Character Progress

These are a couple of images from my sketchbook to show my development into how I am working on developing the face and the reactions in different scenes of the book, by making sure the Mr Frog stays the same though out the story and adding aspect of humor and suspense is something I am working on at the moment in my other images. 

Drawing the Figure

  

Working with animals is something I can connect to extremely well. But to become as good children's book illustrator I need to draw children. This was one of the most challenging aspect of working on my book, gathering reference and taking photo's and using my family as models to make sure that the figure is right and also making sure that I draw it properly and translate that into collage was a big challenge.
In some areas for example the Third image with Princess Catherine crossing her legs, was a massive challenge to make sure her body was correct and the dress moved with her body and didn't look too stiff. But after working and gathering lots of evidence I finally came up with the right amount of images that reflect my characters movements, character and personality in different ways.

FIG: AOI Portfolio Review 1x

Having the opportunity to meet with clients is important to my succession as a upcoming illustrator, but it is also important to get valuable feed back from clients or agents about my portfolio. So finding out we had the opportunity to meet FIG from the AOI Agency was a great boost to see what she could tell us about the industry and what to do after we graduate?

The meeting I felt was extremely interesting and I liked the fact that FIG told it as it was and didn't hold back, because that is important to really understand how hard illustration is and how much competition we have in the industry. It was a great reality check and a great boost of confidence when she looked at my portfolio. She gave me great website links for competitions and briefs that would fit around my style of working, also to work a bit more on my AGE UK buildings as she thought they would look great in editors and on wallpaper. 

Development of Characters

Sense of place is a massive part of how I create my characters, I us primary and secondary research to find different scales and face expressions to translate into my Frog character.....

My step by step action

• Research primary & secondary.
• Drawings and collages.
• Colour pallets.
• Looking at my rough book ( the scene and what the frogs action will be, body language and face reactions).
• Draw onto tray-sing paper and then transfer onto a hand made colour or texture suitable for this frog.
• This is where I cut and collage my shapes together, adding shadow and detail.

These are 2 of my outcomes I have produced so far and feel very happy with the colour outcome, and how the face looks similar, making sure the characters are the some though-out the story.

Holly Wales Illustrator

HELLO I’M AN ILLUSTRATOR!

Holly Wales is a UK based illustrator and educator. Holly explores subject matter through a body of playful images & hand-drawn felt tip marker pen colour illustration for all kinds of commissions including illustrated maps and hand drawn type

   http://hollywales.com/

I was so excited to find out Holly Wales was talking to us today, after researching into the type of work she produces it would be great to find out how important it is to find work and how she works with clients. Her talk was everything and more I was hoping for, the more she talked the more I found out that our working process is very similar, we both work a lot with connect and can illustrate sometimes from others idea of how they want this to look, or give her a lot of content to work on and research into which was very encouraging and also how she finalises her work by taking it into Photoshop and creating layers and not changing the rough textures and unfinished look she produces. I found a very strong connection to her working practice and how important it is to connect with your clients.

"LOVE HOW ILLUSTRATION IS CONTENT DRIVEN" Holly Wales

How do you find work after your graduated??? And she replied competition briefs are great to find work and also keep motivated to produce work after you graduate because of the quality of the briefs and the deadlines to meet.

Emma Reynolds

Emma Reynolds talk about 'Narrative Structure and Devices'. Her experience is broad and she is currently working for animation house studio Kilogramme doing character development and sense of place 'backgrounds' for them.
http://emmareynoldsillustration.com

This lecture was very important for me as I am working on a children's book for my FMP and also wish for a career choice, so understanding her methods of working and how she creates her characters was a key influence to how I produce my characters.

• Working with different angels of the face, front, back, side, up and down.
• Cropping to create interest.
• Don't illustrate every word, the adult can read it to the child. Text & Image play their own role.
• Text: The words will say one thing ( The pictures will do different things).
• Both enhance one another without repeating yourself .
• Proportion... Large head small body. Looking at different view points.
• Make the pages flow into each other.
• Attach elements of humour depending on your age group.
• Size, layout and colour ideas.
• Rough books, continuous line of a story board no page divides.
• Playfulness and enjoyment.
• Sense of place and the equality of research.

Henri Matisse The Figure

Bringing together a children's book is difficult and I easily connect with animals and casting humor and a personally onto an animal but figures have always been a challenged to me in my work, and especially working on children's books I have to be able to draw children. As I started working with different materials felt it wasn't working but speaking to my tutor's I decided to look at my first inspiration for using collage as a form of making my illustrations which was Henri Matisse Drawing with scissors.

So I started to forget about what a figure SHOULD look like and think more about abstracting the figure more and making it more creative and fun. The overall outcome I felt was very successful and will continue to work in this method until I find a technique that I am happy with.

The King & The Princess Catherine