Wind In The Willows Book Cover Draft

Evaluating all my elements together from my sketchbook, and deciding on an effective book cover for the Penguin and Puffin award presented a challenge. This come with instructions on a template size, developing the typeface, the correct size and format for cutting the book. Their for I had to combine my elements together to translate a chapter or elements of the wind in the willows character, my chosen design translated tode being in prison and wanting to go home, that emotion I felt would become an effect book cover. Showing the audience a small part of the story but knowing them to ask question to why tode is in prison? This allows the book to be more sellable. 

I development my book cover in photoshop, changing contrast and levels to create a mood, and setting the seen of the environment, the reason for doing this was that I struggled to translate a more harsher effect free- hand, so moving it into photoshop would allow me to change and enhause some of them harsher colours, but not taking alway the effect of producing the work with free hand qualities.

These are screen shots of my first draft of my Wind in the Willows book cover.

Over Easter break areas of my book cover need changing and developing, communication with my Tutors and their professional advice, showed me that the audience is key and to capture their attention the main character (tode) and (tode Hall) need to me more powerful. 

Areas of improvement

1. Tode

2. Tode Hall ( Brighter)

3. Background less dark/ smaller bricks

4. Window background lighter... contrast with Tode Hall

5. Typeface to be developed

6. Development of the back cover, continuos story into the background.

7. Room for writing in the background... Incorporation into the design maybe.

Beatrice Alemagna

Beatrice Alemagna was introduced to me over the easter break. She is a illustrator, Author, and artist...  her work is very similar to be method of working and their creative style incorporates a lot of free hand, found materials, textures and rubbings. I have found her work very infulencal and I constantly look at her work in regards to the wind in the willows book cover, eg how to structure the book cover, movement of story and continue development.

Discussion Forums: Illustrations That Move

Illustrations that move.....
This discussion is one that I feel most bi est in the form of animation, though out my briefs we are always show different aspect of art, printing, collage, graphics, etc. One in-particular is animation....
I no never to judge a book by its cover. But animation has never influenced me and I have never wanted before to make any of my work cover. I felt that if I took my work to be animated it would looks the quality and it wouldn't look the same, or deliver the same message.
But this presentation of allowing one small part of the your work to move, in some cases increased the message and adds more interaction into the image.
The examples that were show in the presentation and how it was deliver didn't change my mind but was more interesting. So if given our next brief I hope that I take more chanced and give animation a chance, if it is something I continue to dislike and believe it doesn't suit my style of working, then I that least have the experience and know that I'v tried different elements.

Sketchbook Development Work

Continuing on from my Sence Of Place research I started to work on my sketchbook combining my influences from previous artist and my sense of place reference. 

These are some of my development pieces from my sketchbook I have worked on.

These image reference are photographs from my Sence of Place, this gives me an idea of form, shape, texture, colour etc

Mr Tode

Confident, classy English man, rich, attention seeker, spotlit, greedy 

( In this sketch he is sad and misses his friends because he is in prison for steeling

and crashing someones car).

Made from collage, materials cuttings, pastel and coloured pencil 

Tode Hall

Made from paper, collage, textures, and wallpaper cuttings 

Mr Mole

Shy personality, always worried, not ever confident

good friends with ratter

Bager 

Old English Man, confident, strong, grumpy, hates socialistic events,

old friend of Todes farther, and a strong role model for tode. 

Ratter

Quiet person, loves nature, loves his home, takes pride in where he lives, good

friend, helpful and strong. Mole looks up to ratter for confidence.

The Open Road

The horse and Carriage.

Features Mole, Tode and Ratter.

Typeface for wind in the Willows. Keeping to the technique

I produced my characters in, combining collage and personality

Layout of Book cover. Tode in Prison

Prison Wall & Sketch of tode Hall in the distance.

Wind in the Willows Summary of Brief

Starting off our knew term we where give an open brief ( An open brief is a collection of competition briefs and they allow us the choice which brief we would like to work on).
Penguin/ Puffin Awards
The wind in the wiloows
Competition Deadline: Thursday 9th April 2013 
Cover design, cover copy, spine and typeface

I first printed out a copy of the brief, and the submission ideas so I had an idea of the template and the amount of time and space I had on the template to produce my work on.
From this I started to look at the research side, looking at other illustrators for influence, not for guidance but looking at their unique styles and how other illustrators have Representative the characters. I then went back to my original form for research and got the book, but doing this it allowed my own imagination to run free and the ideas allowed me to have a starting point to my research.
Sence of place sketchbook is a collection of image reference that stimulate my imagination and allow me to great my illustrations based on that descriptions of the book and what ideas I have taken from the book? For example the characters tode, ratter, mole and bager. What their personalities are like? Based in the English country side, what might their homes looks like? ratters lake house, tode Hall, the Dark Dark wood. All these element are reference image will be collected in my sketchbook  along with texture, colour pallets anything that represent an idea or influence me in any way.
From the sense of place work I can then begin my sketchbook work and combine different ideas together.

Discussion Forums: The Untamed Tigers

Hello sorry this might be really late but I did post this some time ago and it hasn't saved onto my blog for some reason.
Every couple of months for our on going research and to keep connected with the artist world around us, we started to do monthly disuses about subjects that might link with our knew briefs for something that we might all be interested in developing our knowledge of. I was in a group with Tash and Burt. Our discussion was a book called The Untamed Tigers: The Illustrator & The Self- initiated Projects 20 10

The summary of the writing is about weather illustrates should have constant visual stimulation, should they produce their own work on top of work they get commissioned... why do they do this? and can you tell who's work it is? Is it completely different. Can illustrators have their own projects?

What do you think is meant by the term ' Autherstrator'? An autherstrator is illustrator who has work commissioned but also creates their own work, creating knew projects, looking for knew competitions that challenge your own personal style of working, something that is different from their commissioned style of working.

Are you an Illustrator or a Autherstrator?  In my studies as an Undergraduate student I am learning all kinds of ways of learning and it is important to constantly have a Visual Language and communicate my styles with knew inventive ideas, even when those ideas are your own. So I would like to be a Autherstrator, to constantly challenge myself and my imagination, and maybe people will like my own personal work because of my knew ever in riching style of personal representation.

I constantly have a sketchbook full of materials and ideas that I work on though out my projects because they are rich in knowledge and it allows me to look back at different techniques I have learnt though out my studies and us them again in knew and inventing ways.

John Berger: Ways of Seeing

Ways of Seeing By John Berger, BBC, Penguin Books 1972..

I was introduced to this book and writer in contextual studies tutorial. It was based on an Image Analysis essay.
From my analysis of the book, Berger is a strong figure of what art translates, its meaning, the connection  and how we make a comment on what we see?
Talking about how galleries preserve this element of greatness where as a re-production of a painting has less on an effect when ts on you living room all, the meaning is forgotten and to the public its just a pretty image.

of paintings is no longer attached to them; their meaning becomes transmittable  that is to say it becomes information of a sort, and, like all information, it is either put to use or ignored; information carries no special authority within itself. 

Reproduction isolates a detail of a painting from the whole. The detail is transformed  An allegorical figure becomes a portrait of a girl.

This book and the writer Berger is a strong influence in my work and how I connect with art in the future. It allows me to understand that technology is a good quality, and can be developed. But how it is can also damage some aspects of work an artist life in how it is re-produced.