Project Areas of illustration part 1

Exercise : A children's book cover

You are asked to produce a cover illustration for a natural history book for children ( age 7-11 ) entitled " Animals from Around the World ".

reaserch

     

I went to the library yesterday to do a research.  I found out that many books have a picture of the animals on the front page. I think it is the easiest way of making a book cover for children.  I did not want to go this path therefore I managed to find only a few different ones with the drawings. These books are not my favourite ones but they still look different from just a picture of the animals.

spider diagram

This is my spider diagram for this exercise.  I had some difficulties with finding different ideas for this exercise therefore my spider diagram looks very simple.

ideas

I came up with three ideas while I was sitting in the coffee shop.  The first illustration could have a palm tree built with different animals patterns.

The two next ones could have a tiger or an elephant as a main subject of the cover.  

This is a mood board with a different animals skin patterns.

I managed to play with this board in Photoshop program to achieve an interesting effect.

a

                       b                                                                                                                                     c

first stage of the book cover

I transformed this image into the sketch just like the old books they use to look like.  I kept the colours, as close to the naturals as I could however, I did not like the result.  My cousin said to me that it looks to sad and may not appeal to the younger audience.  After his comment, I decided to make another one.  This time I knew that I should make this book cover more fun and interesting for kids.

another day and another  idea....

I wanted to have a circus or a theatre stage, very colourful with a big red curtain.

I copied a picture of a theatre stage and after that; I started to change the colours.

stage 1

stage 2

So far so good.  I like the effect at this stage.  I am happy with the wooden tablemat, which I scanned and transformed in the computer program.  I am happy with the colours and the depth on the stage.  I have to remember that this is just a background for the animals therefore; it has to be less visible.

stage 3

Next step is to make the animals pictures, as they were puppets in the theatre.  I placed a few pictures on the white background to make them more visible. Later I will place all my animals on the wooden sticks.

stage 4

stage 5

I finished my book cover.  I think that it looks very interesting and stylish.  I hope that the kids in age between 7and 11 would choose this book from the library shelf.