Experimenting

For this first experiment I focused on the process of printing, to do this I started by cutting out the animal shapes and then printing both paper cuts. I then took them into photoshop and began to experiment with repeating patterns as a possible idea for the end pages of my book. I also began to add in a background which had also been printed and changing the colour so that it would be complementary to the rest of the piece. I wanted to use this process because of the texture and the grainy outline it gives the piece and it is not a process I have really explored and I was interested to see how I could incorporate it into my book.

For this next experiment I wanted to see how I could use college in my book. I did this by collecting different types of paper for example atlas pages, dictionary pages and graph paper, I then tea stained them to add another aspect of texture and also to make the design on the paper stand out more on the white background. I then took the piece into Photoshop and added coloured boxes with the opacity reduced so you can still see the college piece behind it. With the background complete I then used the animal prints and used them as the foreground pictures, I also added an ink outline which I did with a brush I offset the bold outline so that the outlines did not match up completely. To finish the piece I also included images that were just made up of the bold outline or the printing animals without the outline. I like working with this technique because it makes the look of the page more interesting with different parts of the page drawing your attention.

Ernest H Shepard Case Study

For this case study I will look at the illustrations done by Ernest H Shepard especially those connection to the Winnie-The-Pooh books and A.A. Milne.

CONTEXT AND CONTENT

This is a book cover of the Winnie The Pooh books by A.A Milne and illustrations from Ernest H Shepard, created in 1926. It follows the story of a group of animals including Winnie The Pooh on their adventures and during their problems they have to face. Its form follows the expected conventions you would associate with a children’s book of that time, it does this through its simple imagery, use of panels to separate different sections and simplicity and professional feel to the book cover.

FORM

The colour palette is natural and basic with it only comprising of several key colours – including blues, browns, greens and yellows. This colour palette is then expanded to also include reds and pinks for illustrations further in the book. The appearance of grids in the composition layout gives it a manufactured feel along with the generic computer text but there is evidence of the hand that made it through the style of the illustrations. This is by the bleeding of the background colour so is not contained within the lines, the scratchy inky line and the hatching technique that would be difficult to replicate by a computer making it feel like it was done by hand. Texture does not really feature in this book cover with the image being very flat to the page. The use of compartments draws your focus to each individual part of the page with the structure of the composition focusing on the centre panel and the title of the book.

PROCESS

This book cover is made very professionally that will attract many people to buy the book. It uses a mixture of modern and classic techniques with the classic water colour and inky pen technique combined with the composition and printing given by the computer.

PERSONAL RESPONSE

What drew my attention to this book cover was the unique style and simplicity of it. The combination of a subtle colour scheme and the separation of different elements of the front cover gives the book a professional and expensive look to it, that you may not expect from children’s books in modern times. I like this book cover because it is modern for its time with only certain aspects of it revealing the time at which it was actually created for example the way the page is split into compartments.

Tree ABC (Typography Experiment)

As an experiment working with typography and using my subject matter as influence I collected letters out of trees and branches. This was to see if I could use the technique in my book, it was good to start to look at objects at a different perspective and other subject they can be linked to. However I found that the idea wasn't clear enough to portray across what my idea was.

Farm ABC (Typography experimentation)

As the next experiment I look into objects found on farms to make the alphabet.

I then went onto spell out the title of my book 'Fun n the Farm' adding a background and a layer style.

Further Drafting

Here is my final draft for what my final piece will end up looking like.

Double page spread:

Front cover:

End pages:

Making the Final Piece

For my final piece I first due out all the separate pieces that would eventually make up the final piece this included the foreground images for the front cover and the double page spread as well as the background pattern for the double page spread. After this I then drew out all the images that would make up my front covers background ready to be cut out.

I cut out all of the shapes ready to be printed which would then be used as the background for my front cover. I cut and printed two sets so I could decide later when they were all on the computer which one looked best and suited the front cover better.

 

Once I put the prints into Photoshop I created and second identical layer to the print but changed the colour and opacity so it was different from the original print. I also off set the two layers and made the colour layer slightly bigger so you could see it as I didn't  want it to be lost completely behind the print. I then created a third layer of which included the image outline which I did using pen and ink earlier, I also offset the outline to give the image an unique look.

I then took these images into a new document that I had set up with the guidelines that would fit my images into. This will be the final layout for the background of the front cover.

To make my double page spread I put the drawings into Photoshop and coloured the background a very simple and calm green colour with the pattern line being a slightly darker green to the background. I then placed the foreground picture in and began to colour it, the colour I used worked well together and didn't fight for your attention. To finish the page I added the text into the speech bubble which will explain the concept of the book as well as placing the owl in the right area of the page and slightly off setting its colour.

Whilst creating my front cover I began to realise that the printed pattern I had originally chosen to be the background on the front cover was to busy and drew your attention away from the important part of the page - the title and foreground images. Instead this pattern I decided would be better as the pattern on my end pages. To solve this I decide to use the college technique I experimented with before which was not so busy and didn't steal your attention away. 

Final Piece

Unit Evaluation

From the brief I came up with creating a educational book that explains to you about an objects but also the inside workings of it. I came up with the idea of using farms as a subject for my piece I then decided that I would make it as a book aimed for children of a very young age. I then began to brainstorm ideas for how the book would look and what will be in it. This was a little difficult as they couldn't be too complicated that children would not understand what was happening but they also had to be educational and informative not boring.

An area that I refined during making my final piece was the form of which I was going to use. I wanted to use a technique that I had not used before although there was the risk that it could go wrong as I wasn't that familiar with it. To do this I did a range of experiments that I thought would work for my book. Printing and mixed media pieces were the experiments that really stood out to me as a process that could work for my book. I then refined the idea by working more closely with the processes and eventually linking them together as prints over a mixed media background. 

An artist that influenced my work was Julia Rothman who has created an educational book about farms that is aimed at adults, 'Farm Anatomy'. This helped me to see how educational book differ from normal books in the way the information is presented as well as how you interact with the book. This then allowed me to come up with me own page layouts and story that would both appeal to children but also have an educational purpose. Another aspect of Julia Rothman's work that influenced me was the hand drawn images that were coloured with water colours as I really liked the way that each drawing was small and simple but yet had so much detail in them. As a result this lead me to include hand drawn images in my final piece as well as printing and mixed media techniques.

My final piece was really successful as it turned out exactly as I wanted it to perhaps even a little better and if I were to do the piece again I wouldn't change anything.