Project Evaluation

Research

Through the research that was carried out for this project I have definitely become more knowledgable on many aspects of the picture book medium. Speaking and listening to those already working in the industry and those trying to enter through the picture hooks talks. Gaining confidence by noticing the issues I was already aware of whilst learning about many other aspects that I had never considered before. Attending other events such as the Bologna book fair allowed me to get a feel for the industry and showed me how difficult it might be to break into such a world. However meeting people like Maisie Shearring has also shown me that it is possible through hard work and perseverance. Understanding what avenues are available to me to help me become an author and illustrator has been a key part of the research as these areas are now coming to the forefront as the project finishes with the end of my time in university.
Discovering an analytical framework that allowed me to dissect the work of others was a critical turning point in this project. The framework asked me to evaluate, study and look at picture books in a way I had never previously done. Understanding why borders were used, how the design influences the pace and flow, the interplay between visuals and text were just some of the factors that influenced my own work through this project. Broadening my horizons with such studies in future will only help in developing myself as an artist and should increase the number of tools at my disposal when creating my own works.

Development

This area has shown me why picture books can take such a long time to be fully developed from concept to finished product. It has also given me a greater respect for those already working within the industry. The time scale for this project should have allowed for far more experimentation within the development stage. However as with many things creating the story, small dummy versions and trying to form illustrations that worked all proved to take longer than anticipated. This was also the case for the images that were created and referred to as the roughs. These were perhaps more refined than would be required for a dummy book, this was felt to be necessary as this was an honours project that will be exhibited at the end of the course. This method also allowed for me to not only add more details but let me work on tone. Working with a limited palette proved to be very useful and something I will consider again in the future
Experimenting with a variety of methods during the development stage also proved to be very useful through this project and should serve me well in the future. Learning that by using sculptures to bring to life the things in my imagination was very useful. This allowed me to draw what I couldn't see before from any angle I wished. Using collage or photography proved to be a very quick way of establishing poses or compositions. Realising that these methods could me mixed in there uses and each may bring different aspects into my work, and that through combination of all of them success can be achieved.

Final Work

The final piece of work did not quite reach the levels I had hoped for, the main reasons being that the two finished images and the cover were not as polished as they should be and both end papers contain the same image. This was primarily due to lack of time and the end of the project as the roughs took longer than anticipated to complete. These are issues that can still be tackled after the completion of the project within the academic framework.
The dummy version has not yet reached a point where I would be happy to show the work to a publisher for feedback. The aforementioned issues would need to be dealt with and many of the pages seem too literal in fashion. I feel the images could be abstracted more by further experimentation and themes could also be backed up more by adding additional items or artefacts that relate to the themes and emotions being portrait. However the picture book in itself is successful as in the backbone of a story and what may be portrayed through the images has been achieved. The processes involved in creating a dummy version are now understood and the reasons why certain elements are designed in certain ways has now become evident. All of his new knowledge and level of understanding will help in developing this project even further and can also be build upon through future projects.

Final Works

The final images along with text are shown below, these have been uploaded to Blurb and copies have been ordered for the exposition.

Book cover

The book cover was made very quickly due to lack of time left with the project deadlines. This meant that a very simple cover had to be made rather than a complex drawing with hidden drawings within as I would have liked to have done. In plain sight as a title meant that a pair of eyes made sense. the images created and the cover are shown below.

Digital images

The picture book was to contain two fully coloured finished images. This has been done but due to a lack of time the quality of both images is not as good as I would have wished for. The scene with the ocean works well as a composition but still lacks a final touch somehow. the aim was to try and create a painted look which was quite rough but the image itself could still do with more work.
The second scene with the omnipotent shows the character with greater power than previous, however I am still unsure about the art style. I will be interested to see what others think as nobody has seen it due to me creating the image at such a late point in the project. Both images are shown below as they will be seen in the picture book.

Framed in the gallery

As the narrative is being told through paintings that are hung within an art gallery I ned to create many versions of frames for the images. The various frames are shown below.

meets his wife to be

The story ends with the main character meeting the woman who would become his wife. This is not directly shown rather it is hinted at by a painting of a woman hung in the gallery. These images are shown below.

new lands

After managing to escape the main character finds a new island with new found freedoms. These are shown through three illustrations which the components are shown below.

Underwater

The main character makes his escape from the island by walking underwater and using a sugar cane to enable him to breath. The component parts of this illustration are shown below.

chance of escape

The spread where the main character has a chance to escape from the giants is in itself a short story. This had previously shown as small separate images although at one of our group meetings it was suggested to try one image with lots of different motions or actions. This allow me to produce the images shown below which shall be shown as a spread later.

The arrival of others

There is a scene where other giants arrive upon the island. This is supposed to represent the battles between the British and Dutch as this occurred with the island of Barbados although not within the time that the story is set in. However this knowledge helped me conceive the idea of giants battling for the island. The images for this scene are shown below.

The name red legs

There is a scene when the family are walking through the gallery and Grandpa will explain in some form how the name red legs came to be. This is shown described by the text whilst the illustrations offer a further insight into the story. The components of this spread are shown below with the final composition being shown later.