reading the story may be feeling and needing help to overcome.
I really like the use of water colour and the effect it creates in the images.
The type used in this book is very playful and child friendly. It's easy to read and keeps you interested in the story. I am going to find a font which will work like this in my book. Nothing too serious and not a font that is too playful and therefore hard to read. 

Another book that influenced me and my own book was 'Whiffy Wilson. The Wolf Who Wouldn't go to School'. (2)

I really like the layout of some of the pages in this book. For example, this double page spread:

I like that the background is just white, so the focus is on the character illustrations and text. This gives the eyes a rest from busy backgrounds on some pages and allows the reader to take in what the character is doing.

Creating the Artwork and Character Design and Development

I started with thinking about how I wanted my main character to be in my book. I wanted the main character, Saxon, to be a cute and cuddly character, with a friendly face and an animal that children would feel comfortable with relating to. I decided to base the characters appearance on a Slow Loris, this is not an animal that a lot of people are familiar with, but I really like it's innocent appearance and I think once I've made it into a character this exterior will develop.



From looking at the appearance of a Slow Loris, I took some features that I like the most e.g. the round eyes, the cute little nose, the round head and the patches around his eyes. Taking these features I drew out a rough image of how I could envisage my character, and then did a quick drawing of how his mum would look as well.

I then coloured my characters using colouring pencils. I did my first colour experiment using colouring pencils as I thought this would give the fur a great effect as I could use small, quick movements to build up the fluffy appearance and I could layer the colours making the characters look really friendly.

 After doing these two colour experiments, I found that it took a very long time to get it to the standard that I wanted as colouring pencils are a time consuming medium. When considering how many images I would have to do in this style for 32 pages of a book, I decided I should do some more colour experiments with different mediums to see if I could find a faster outcome with the same cuddly effect.
In a tutorial, it was also suggested that I make the eye's white so that they appear more like a cartoon, so I will experiment with this also.

In the first three experiments along the top row, I have used a simplified colouring pencil technique and experimented with different outlines. Although this simplified style took less time to create, it didn't have the same friendly effect as the colour study I had done using the colouring pencils.
So in the experiment on the bottom left, I did the simplified colouring technique around the outside of the face and then did the more detailed colouring around the eyes. I think this had a really sweet effect and made the characters face really friendly.
I then decided to try using water colour in the image in the middle of the bottom row, which I thought worked well, but there was just something missing, like the cuddly effect had disappeared again. I then used water colour and colouring pencil in the last experiment. I found this came out too dark and the colouring pencil effect couldn't be seen very clearly.

I did some more colour experiments of objects that weren't a character, to see if the style of watercolour and pencil worked well in other areas. I did experiments on the artwork found in 'Back to School Tortoise' (3). I discovered that although the effect was pleasing, the watercolour was just too hard to control, and I think I would need a lot more time to practice using it than what I have.
After deliberating over using colouring pencils and water colour I could feel myself being quite apprehensive towards the water colour, but the colouring pencil was too time consuming. So I thought about what other mediums I am familiar with and decided to try using acrylic paint.



I found that this medium was a lot faster to use and it was easy to control. I like the effect that the paint gives the images and the way the paint can be layered to create different textures.

I've done some flat plan drawings. These are just quick sketches of my ideas for each page of my book. Some of the ideas I am fond of, like the repetition of the main character, Saxon's, face on pages 13, 17, 21 and 25. However, this will still need to be refined and other pages will need to be reworked and refined. This will be more clear once I have developed the characters and the relationships between the characters and discovered a more specific setting and theme for the style of the pages. I feel that I can make some of the pages more interesting and intriguing for the reader by making the artwork more creative and styled.

In a tutorial it was discussed that my characters are appearing over-worked and they don't need to be drawn in such a human-like way e.g. with perfect limbs and joints etc.

E.G:

Taking a second look at these drawings, the characters actually begin to look quite creepy and unnatural in a strange way, as of course they are anthropomorphised characters so aren't natural at all. But having them drawn in this way leaves me with an uncomfortable feeling, which is the opposite of what I'm communicating through my book which is supposed to be a book of reassurance. 

In the tutorial, we discussed that for a children's book, objects and characters can be simplified and drawn in a more playful way. The lines can be more curved, the body parts don't need to be in proportion and different parts of the character can be exaggerated.  This makes the images more child friendly and appealing to the reader.

With this in mind I have experimented and played with how I can draw the characters and objects.


We had a character design workshop where we used different shapes to create characters. (this is the first few drawings on the page.) This was very helpful as it helped me to stop thinking of drawing my characters anatomically correct and to instead use shapes to create the body parts. I was also advised in a tutorial to make the characters head 2-3x than its body as this would give the character a younger appearance.

I found that these drawings of my character were much sweeter than the previous drawing and the character looks more like a child, and with all his roundness he looks very friendly and child friendly which is just what I need for my book! I will carry this on when designing other objects in my book and to help me create all of the pages.

I thought about the different body positions and expressions the main character, Saxon, could be standing/sitting in and did a number of quick drawings looking into this aspect of my drawings.

I feel that doing these experimental drawings I have loosened up in my style and how I want my characters to look. The body language is more playful and curved. This makes a difference from the straight lines and angular limbs and joints that I was drawing before. The great thing about Children's books is that they allow the imagination to explore the images and assist in the story telling, so not everything has to appear 'real'. And the more the imagination is able to engage in the story, the more the story comes to life.

I also wanted to do some more work with facial expressions. This is an important part of being able to read what a character is feeling. I drew a page of different emotions, using my main characters face as a template as this will be the character that the reader will sympathise and relate to most. I think it is important to get his expressions correct and have a suitable array of different emotions shown throughout the book. I want to demonstrate his negative emotions changing to positive emotions so this is a really good experimental process. I used a couple of pages from the book 'Making Comics' (4) to help me experiment with these expressions.

 I have created a dummy book which contains more descriptive drawings for each of the pages. These pages have been re-worked and there are some fresh, new drawings and double page spreads that I feel work much better as a story compared to the first drawings in the flat plan. A couple of the pages needed more reworking than others as I wanted them to appear more exciting and interesting.

Out of all of these pages, one page required more work than the others. This page was the one where Saxon is riding the giraffe. When involving another animal on the page, I wanted to create a lot of movement and action through the double page. As you can see, in the first image the page seems very static and boring. As a reader, you're not enticed by what's happening in the image, you're not being made to question what the characters are doing or where they're going.



In this second drawing, the more simplified, playful drawing of Saxon, has improved the image, but the giraffe is still appearing too static.

I think this last drawing has improved a lot. The page is exciting and interesting. Saxon and the giraffe look like they're going on an adventure, they're active and animated and once I have applied the colour it will be an even more intriguing page.

From these drawings I will now start with the colour versions of the pages which I will be painting using acrylic paint. I will do each page in roughly three separate stages. I will paint all of the characters and objects that are in the foreground of the image individually. Then I will paint the backgrounds, and then the details that are in the backgrounds of the images separately as well. These will later be put together and tidied up using Photoshop.

I have done the characters in solid colour, keeping the faces in neutral tones, and then the clothing in brighter, child friendly colours.

I wanted to keep to this colour scheme throughout the book:

I have chosen these colours because they are child friendly and eye catching. The main colours are yellow, blue and green and these will be used throughout the book for different objects.

I chose the colour yellow to represent the objects that Saxon will feel anxious about. These things being, doors (to the school and the front door to the house) sometimes there is a fear of leaving your comfort zone and having to enter into an unfamiliar place. Doors are a perfect representation of this, as they are a symbol of leaving or entering areas of comfort or areas of concern. I also coloured the sofa yellow, as this is where Saxon and his Mum will talk about what he is feeling. Sometimes it is scary to talk about what you're feeling, so I think the colour of the sofa is a good representation of this, showing an area of where he's feeling anxious.
I chose the colour green to represent Saxon feeling unsure. I chose it as the colour for Saxon to wear as it demonstrates that anxiety isn't just something you feel when you look at an object. It's a feeling that can sometimes linger. As Saxon is wearing the colour, I want it to demonstrate that it's not something to be frightened of feeling and at the end of the book he's still wearing the same colour, so the feeling of anxiety is something that can be fixed and not feared.
I chose to use the colour blue to represent things that Saxon feels calm about or things that he shouldn't fear. This is why his Mum, his teacher and the other children in the book are dressed in blue. These are characters that he feels comfortable with and that he can confide in (his mum and teacher), and this is translating the same message to readers. The other children are also dressed in blue, although he's scared of playing with the other children, having them dressed in calming blue shows that they aren't actually that scary and he should play with them. I've also coloured the objects that he was the most fun with in blue e.g. the go-kart, the triangles on the giraffe, parts of the roller coaster and the space ship. This is when Saxon is most care free and not thinking or feeling his anxiety. So this demonstrates to the readers that if you do something fun, your mind will be taken away from the negative feelings of anxiety and you'll feel happy and more positive.


I have painted all of the pages in their separate layers. I found that this was the best way of creating the pages as it allowed for mistakes to be easily rectified, and for the pages compositions to be worked on freely. I will use Photoshop to put all of the layers together and to do any of the tidying up that needs to be done e.g. smudged artwork and cropping of the pages. I am excited to see how the pages look when all layers and aspects of the images are put together in the final images.

After putting some of the pages together, I found that they weren't quite exciting enough.
For example, the giraffe page:

I feel the page needed something extra to show the movement of the giraffe.

I tried adding dust clouds, but I don't feel that this worked with the rest of the artwork.

On Photoshop, I discovered a tool which creates this grassy effect. I really like how this looks with the rest of the image, and having it travel upwards on the left of the image, shows the grass being kicked up by the giraffe. I think this is a really great effect.

I was also unhappy with how the space scene page appeared once the layers were put together, it just seems quite boring:

As this is almost the last page and should be interesting and exciting, I decided to see what I could use on Photoshop to make it more enjoyable to look at, like the giraffe page.

By adding stars to the page, the whole spread has come to life. It's exciting and fun and it finishes the page off really well.

When creating the shadows for the pages I used Photoshop. This was the best option as I wasn't sure of how I wanted the shadow to appear or the best way to create the shadowy effect.

I looked into a few children's books which used shadow in their illustrations and tried out different ways of creating the shadow on my illustrations for my book.
First I tried solid shadow, taking inspiration from 'Fairy Tale Secrets' (5) By Marion Rose and Edward Eaves:

 And 'Kipper's Snowy Day' (6) By Mick Inkpen:

 The shadow used on these pages follow the shape of the characters or objects that are creating the shadow. This appears dominant and creates depth across the pages as it's more obvious what objects are further away. I think this is a good use of shadow as it emphasizes the use of light within the image.

I tried this type on one of my pages from my book:

 I think this type of shadow is effective. It demonstrates the use of light strongly, and gives the image more depth. Although this is quite a simple way of creating it, I feel that in my book I want a more subtle and not so obvious use of shadow. A lot of my book has subtle details, so I would prefer to complement this style I have already established in my work.

The next books I looked into for inspiration was again 'Kipper's Snowy Day' (7) By Mick Inkpen, as he has used another type of shadow in his book:

 

And 'Whiffy Wilson, The Wolf Who Wouldn't go to School' (8) By Caryl Hart and Leonie Lord.

 These books are more subtle, with a soft, small amount of shadow under the characters. It doesn't extend out from the image too far and is just enough to show the use of light and to give the page a little more depth.
'Kipper's Snowy Day' has been made using water colour, so the shadow is more of a solid shape.
However, 'Whiffy Wilson, The Wolf Who Wouldn't go to School' is more textured, like it has been roughly scribbled on to the page. I really like this effect, tonally it gives the shadow more complexity as parts are built up more than others, showing where the shadow is darker than others. It also makes the page more interesting as the texture complements the character artwork.

I decided to try this textured form of shadow on my work:

I prefer this use of shadow so much more. I think it's subtle and accompanies my illustrations really well. It isn't over powering at all and the slight textured surface of the shadow, leaves the image with a lovely effect. I will use this effect on the rest of the pages in my book.