'I want my tea' page 2

I have started page 2, which will depict the character in a 'spaghetti jungle', hunting a 'mince monster'.

Coloured-in character for page 2:

Scanned in spaghetti which will form background once edited on Photoshop:

'Mince monster' character- as yet uncoloured:

I want my tea continued...

I have now made a front cover for my story.

Using Photoshop, I coloured in a drawing from my previous post and made a background from collage.

I am pleased with the finished front cover but am aware that I may want to change it as my work develops over the time it takes to make the whole book.

I want to keep working in this half collage-half drawing style but I don't want to stick to a strict colour palette or restrain myself into one style too much, as I want to allow myself to develop a personal style naturally, and to try new collage techniques and ways of drawing as well as doing what I am already good at.

Coloured-in drawing.

This is the front cover I have made:

I have decided to work on 'I Want My Tea' first, and have drawn out my character in various positions and costumes, more carefully on a larger scale.

I will now scan in these drawings, along with some other drawings for the backgrounds, and some lettering, and begin to construct the first few pages.

'I Want My Tea!'...

'I Want My Tea!' is the title I have chosen for my second children's book idea in which a little girl demands lots of imaginative and extravagant meals.

I have started to develop ideas of what her character might look like.
Her character will be drawn, whereas the background will be collage/photo montage with possibly a small amount of sketchier-style drawing.


(Images soon)

'A Howl in the Forest'...

'A Howl in the Forest' is the title I have decided on for my first children's book idea, in which a baby wolf accidentally scares the other inhabitants of his forest.
I have done lots of sketches of scared animals, using animal encyclopedias to practice drawing the basic forms.

I have also now developed how my main character of the baby wolf will look.

I have drawn using a black ink pen, sometimes over pencil, as it is my preferred tool, I will add colour later either with collage or Photoshop.

(images soon)

More Illustration...

I have started to work on two ideas for children's books.

I was really inspired to start writing and illustrating my own kid's stories by the latest volume of David Mack's graphic novel series, 'Kabuki'. In the novel, he talks about becoming an illustrator, and never achieving any results without giving things a go, and actually doing something. The illustrations themselves also influenced me as he uses collage paint and drawing.

The ideas are for a poem set in a forest, which will concentrate more on drawing, and a story to do with food which will concentrate more on collage.

Magnet Men- Final Images.

Using Photoshop, I have made three final images.

I wasn't overly pleased with the images, partly because of my presentation of them- I think they would have looked better on a computer screen rather than printed out.

I liked the general feel of them, and the colour palette, but didn't think my arrangement of the collage or my manipulation of the image was as effective as I could have made it.

I also realised, after feedback that I should have been more precise and aware of what each collage piece could mean, as most viewers picked up messages that I never intended from the work, because of my inclusion of images from fashion magazines.

(images of the work are lost at the moment).

Beginning Illustration...

I have used one of the briefs from the LLoyds TSB 'Art of Nurture' competition, to give me a starting theme for a piece of illustrative work. The theme is 'We stretch ourselves'.

I initially made a spider diagram of all the things I could associate with the word 'stretch'.
Now, I have drawn lots of images of giraffes and started experimenting with using tissue paper and PVA glue for background colours.


(Images soon.)

Illustration from now on...

I have been thinking a lot about what type of practice I would most like to specialise in. Up until now I have been undecided but now I think I would like to aim to become an illustrator.

I think this option leaves room for mixed media work, collage, paint and photography as well as drawing, so this ambition won't leave me boxed into one way of working.

It will also help me to form ides quicker- as I will always have a brief- in the form of the story I choose or write myself.