Barbados

As the story is based upon an old Scottish tale of those sent to Barbados to work in the sugar cane fields I felt that this should somehow be shown in the work. This has been done in a rather abstract manner, I decided to use the map of Barbados and rotate and flip it to give me a shape that beast would be contained with underground. This is also to enhance the heat and mention of the devils breath on the previous page. The components of this image are shown below whilst the final image shall be shown later.

Arriving upon the island

The pages where the main character arrives upon the island contains four separate illustrations. These illustrations should depict the arrival of ships, people departing and setting foot on land. Each of the separate drawings and paintings are shown below whilst the final layout shall be shown later.

Fragile Freedoms

The next scene in the story is to show a land of fragile freedoms. I have chosen to show the main character and his colleague being chased down by giants. The giants were originally supposed to represent empires as I felt that slavery had always been a key component of any empire throughout history. However I now believe that the giants simply show the difference in power between those being enslaved as those luring or capturing such victims. The separate images that were produced to create the image are shown below, the final composition shall be shown later.

Maisie Paradise Shearring

Maisie won the main prize at Bologna book fair last year. this meant that she won a book deal and around £20000 to let her work full time on becoming an illustrator. This year Maisie had the book and all of the images displayed in her own gallery. The story she chose to illustrate was The Happy Prince by Oscar Wilde, this has been published by a Spanish publishing house that have tie-ins with the book fair. I first met Maisie at the Picture Hooks talks that were held in Edinburgh. I managed to see her a have a chat about things before she was giving a talk on stage within the illustrators cafe. The thing that inspired me most is that I knew this was what Maisie wanted for her life and she works hard for it, so if things like this can happen for her why not me? I am very sure that Maisie will become a prominent name within the industry and I look forward to seeing more of her work in the future. A few images from the gallery and talk are shown below.

Getting noticed at Bologna

I realised whilst at Bologna Book Fair that there are really two main ways to get noticed as an illustrator. The first is by entering the competition that is part of the fair and the one I entered myself this year. If successful each illustrators gets a space within a gallery that shows each of the selected illustrators five pieces of work they had sent in. Being a part of this gallery really highlights their work and most definitely will open up opportunities for many that are on display. Anyone connected with the publishing industry, editors, authors and many others all visit this gallery so having work shown is a great advert and could potentially lead to gaining work from all over the globe.
The second way involves a bit more creativity, there a walls built purposely for illustrators to put up their work as free advertising as such. However these walls seem to become pretty crowded with a good chance that someone will eventually cover over your work. If I were to try and create something to put on these walls I would have to consider how it might be able ti stay uncovered for the full four days. Creating something that protrudes from the wall and is therefore difficult to cover over seemed the best option although this would take some planning prior to attending the event. Some examples of both methods are shown below.

Bologna Book Fair

This has been my first post in a number of weeks, this has been due to the workload I have had to get through in order to complete the course. From the 4th April until the 7th Bologna Book Fair was open. This was something I attended as I managed to gain free tickets by sending in five illustrations a number of months ago. Unfortunately the illustrations were not picked for display but I was never really expecting them to be anyway.
The book fair itself was huge with publishers from 42 countries in attendance. There were a few large illustrators areas, an area for german illustrators work, a digital area and four very large halls packed with publishers showing all of the latest books. Now I have been to the book fair I understand the purpose of the event. It is very industry based and comprises of each company having stalls of varying sizes where marketing people will discuss business deals with other publishers or industries linked with any aspect of books.
My initial idea was to attend this event with a copy of my dummy version of the picture book. However this is something I was unable to do as I could not send it off to print prior to leaving for Bologna. In all honesty I do not think this would have really worked well anyway. I seen many illustrators carrying their portfolios around with them and trying to talk to people at stands. But I also heard many of them getting explanations that they were not editors or people who decide who illustrates for them. This tactic did not seem to work very well as this is not what the event is about, it is a copyright selling event.
I went around the entire event looking for any works that may have been similar to mine in either style, themes or they way they were told. I managed to find one book that I bought which might be Korean. The book tells a story through an art gallery although many of the pieces or artists are very recognisable and each comes into the gallery space itself, I have no idea what the narrative is. There were no books that I found that dealt with similar issues or topics to mine, this does not mean that there were none I just couldn't find any. The same with the style used to create the picture book, I never seen any other books done in a similar fashion. At first I began to wonder if this was a good or a bad thing, thinking did I fit into this world or do I fit somewhere else. However now I have had time to reflect I feel that this is actually a good thing as it means that I may have something different to offer any potential publisher or employer. Attending such an event was very useful in gaining a better understanding of the industry as a whole and may be something I end up becoming involved with on a yearly basis. Some images from the event are shown below.

Dissertation Idea

Over the past few weeks I have began to start thinking about my dissertation. This has mainly occurred due to a friend asking me what my dissertation was going to be about and I could not fully explain my ideas. This realisation that I did not fully understand what I wanted to discuss lead me to have a meeting with Brian. This has proved to be very useful as I have written a short version of the types of things that might be discussed through the dissertation. These ideas have been formed through a series of questions. This initial exercise has let me effectively empty my head and begin the process, this can now be built upon and added to with reference to my own project. The vision statement, themes and questions are all likely to change over the next few weeks but I feel much better having started with this task and I now feel I have a  better understanding of what is important to me and the project. This exercise is shown below.