Michael Rosen

Michael Rosen's Sad Book
Illustrated by Quentin Blake, this book is a personal account of what has happened in the author's (Rosen's) life.
As the title describes, the book is about his sadness which revolves around the loss of his child. It's a short account of why he's sad, what he does when he's sad and how he tries to combat it. Unlike many children's stories, there is no definitive happy ending; the reader just feels a snippet of hope towards the end of the book that everything may be ok in time. I guess doing this gives a much more real approach to subjects such as mourning and depression as a lot of people don't come out of it easily.
This is why I wanted to choose a subject that can help possible readers to cope/understand. When I read the book, I connected to it. It's simple, it's to the point, it's raw. This book is the kind that can help others; they can relate, mourn, and empasise with this character, even if they haven't necessarily gone through the extact same thing.
Some of the illustrations show such sadness that, in a way, I think it is a bit too sad for children who aren't going through sad/bad things themselves. Children usually like to be entertained and read books that are uplifting/colourful; ones that make them happy. This is the opposite.

In the book, there's a lot of grey/muddy brown/creams which helps to create the feeling of sadness, and they're balanced out by the colourful images which mostly depict scenes that remind Rosen of happiness. I do feel like bright colours (greens, reds etc) should only have been used on the happier, reminiscing pages, as this would have reinforced the differences between the two emotions. But doing this, would mean a lot of the book would be grey/brown/dark. I am assuming this book was aimed for children, and if Blake did this, then it would have been too dull.
The use of colour is something that I need to look at when I have completed my storyboard.
 It helps to reflect the mood of the narrative
Helps to tell the story.


 




Ant Jumratsilpa
http://antsj.wordpress.com/category/briefs/

ARTIST RESEARCH

ARTIST RESEARCH

• Sophie Blackall

Uses the colour wheel "rules" to find colours that compliment.
She uses hints of opposite colours to create a balance.
I find the top work works really well. The pinky background allows the teal on the pigeon to really stand out, as well as the woman's dress (opposites). The red belt and orange...oranges also compliment the background as they're colour wheel "neighbours". I also like the fact that she's used only a few main colours; it makes it easier to see the whole image instead of being overpowered by the rainbow.
The second one works too, but I feel that the red scarf is far too bright. Unlike the top one where my eye focused pretty much on the whole image straight away, my eye goes straight to the scarf with this one. It doesn't help that it's pretty central and that's where the eye tends to go to. The focal point of the image should be the feet (she's standing on his toes) not the scarf. Maybe if she toned down the red colour and made the female feet slightly bigger/gave her boots so more colour could be seen, the image would work better?

TUESDAY, 20 NOVEMBER 2012

http://spoilsoffailure.tumblr.com/post/25526718708/by-dan-voinea

THURSDAY, 18 OCTOBER 2012

Because I'm trying to create a worldess picture book, finding examples of other similar books would help me to figure out layout and give me an idea of how detailed the illustrations have to be (so the audience can follow the story easily).

Some examples I found on http://kathytemean.wordpress.com/2012/07/18/wordless-picture-books/ are:

ERIC CARLE'S "DO YOU WANT TO BE MY FRIEND?"
TOO MANY JUMPS- STORY LINE NOT CLEAR. FAIRLY SIMPLE SO NOT OVERPOWERING

RAYMOND BRIGG'S "THE SNOWMAN"
SIMPLE COLOUR PALATE- EASILY READABLE-EXPRESSIVE- KEEPS YOU ENGAGED

ALEXANDRA DAY'S "GOOD DOG, CARL"
DETAILED/ FAIRLY REALISTIC, BUT A LOT OF SPACE AROUND THE IMAGES TO BALANCE THEM. EACH SEQUENCE IS FLUID- NO GAPS- EASILY READABLE, TOO SPOON-FED FOR ADULTS?

CHRIS RASCHKA'S "A BALL FOR DAISY"
BRIGHT SIMPLE COLOURS AND SHAPES. EXPRESSIVE

JERRY PINKNEY'S "THE LION AND THE MOUSE"
DETAILED- MAYBE A BIT TOO DETAILED?

Some do have a few words here and there to help tell the story. Without small phrases, Eric Carle's "Do you want to be my friend" would just be confusing as nothing actually is really told through the illustrations. 

Without text to tell the story, more flowing illustrative sequences also have to be used so the reader can see clearly what is happening. There can't be many big jumps between two drawings. Quote from kathytemean.wordpress.com:

Dawn Jeffers: "Wordless picture books and picture books with limited words are  both beautiful and educational. They help children develop language, creative thinking and enhance future reading and writing skills. Using wordless picture books, children learn that reading follows a left-to-right pattern. They learn that stories generally have a beginning, a middle section and an ending. They also learn to identify details, see cause and effect, make judgements and draw conclusions."

I've never really thought of them in that way before. I know toddler/baby books have hardly any text, if any, but I thought they were just visually engaging. They have much more of a purpose than just that.


Looking at scarves
Seeing how they swamp the wearer, how they hang, how they sit etc

                                      
         

MONDAY, 20 AUGUST 2012

Google Image

sweet bird sculptures made from paper. Sadly, I couldn't find the name of the artist. Too grown up for children? Not colourful/cartoony?

TUESDAY, 14 AUGUST 2012

Frank Gonzales – Bird Paintings

The mysterious anon. bird artist has been identified! I really like the use of colour and texture within these paintings. They're accurately drawn, yet at the same time, they're not. I find them very expressive; they move on the canvas.

I know one thing that I want to have in my final piece; it's to incorporate bird items into the story.
Anthony Browne does this a lot in his books. Using fruit for tree foliage, hats for clouds, and using bananas for end pages are just a few examples. He also uses anthropomorphism, adapting gorillas/monkeys into humans, which is something I want to take forward with this project. I've dabbled in anthropomorphism before and really enjoyed drawing animals with human characteristics, so I'm excited to do it again.

Julie Thompson uses feathers and natural materials for her canvas, intertwining art and nature. I decided to have a go creating birds out of leaves. Unfortunately it caused havoc with my hay-fever, and the final outcome started to crumble a lot as it dried.

http://www.featherlady.net/

TUESDAY, 7 AUGUST 2012

Anthropomorphism images (mainly)
Matty Cipov

 Amy Ross
 Gabriella Barouch

Jean Ignace Isidore Gerard

Anthropomorphism appeals to me because it's a challenge. You've got to figure out what the animal would look like in certain poses. How would a paw look if it was holding a pencil for example?

THURSDAY, 19 JULY 2012

Inspiration images: textured, layered, movement, interesting to look at.

As I am keen to incorporate texture into my work, I'm going to be looking at various artists who use texture within theirs. 

Artist unknown, but the image was found here: http://zonapellucida.wordpress.com/2011/02/17/greetings/

This image I found on google- artist unknown again, which is rather annoying!

Timothy Basil Ering

Layers on the paint, and he uses blues for shadows like Lucien Freud 

Lucien Freud

I love how he doesn't smooth down the paint. It's choppy and full of texture. His paintings don't feel flat and boring. I prefer his way of creating shadows too, by using blues as it creates a better atmosphere and isn't as harsh as using blacks/browns.

TUESDAY, 17 JULY 2012

More Research http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6UaAlLtEYs&feature=player_embedded#!
Garden birds stylised
Each has its own personality, and I like how you can still tell the species of bird but it's not accurately drawn.

Anna Wili Highfield 
Creates her sculptures using ripped paper. There's so much texture and movement in each sculpture and I love how they look realistic but they have such a raw quality.

http://www.lostateminor.com/2011/01/18/sydney-based-artist-anna-wili-highfield/

Eric Peake

Stylised cute budgies. They just make me smile.

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/k_jones/clwyd/peake.htm

I had a go at drawing birds in a style similar to his. I had fun creating them, but I feel that they're too flat for me. I couldn't sustain this style for an entire project, I like texture too much.

  

Paul Geraghty
Good use of composition and space. Bright colours, detailed illustrations. In this photo, he doesn't over do it. He keeps the background plain so the foreground image can stand out. I need to look at this myself during the development part of the project. I find it hard sometimes to get the balance right, and usually I go too detailed and busy. 

http://www.paul-geraghty.com/GGF.htm


Fernanda Cohen
More contemp. illustration, suitable for both children and adults. The pastel shades appeal to both groups. 

Victoria Ball
Good use of space and composition. Not too busy, but busy enough.

Looking at the differences between a more mature book cover and one aimed for children.

It's interesting to look at different book editions and see the differences between each one (I know that the ones shown aren't all the same book, but they're linked by the whole Alice in Wonderland theme).

The first two I'd class as mature. They're fairly plain to look at and don't have the "razzle dazzle" children's covers usually have; adults engage in a different way and don't necessarily need cartoon-like child-friendly covers to get them interested after all!

The bottom two are more child friendly: , busier, more interesting to look at, cartoon-like, colourful etc.

Research

After doing some research on the internet and talking to children/adults, I made a list of what the general percentage of each demographic liked to see in a picture book. 

Children are usually attracted to bright colours, simple compositions and stylised/cartoon characters, whereas adults showed much more of a variety. They don't necessarily need illustrations to help tell the story, and they are able to work out complex illustrations (like Sara Fanelli's) a lot more easily than children, who are more reliant on easy-to-read illustrations.  Adults can put two and two together/ assume what's going on, where children need much more  guidance. 

I also looked at different age ranges and the differences between the illustrations found in books targeted for them. 

From looking at the Walker Books Website, I found:

+2 books were simplistic, expressive, used bold primary colours or pastel shades, they were easily readable and engaging (examples, "Hello Tilly" by Polly Dunbar and "Za-Za's Baby Brother" by Lucy cousins.)

+5 books were busier, had more detail and text, had more mature/personal subject matters, a variety of fonts (examples, "Owl Babies" by Martin Waddel, illustrated by Patrick Benson)

+7 books had more text, detailed illustrations, more mature colour palates, shading, texture (example,"Snook Alone" by Marilyn Nelson and illustrated by Timothy Basil Ering)

However, this is just a general view and isn't set in stone. There are books like "Say Hello" by Michael and Jack Foreman  (subject- bullying) and "My Dads" by Kelly Bennett and illustrated by Paul Meisel (subject- homosexuality) which are designed for +3 children, and the illustrations in both books seem quite detailed and the subject matter is mature. Children are smart and sometimes I feel like adults forget that. The last thing I want to do is create something that undermines their intelligence. 

Rule number 1- There are no rules in art. 

These are a couple of cards I made.

Bold, simple shapes are suitable for younger children.

Brighter colours draws the audience in

http://www.dailypainters.com/paintings/222766/Green-Parakeet-4x4-Collage/Carmen-Beecher

THURSDAY, 31 MAY 2012

http://www.neo-innov.fr/

For the more mature audience.
The way he uses texture and form is amazing. I feel that his usual choice of colour palate (browns, muddy colours) gives a soft, warm feeling to the images. I do feel that they are way too dark (in colour) and old for children though; they need visuals that keep them engaged and interested- more bright colours than dark. Saying this, some of his work is very colourful, but it's done in a different style. It's a shame he doesn't use bold colours for the portraits; I think it would work well.