Chris Haughton Case Study

For this case study I will look at a by created by Chris Haughton which follows the story of an owl that has fallen out of his nest and is trying to find a way back.

CONTEXT AND CONTENT

Little Owl Lost is a Children's book that follows a baby owl that has just fallen out of his nest and is trying to find a way back. By comparing these two case studies you can see that they are both book covers for children’s book but the Little Owl Lost is a much more modern book cover to Winnie The Pooh. This book cover follows the conventions of modern children’s books by having large, bold, bright text which is easy for kids to read and bright, eye catching colours that will draw people to the book if it is mixed with other books. The front cover is a contrast to the rest of the pages in the book as the cover is very basic and simple whereas the inside pages are more adventurous and shocking as colours have more intensity and the imagery becoming slightly more complicated with the overlapping colour layers.

FORM

The colour palette for Little Owl Lost is very bright and striking with the colours focusing mainly on the primary colours but just with changes in there tone. Chris Haughton uses colours as layers especially in the background with the very light colours being at the deepest part of the background and as you progress to the foreground get darker in tone. They do this until the layer in the most foreground is practically black. For example on one page the colour in the background goes from yellow, to an orange/ red to black in the foreground. This however is not portrayed on the front cover as the colours are made up of the darker tones used in the book with only the white of the writing being the brightest colour on the cover. The layout of the front cover is very basic with only the title and an image of the owl being shown, the composition is very symmetrical with the two elements being in the centre and surrounded by the background colour. The cover is heavily influenced by computers through the range of colours used and layering of the colours and crispness of the lines. Texture is not featured through this book as the illustrations are very 2-dimensional. There is a large contrast between the dark and light colours on the page giving the image a sense of depth and perspective.

PROCESS

This book cover is made using very modern techniques with mostly computers, with it possibly being drawn out before hand then being coloured and put together on the computers. There is no bleeding within the illustrations with the colour being held within very crisp lines. On some of the double page spreads there is use of the four colour process (CMYK) which allows the colours to stand out on the page more. With some use of overprinting in the background.

PERSONAL RESPONSE

What I like and drew me to this front cover is the unique style and colours that it gives the reader. The drawing style and background patterns are very stylised and powerful and stay in your mind even after you have finished reading. I also like this cover because of the text style that are very influenced by the artist and draws your attention to it. Also the image of the owl is very sweet and makes you want to look inside the book at the rest of the images.

Drawings From Life

Katy Couprie and Antonin Louchard Artist Copy

Examples of Katy Couprie and Antonin Louchard's work with the piece I used as an artist copy below:

Here is my finished artist copy:

Emulation of Katy Couprie and Antonin Louchard's work:

Initial Ideas

Here I am brainstorming everything linked to my book whether it is the way each page is presented, the interaction between the text and the images or how busy and full each page will be.

Drafting

Experimenting with different page layouts and process ideas for my front and back cover.

Final 4 front cover ideas that I have decided upon.

Experiment - Using Typefaces

As an experiment I created my own typefaces focusing on the subject matter of my book - farms.

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.