Category Archives: Project 4 Research

Alligator Illustration Research.

Posted by

0

I have decided to go back to research and see what other styles I can apply to my alligator design. I did some realist Alligator research drawing, however I feel that if I want to add character and a fun element to my designs I will have to stick to basic and cartoon illustrations. I searched on Pinterest to see if I could find some fun illustrations that showed lots of character to the drawings, these are my favourite:

b9505c27fc4cde2515c876091672e4a6 e5fd5bad1a40f28019d061e1ec67c9ca d99584b00f42f8da2978a2e128546eff 400661ecb839b989eecdf6dae5464f6a 794ffc8f3cf765bb2077954b838d712c 879ab40b20c55e196606f9a24ce0389b c58f922b02ceed00b9c9045244b9157a 8d7fc8d10f896baa001deebb7ba0dc36 d5a99e4d95e57a2fe62f7493a0252e80

 

What I like most about these illustrations was how they portrayed the alligators as being friendly, cute and harmless which I what I want to show in my illustrations too. I also like the use of watercolour effects to relax to the fact Alligators habitat is lakes and water. When I am home over easter I would like to get the watercolours out and experiment with paints, as I feel it would give a different effect than if I made it digitally, even though I prefer digital work overall. I plan to experiment most, if not all of these styles so I am going to create some pastiches and see which style I enjoy the most and looks the strongest.

The Anxious Alligator, Typography Research.

Posted by

0

I have passed my design around and decided to focus a lot more on the Anxious Alligator story. So I felt I should research and practise into some other fonts that would compliment the look on the front cover of my picture book and also keep the theme of simplicity and cartoon like. I went onto dafont.com for all of my fonts as I have previously seen some really good fonts that will compliment against my designs, I am including the “Ice Age” font as a consideration however my analysis of that isn’t in this post as its in the previous one.

The first font I downloaded was “Cute Cartoon”. This font stood out to me as its very different, without using too much detail. However, compared to my alligator design, I feel as if it doesn’t match the style of my book. I also feel like each letter is quite narrow and it doesn’t fill out the front cover as much as I want it too. However I do like the coloured outline and keeping a transparent/ white fill on the each letters.

 

Anxious Alligator Front Covers

 

I really like this typeface. Its called “Orange Juice” and I really like how its fit on the page. I feel it compliments the design of the alligator and it stands out a lot without complicating the text. It also keeps the element of the white fill and letting the outlines stand out. To improve I think I need to make each letter have a bit more space between each other, to avoid any overlapping of the letter. I think if I was to choose this font I will have to look into another font for the writing inside the book depending on how much I plan on writing in the story as its very bold.

Anxious Alligator Front Covers2

 

This font is called “Dimbo”, I downloaded it originally as I thought it was very bold and it would go well with my design. As I think it would be suitable for the cover and the inside of the book. I really like the shape of each letter and how its slightly crooked, I feel that this font would be very practical for my demographic and it doesn’t out stand the design.

Anxious Alligator Front Covers3

 

This typeface is actually called “The Childrens Book”. I really do like this font in terms of style and the space it takes up on the page. However I feel as if I should go for something a little more unique and different as when looking at this design I do feel like I have seen it before. I also think the outline is too thin, and when its next to the animation its actually quite hard to read as there is a lot of white space.

Anxious Alligator Front Covers4

 

 

Story Research

Posted by

0

The main overall topic that I wanted to cover in my children’s picture book was about mental illness, in particular, Anxiety and Loneliness. I found a few books that have already covered these issues in children’s books specifically aimed at 3-12 year olds. I wasn’t taking illustration ideas from these books, just story plots as I was quite worried that mental illness would write well in a book. Stories I looked at were:

Sweet Dreams and Monsters by Peter Mayle:

cade9cb0d7025418fc98b73859ae8914

 

 

Feelings, Aliki:

316891 41S08Z653NL

 

Tim and the Blanket Thief, John Prater:

61eHW99FOQL._SL500_SX258_BO1,204,203,200_

 

Aldo, John Burningham:

Unknown parsons_1

 

I think I’m definitely going to try to convey the topic about anxiety as it is a very common mental issue that kids have in todays culture and society. Its also something something personal to myself, as I know the symptoms so I feel that I could convey it well.

Steve Simpson – Influence

Posted by

0

To prepare for project four I had a look over one of my favourite illustrater and graphic designer, Steve Simpson. He has won over 50 awards for his package design and illustrations and his style is inspired by 50’s advertising and the arts and crafts movement. What I like most about Simpsons work is the use of colours, shapes and lines. Its a very unique style which I like, it is quite similar to Tim Burtons film style and touching on Mexico culture. I like his character drawings the most, as he is able to give them all personality through style and colours, whenever I look at his character illustrations I also seem to see the full personality and back story. I also like his typography and the placement of this typography, which is shown through the book cover design of The Wordsmith.

001-beautiful-illustrations-package-design-steve-simpson 005-la-palma-steve-simpson b5710225393095.56344944971b2 simpson-3 croc-art-copy

 

I have taken this style and done a couple of pastiches to grasp his illustrative technique onto my work. I feel that this would go really nice in a children’s picture book, due to its detailed, bright and imaginative feel to it.

Scan 160570001

 

Scan 160570004-1 Scan 160570004