Finishing Up

With the hand in being as near as 12pm tomorrow, I have finished everything in the Locating Practice project. Over the weekend, I finished up my paintings and constructed my book, which I will be collecting later today from a print shop in Headington, Oxford. I would've used Blurb, the printing company I used to make my last book, but then I would've had to wait 2 weeks for the book to be delivered from the Netherlands. Thus, I went with the more local option.

The final layout of my book was pretty much as I had imagined it in my mock up, although the ending was changed slightly. The beginning and middle stayed relatively the same. With the ending, I shortened the introduction of the character 'Daisy' and instead lengthened the ending, where the main character, Archie and Daisy become friends, as I felt that this was more important to the plot of the story.

This is the cover art I went with for my book. I understand that the word 'Archaeopteryx' is not a very child-friendly word to be in the title of a children's book, but in all honesty I couldn't think of anything better. I was thinking that the title may actually appeal as it introduces what is possibly a very fun and unknown dinosaur to children. And plus, I absolutely love how it looks on the cover, it looks so clean and appealing. 

I'm very excited to see how the final book turns out. I took on board the advice I received from Salvatore and Sharon and worked on a larger scale to create double page spreads unlike anything I have included in books before, when I have only worked to a single sketchbook. I bought a large A3 book and produced my larger landscapes and paintings in there. I also took their advice on how to introduce the character of Daisy by using common interests between her and Archie.

This is the first double spread in the book, which introduces the vast jungle where the main character lives. I built on the advice Salvatore gave me when he told me my previous illustrations of jungles had looked too modern.

This is one of the fun double spreads that I think children will really enjoy! Poor Archie trying to make friends with the larger and scarier dinosaurs! These particular spreads were very enjoyable to draw on a large scale, they would've looked very different if done in my smaller sketchbook, so I think it is for the better that I got myself a larger one.

As well as the double spreads, I did enjoy doing the smaller paintings for the book too, as working on a smaller scale allowed me to add more detail to the little landscapes that I was creating! I really like how the trees look in my small illustrations, I was able to use a smaller paint brush to give them a twisted and viney look.

All in all, I am very happy with my book and how it has turned out (the digital copy, at least!). If I were to repeat this project I could've easily got a lot more done that I have, as the only extra I created were the small figurines.

I was not as focussed in the main part of this project as I spent most of Easter looking after my dog at home. Max had dementia and required separate meals cooked 3 different times a day, as well as having to be constantly cared for. This meant that my focus was not on my project. Following this, Max sadly passed away a little over a week ago, and as a result I have found it overwhelmingly difficult to concentrate on my work as the project comes to a close. I am happy I was there to spend time with him and care for him over Easter as he was a very important part of my life and I loved him dearly. 

I hope it is understood why my potential may not have been reached in this project, yet I am pleased with what I managed to achieve in light of everything.

Polymer Clay Figurines

To make my mini figurines that will accompany my story book, I used Sculpey polymer clay, as this is a material I have used before so I know how to use it. I bought two packs, one for each figurine, in the colour white, as this colour is the best for use with acrylic paint as it does not require a base coat. This is an oven bake clay, needing to bake for 30 minutes to turn the models solid and strong.

I began my Daisy model with a aluminium foil base. I decided not to use a wire armature as the model was too small and did not require it.

I followed up the foil with the polymer clay. The base of foil makes the sculpture very lightweight, similar to how a children's toy would feel. 

I carved the details into the figurine using a metal sculpting tool.

For my figurine of Archie, I had to use wire to support the wings as otherwise there is the risk that they will fall during the time in the oven. The base still consists of aluminium foil, but I used one of my tools to pierce a hole for the wire. 

I then coated the wire in aluminium foil just to bulk it up a little and stop it from moving, just to make it easier to mold.

The figurine of Archie required a few more extra details such as feet and hands, as well as feathers and fur. Using the various clay tools I was able to create the different elements and add textures. 

When the modelling was complete, I put the models in the oven at 130 degrees for 30 minutes, and was checking them constantly to make sure nothing broke while it was baking.

Painting the figurines

To paint my figurines I used Acrylic paint. I had to paint in stages to give the different colours time to dry. The combination of polymer clay and acrylic is one I have tried and tested so I know it does give a good finish.

Once the paint had dried, my play set was complete! The Archie and Daisy Snowball fight figure set consists of the two figurines, a snow fort and snowballs. Hopefully I will have time to create a proper promotional advert to accompany my little figurines, if not then I am glad that I have one completed extra to go along with my story book.

Easter Update and Critique with Sharon and Salvatore

Over the Easter break, I worked on the plot of my Archaeopteryx story and planned what will happen. Using rough experiments with watercolour and copic markers, I did several drawings to play around with possible scene orders and storylines and have come out with a finalised plot.
The story will be based around Archie the Archaeopteryx, who is bullied by two Pterodactyls named Perry and Terry because he cannot fly despite having wings. Archie longs for a friend who accepts him, so he sets out to leave the forest.
Along his journey through mountains and snow, he encounters many dinosaurs but has no luck making friends. Exhausted, Archie settles down in a cave for the night only to discover that is is home to a small pink Diplodocus, named Daisy. The two become great friends.

Here are my initial character doodles for Daisy

A few of my watercolour and copic scene plans

As a little extra to accompany my book, I will be making figurines of both Archie and Daisy using polymer clay. I have used polymer clay before when doing my art A level in order to make large sculptures, and for this reason I am very comfortable using it. My figurines will be bulked out with an inner wire skeleton and aluminium foil, to ensure that they do not collapse when they are baked. I will document the process when I get around to making them.

Critique with Sharon and Salvatore

I met with Sharon and Salvatore yesterday to discuss my progress with my Extinction project. They both really enjoyed the story and had a few suggestions for how I can improve. Salvatore suggested working larger and making my scenes more convincing, as some of the jungle scenes I had depicted looked rather modern. They also suggested for me to play with the use of shadows in the scenes with the large dinosaurs to convey intimidation. They want me to prepare a mock up book of roughs to convey the flow of the story in preparation for next week's meeting.

New Blog for Personal Projects

From now on, I will be posting all personal project and side work on a new blog available at http://fialexandraillustration.blogspot.com/

This blog will be strictly for my work in the Locating Practice brief and side projects will be updated on that blog from now on.

Lecture with Salvatore Rubbino

Today we had a lecture with famous children's book illustrator Salvatore Rubbino, who gave us lots of useful tips about how to approach a new project and lots of advice on story writing. I made plenty of notes, seeing as my final project takes the form of a children's picture book.

 The main points I took away from the talk, is how important it is to draw what you are studying and make roughs of scenes, as I tend to focus on accurate drawing even when experimenting. He gave tips on how to build character, such as giving the character an object or a scenario to react to, and he stressed how important tension is in a picture book (making the character look at something that the viewer cannot see, in order to make them eager to turn the page!). And the most important part is to be interested in your subject and be able to engage with it!

Salvatore left out some of his books for us to observe, so I picked out 'A Walk in New York', which was the one that he had left with his rough, unfinished version, in order to compare the rough and final copy. 

Here are a few pages from the finished book that I really enjoyed:

Here are a few pages from the mock-up book that I really like:

In some instances, I was able to recognise areas where the mock-up had become a part of the finished book!

In this instance, I was able to recognise the mock-up front page and it's similarities to the final outcome. The building on the left in the mock-up was used, but from a different perspective.

I actually prefer the mock-up drawing to the final version on this occasion! The rough painting gives the feeling of urgency as if it was painted hurriedly, and that really suites taxis in traffic. 

I think the perspective of the mock-up is far more interesting than what was used in the final outcome in this instance.

Personal Feedback

As an aspiring children's book illustrator, I did not pass up the opportunity to seek advice and feedback from Salvatore Rubbino. I firstly showed him some past work, in order to show how my style has developed and how what I am producing for this project is different.

I began by showing him my foundation year final piece, 'The Adventures of Wellington Duck' and Salvatore really liked the character, especially his backpack and goggles. He liked the story a lot and suggested I write another with the same character, but have more breaks in the story as it is very fast paced. There was one particular scene, where Wellington takes a break at the hot springs, which Salvatore really enjoyed.

He particularly liked this drawing as the character is easy to relate to and we can sense his enjoyment in the hot water. Drawings that people can associate with are those that they enjoy the most.

I then went on to show him 'The Butterfly Dragon and the Pear Tree'. This book was not part of any main project and was for an experimental project. It is a wordless narrative and is written in a 'comic book frame' style. He really enjoyed the twist that I included in the story and stressed how important they can be to enhancing a story's plot. He suggested that with this story I alternate frame sizes a little more. He also insisted that I use this character in future work, and look up 'Clown' by Quentin Blake to assist with the writing.

I then turned to my current story, to get any tips on how to carry on with the project. He really enjoyed the gouache medium, and really liked how expressive my paint experiments were. He suggested that more characters will help improve the story, and suggested a possible twist in the plot to make it more interesting. Salvatore agreed that the subject matter is perfect for the target audience as children love dinosaurs. He suggested that I look up Simon James' book 'Rex' to assist me when developing the story, as it handles a similar type of plot and uses dinosaur characters.

All in all, I found the day to be very helpful and useful for my project!

Personal Project: Max

Today I have been getting on with a drawing of my lovely old dog, Max. This is a drawing that I will be giving to my mum as a Mother's day present. As our workshop was in the morning I have had a chance to get on with it today, and have made quite a bit of progress.

I began the drawing on Sunday, and this is all I managed to get done in the short space of time I spent on it.

I managed to get a lot of the fur drawn out, just need to finish the paws and add the finishing touches.