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My Evaluations through the weeks

Week 1 

For this week i have spent most of my time researching into children's books. I looked into how to create a children's book and it seems a lot harder than I expected to be. There are a lot of things to consider when creating a children's book. You firstly need to make sure your characters stay consistent throughout the book. This is one thing that I am nervous for as I only ever design one character for one frame, but for the book it will have to remain the same for about 30 pages. Another big thing to consider is colour, I have found out that colour is very important to children as their eyes are still developing. This means they don’t see all shades of colour properly and thats why they're drawn more to brighter colours. They also associate colour to certain things, so if I wanted to make my monster red kids could instantly make the kids not like the character as it reminds them of blood. This means I will need to make a lot of decisions thoroughly before deciding them. 

This week has made me realise how hard it is going to be to create a children's book, as I thought it was going to be an easy task. I thought kids minds aren't smarter enough or even cared enough on some features of a book, which would make it easy to make one. I am excited to find out more on how to create a children's so I can do it properly. 

Also this week my step dad has begun the writing for the book ‘Monster Twins’ with the two main characters of Bella and Bertie. So next week I will starting drawing ideas on how to create them. My plan for next week is to start developing my ideas to something.

Week 2

I have enjoyed week two quite a lot as it has been a more of a designing week. I have been designing monsters for what Bella and Bertie will look like. I have started on my sketchbook which has been a lot of fun because its hand on drawing and I can see all my ideas coming together. I’ve use a whole range of materials when creating my monsters, I’ve used watercolour, acrylic, biro, cardboard and pieces of paper. I really enjoyed using numerous materials for my monsters, it allowed me to see them in a new perspective. I enjoyed using watercolour for my monsters the most as it was the easiest to use and I was able to shade in a way I like. All though I wont have the monsters in the watercolour effect for the book, I will go for a more sold colour effect. 

This week I have made an important decision of what colour Bella and Bertie should be. I did research on the psychology of colour, I have found out the positives and negatives of each colour. From all the colours I looked at and the pros and cons of them and decided that magenta will be best for Bella and orange will be best for Bertie. It was very interesting looking up the psychology of colour as there was a lot of negatives about colours which I never knew. I didn't know that blue is seen as an unfriendly colour so it was one I couldn't use even though it would've suit Bertie very well. 

As I started the final project very late I now only have four weeks left to the deadline to hand in all of my work. So I am starting to feel a bit stressed that I wont be able to get it all complete, as I still haven't started my final piece and even haven't decide what body type to choose for Bella and Bertie. Next week I am hoping to have the body type decided for them and to have an official page finished and ready to print. My step dad has got quite a few pages written now so I have an option of choosing which page to practise on.

Week 3

This has been my most productive week out of them all as I have actually finished a couple pages of the book, which are ready to print. I am more than happy on how the pages turned out, the pages have come out so much better than I thought they would. It’s so amazing see the pages coming to life and seeing how they started from just the pages been written. To come up with the designs of the pages, I started designing them on my sketchbook. And I done this so I could see the pages forming together like a proper book and to sketch them quicker. 

Procreate is the app I have been using for drawing my pages and it has been so amazing. It makes drawing them so easy, there are so many features to the app which give so many options. 

I am happy with all the work I have done this week and think at the rate I’m going I might be able to get my book finished. I feel confident with how the pages turned out and I don't see anything needed to be changed on them. This week I have also done some research into different artists and illustrators so I could get some inspiration on how I could develop my monsters, but I didn't do as much research as I wanted to do this week so that wasn't good. 

My goal for next week is to starting sketching designs for what other characters should look like and hopefully by the end of the week I hope to have a rough idea of what they would look like. I would also like to get a couple more pages completed by next week.

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Final Evaluation

Monster Twins: The story of Bella and Bertie

I have used my final project as a way to explore my illustration digitally and as if I were a professional taking on a project. For my first and current course I have always been focusing on illustration and animation and within that it has revolved around my illustrated characters which I call monsters. These are drawings I have loved to draw since I’ve been a young kid and through the years I have developed them a lot more, but nothing in comparison into what I’ve planned for my final project. I’ve always wanted to create my monsters so they felt like they were coming to life, hence me trying to create an animation out of them. But from an illustrated idea my thought was creating a children's book,  this would allow me to tell a story with my monsters and give me an experience as an illustrator as this is something they would get hired for. 

First review of completed book

The final version of the book has only been completed two days before project hand in. This hasn’t given me much time to review the book but I have already noticed work that needs changing. I have also been able to get the pages printed out at Ryman’s so there is a good quality print and I have shown this to a few friends and family to get some quick feedback. 

I saw straight away that there were some spelling mistakes and some words were missed out. It took reading it in a printed format for me to see this as I had checked it quite a few times when the pages were finished in ProCreate. I could also see how my drawing had developed over the weeks and most noticeable difference is the change from a thin black outline to a thick black outline. The pages weren’t drawn in order so it looks like the outline style changes from page to page. I also wasn’t consistent with drawing the monsters and I will need to make changes to their shape and also to smaller things like their teeth. 

The colours in the book were chosen for particular reasons about how they would appeal to children and so it is an issue that some of the colours haven’t come out as I expected. I know that every screen has a different resolution and the printer at Ryman’s may not be the same as a printed book version, but I will need to do more testing and see if I can use set colours like RGB so I can make sure they are as close as possible to what I was hoping for. 

Friends and family review has been good. Everyone said how much they loved the bold colours and seeing the monsters. They found parts funny, especially ‘smellies’ on Bella’s nappy and Bella in the monster school bus and Bertie in the trailer. They noticed the change in style in the illustration and said they preferred the pages I did last which had darker outlines. There was also some good feedback about the storyline and that they would like a little bit more detail so they could properly understand the story and that was mainly because it was a bit confusing as it was set in Singapore and London. 

I will need to continue getting feedback to create a second draft of the book. 

What went right

I was actually able to complete the illustrations for the book, which I thought I might not be able to achieve as it took a lot more time to draw than I anticipated. The characters were created well and I was pleased with their final appearance and how that matched with their perception in the book. The buildings also came out as I intended and it can be clearly seen what and where they are. In the friends and family review I was pleased that the project outcome had been achieved as they found many pages to be funny, they connected with the characters and were relieved that Bella and Bertie were reunited and especially that twins would no longer be separated at birth. The process of creating the book went as I planned, from the initial research to sketching in detail first through to drawing the final pages on ProCreate. I had used ProCreate before, but I was very pleased with how I was able to use to it as intended to for the digital pages. 

What went wrong

I was hoping that I might have a chance to get the story printed in an actual book format but I didn’t get time to do that. I really struggled with drawing hands and feet and I would liked to have had more time to research and practice drawing these. As I noticed, and from friends and family review I wasn’t consistent in my drawing style as that developing into bolder outlines and colouring as I progressed with the pages. 

Went different to plan

I made small changes to the original copy (detailed in submitted changes to copy and illustration document) as I felt this improved the illustrations and portrayal of the story. For example, I swopped Bertie from climbing the Shard to Tower Bridge as the building has more interesting detail and set a better scene for a background picture. I also condensed two pages as the illustrations were a little repetitive and so this tightened the story in a good way through the use of a text message illustration to condense the copy. I also did a lot more research along the way than I expected. I thought I would do the research first and that would be it, then I ended up doing research, which may be referring to different angles of buildings or the expression on a face, all the way through the project. 

What I’ve learned

I have tried really hard to research into children's books and try to design the perfect one. I think I’ve even pushed myself out of comfort zone when it comes to drawing my monsters, as I usually tend to draw them looking the same. But my project has pushed me to draw baby, girl, boy, dad and mother monsters which was a difficult but fun task. This is something I would have never of done if I didn't set this project. I’m very pleased with my time management as I was able to create the illustrations within six weeks. I’ve also realised how dedicated I can be as I worked constantly for endless hours each day, every day and I that shows that illustration is a strength and really appeals to me. 

Summary

From all the work I’ve produced for my final project I have been extremely proud of what I have created. I have been able to incorporate my aim of fun illustrations, with engaging characters, developed by research. The main thing I know for the future is to allow more time to complete an intense project like this. I certainly would want to spend more time in the research phase and I also know to develop a consistent style through my work in advance. 

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Sealing the pages of the book

Unfortunately I wasn’t able to print my book professionally as it took too long to be able to receive it so I had to think of the next option to present it.

Each page on procreate is 25cm x 20cm which is also 10 x 8. So my idea was to print each page on glossy paper from boots but they cost £2:50 per page, then timizing that by 32 equals £80, so that was way too much money to pay. So I got them printed off in A4 in Ryman’s for a lot cheaper price. I then needed to figure out how to present each page, my idea was to put them in a wallet but everyone I found was portrait and I want to present it landscape. The idea I had come up with was to buy a bunch of hard seal pockets, which you can see above. Then to get rid of the holes, I sliced them off so they’re out of the way. The last step was sliding each page in correctly and then hole punch each so I could tie them together.

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Working on front cover of book

It’s time to think of what the front cover of the book will look like, I would like to go for a bright colour to draw people’s attention in. I also want to include monsters on the front so people know that’s what the characters are going to be, but I don’t want to spoil Bella and Bertie. They are first introduced into the 3rd and 4th page so that would ruin the surprise of them. My current idea of the cover is having three random monster heads sticking out, acting like there’s something intriguing inside and then in the middle will read the title which is ‘monster twins’. I would then also like to include my name on the cover as illustrator and my step dad as the writer.

I think it would look best if their eyes were looking at the title to draw people more into it.

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Page 23 inspiration

The inspiration of this picture came from a picture which my brother took for me. As my brother lives in London he gets many opportunities to explore around and as he knows I love to draw buildings he took this picture below. The image shows then walkie talkie building in London from a really cool angel, then this is my attempt of drawing it. I thought it would be a good idea to include that image for the background of Bertie. This image shows how Bertie travels around London as he’s too big to fit in the car.

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Inspiration of comic

The comic drawings I had done inspired me to create the finished pages of the book, it was a way to compress the book into less pages but still look good.

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5 more pages completed

These are 5 more pages of the book which I’ve finished. I can’t believe how well all the pages are coming out, I think they look amazing and I can’t wait to see them all together. These are pages 17, 18, 19, 20 and 21. My favourite page out of these is page 21, I love the bus that Bella is on. I think it’s really funny how she’s got a special section of the bus and how it says ‘monster accessible’ at the front. I think it’s come out a lot better than I thought it would and I’m really proud that it’s come out looking right.

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Printing the book professionally

I have been looking on multiple websites that can print your book. All the websites are easy to follow but the prices to print can vary from a low price to a very high one. Purchasing one book will be way more expensive than the singular price of buying loads at once, but I only need one of my final piece. All though I might buy an extra one just to keep for myself. What also varys the price a lot is the weight of the paper, style of cover, either matt or glossy and how many pages. For me I am planning to get a paperback book rather than a hardback as its not big enough for that style and its a children’s book so paperback will be the most appropriate. I’m not too fussed on the weight of the paper as long as its not too weak, so around 100grms will be good. There will need to be more than 32 pages as there’s going to be a front cover plus a few spare pages before the book begins.

This is the first website which I’ve looked at which is called doxdirect, its a very simple website to follow.

I have been playing with the prices of the book on their website, I have tested changing paperback to hardback and 100gsm to 130gms. There is quite a different between them both, with the paperback version its about 14 pounds per copy which makes 28 pounds in total. Then for the hardback cover its 25.5 pounds per copy which makes it 51 pounds for them both in total. As I think it would look better with paperback anyway I will definitely be going for that option.

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Rough Stroy board

I have now got an idea what each page of the book will look like. I have drawn a rough sketch storyboard of what I want each page to look like. I have so far drawn 15 pages which are ready to be printed, they were all drawn on my iPad on Procreate. There are 32 pages of the book so that leaves me with 17 pages left to illustrate, this is going to be very difficult to finish them all as the deadline is very soon now. I think if I fully concentrate on getting the pages done I will be able to.

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Some of my graffiti drawings from primary

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Book Research - Graffiti 365, which led to my monsters

This is a very important book to me and I have had it ever since year 4 in primary school, it was a gift from my mum on my birthday. Back in primary school I use to love graffiti, not by spraying the wall in spray paint but drawing by hand on paper with sharpies. It was something I would do all the time, find any youtube video of a tutorial on how to draw something. Then when my mum bought me this book my love for it came a lot bigger. The book has 365 graffiti artists in it all having two pages each. The artist that grabbed my attention straight away was number 029, Bates. His work was amazing, it was vibrant, bold and beautifully painted, I loved all the uses of the colours and how well they all went together. As I liked this piece so much back in primary I decided to draw it myself and you can see my attempt on the picture below, it obviously isn't as good as his but I will still very proud of it. It took me so many days to complete but I feel like he didn't take as long as me with his. I started doing research further into bates, looking at his instagram but this lead me to find other graffiti artists and different styles of graffiti. I found people making these weird monster characters which I thought was awesome, so I then tried to start making my own. Ever since then I made my style of monsters and developed them through so many years.

This is my version of Bates drawing, I drew this myself in primary school with sharpies.

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Book Research - POP!

This is a book that I bought from Strand in New York, the bought really grabbed my attention by the bright yellow background and the pop art styled hand pointing at you, which I would say could be classed as propaganda. First thing I noticed when I opened the book was some of Claes Oldenbergs artwork which I’m a big fan of so I had to read into. The book talks about different pop artists and famous artworks and gets into a lot of detail with them. One of my favourite things about the book is that it comes with a bunch of small and large posters and bits of artwork. The artwork they give you visually represents what they've given you. 

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Progress on Final Piece

My step has now finished writing the book so I now can illustrate the rest of the pages. I have so far done a lot more pages since my last post, I would say I’ve now found the technique on how to make the pages quickly and as time is running out for the due date I am trying to get them done quickly. 

The images below are all the pages I have done recently, they are pages 9 to 15. Page nine is the first page below which is Mr and Mrs Bold in the plane flying over the world. The image shows famous architectural buildings from different countries around the world. The 10th page which is next to number 9 is of Mr and Mrs Bold again on their computers working but thinking of children at the same time. Pages 11 and 12 are conjoined pages of adoption pages of Bella. Page 13 is then Mr and Mrs Bashful thinking about having children themselves and then on page 14 its Bertie in a stroller going home. Then the last page number 15 is Betty becoming a monsters right barrister.

I am now half way of creating the pages of the children's book, so that leaves me with about 15 more pages to create.

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Digital development of each page

To create the final version of the book, I drew it on ProCreate on an iPad Pro. 

ProCreate is an app that allows you to hand draw a picture on the iPad Pro. What I like most about ProCreate is that it’s like a drawing version of PhotoShop, so it’s intuitive and helps me bring to life drawings that wouldn’t have the same detail and boldness sketched on paper. Being intuitive it means that I can draw a line or circle and it doesn’t have to be perfect, the app will straighten the line and make a circle complete. ProCreate works in layers, like PhotoShop, which makes drawing and colouring easier as parts can be placed behind the main scenes and characters with no need to blend or colour in to edges.

My iPad Pro was a Christmas present and I’ve been using it every day, practising to create digital drawings. The pro version allows artist level drawing on the ipad using the apple pencil. Being able to create drawings on the ipad has taken my skills to a whole new level as it’s given me the ability to add detail, colour and use techniques that I couldn’t have applied in a paper drawing. The iPad Pro was perfect for creating the final pages of the Bella and Bertie book as it’s efficient and allowed me to use bold colouring and in a version that could go straight to print or uploaded for a digital flipbook or Kindle version.

Here’s the steps I used to create the final version of the book digitally using the iPad Pro and ProCreate.

The first step was to create the canvas, which became the shell for each page. I used 25cm wide x 20cm high in 300 DPI. This is a standard kid’s book size and the dpi would make sure the print quality, for digital or print, would high enough quality.

I then imported a photo of the hand sketched page on to the canvas. I could use the sketched version as a template for drawing the final version. 

My next step was to add in the copy for the page, setting this to arial rounded MT Bold, size 32 and a 15 point leading, to see how best to place the words and how much space there was for the drawing.

If I was referring to a photo I had taken, I then inserted this picture on a different layer. This was helpful for colour matching and as a guide to make it life like in an illustration style. 

There are lots of colour options in ProCreate and I used colour match directly from photos to find the nearest shade. I also created my own palette to make sure that colours for the main characters would be the same for each page. I could also insert a page I had created previously as on the bottom of this picture so I could make sure images and colours were consistent.

I used multiple layers to draw each picture. The layers let me colour in the background, like the windows in the building or the trees, without having to keep within the lines. I was able to group selected layers and duplicate these, for example the trees, so I didn’t have have to re draw each section. It also meant I could play around with where each drawn layer could be placed.

When the page was completed, I deleted the layers with inserted sketches and photos to keep the size smaller. I then exported the page as a .procreate file and saved a copy in a Dropbox folder as a backup.

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Monster comic development

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Sketchbook work

I’ve been doing a lot of sketchbook work at the moment and I’ve also done a lot of work on my pages. I have got majority of them finished now.

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Gallery ONE

Gallery one is an art shop which is based in Dubai, they sell artwork from well known artist and up coming artists. Their work is all culturally inspired, which is very clear to see. I discovered their shop while I was living in Dubai, I was in Dubai mall when I found it. The store really grabbed my attention as all their artwork looks amazing, plus some of the style looks like pop art. We have now collected about four big canvases of their work. We have two camel pieces, one palm tree and the last is a mix of colours and symbols.