unicorns

This is the first of the illustrations I am doing for my final piece, which shall be a set of three key points taken from the story. I have decided that fewer colourful illustrations would be preferable to more black and white ones, as my research shows this is more common in children's books. Children find coloured images preferable (I put this question to my friend's sister and brother and received a definite answer), and I also believe that they would be more interesting aesthetically for my final piece. A set of watercolour images would also be easier to recognise as children's illustration in an exhibition.

When I scanned in the image, I found that it distorted the colours somewhat. Below is the original scanned image; the light tones of pink and orangey reds seem to have completely disappeared.

I altered the colours on Photoshop a little to try to get the image as close to the real thing as possible. The image below shows this.
Whilst messing with this, I increased the blue tones to end with the image below. I actually find this image preferable to my original painting as I think it is somewhat more mysterious and depicts the 'blue light' from which the unicorn appears far better. It also makes the light seem to reflect off of the trees in the background.
If it was possible to submit the images for printing digitally, I think I would choose the bottom image.

final piece

I wish! This is the ink outline of the image which I shall fill using watercolours. I got slightly distracted and started drawing a brain and found that it fitted perfectly above the ray of light..

toucan/birdy

After completely going through the first part of the story, I learnt that Wendy the unicorn can change forms at her will, and for most of the story takes the form of a "toucan like bird but with a smaller beak". So, here's a toucan with a smaller beak.

I will be moving on to colour next.

zines and nice things

I have been searching for types of illustrations for different purposes to see how the styles vary between topic, and have taken a liking to zines and zine culture. Over the summer I am going to make my own simple zine using pens, pencils and a photocopier. After experimenting with Quark at the start of the year, I have decided that it is far too complicated for little projects where overall quality is not immensely important. I might even use publisher.

I have found several websites which concentrate on zine culture, the first being wemakezines which is a networking site similar to facebook or myspace but purely for people interested in making zines. They even stress how they are not interested in people's social lives or interests, and simply want to use the site to compare, swap and take ideas for zines. They also arrange events, including a zine making day for 13 - 19 year olds which took place in September last year at Leeds library.

I also found this blog which I believe could be useful for publishing etc.

famous children's illustrators

I have been looking through some of my favourite children's books to gain inspiration for my project. The books which stand out as my favourites from when I was young are those by Roald Dahl, Dr. Seuss and Beatrix Potter, especially as I'm from the Lake District where Potter lived and used to visit the "Beatrix Potter Attraction" in Bowness-upon-Windermere quite often as a child. These books are all beautifully illustrated and really brought the stories to life.

The Big Friendly Giant from Roald Dahl's "BFG" above, and "George's Marvellous Medicine" below.

The "Cat In The Hat" and some of the characters from the book below.

"The Fox In Socks" below.

brian chippendale

This is from a book by Brian Chippendale, who was part of something similar to ‘Tacheles’ (an art collective in Berlin, situated in an old building with separate studio spaces which is also free for the public to look around) but in America called ‘Fort Thunder’ which was a collective of artists and musicians as he is also a member of the band "Lightning Bolt".

This is the front cover from his book "Ninja".

Chippendales work is mostly in black and white, only using colour for the covers.

ivor cutler

Ivor Cutler was a Scottish poet, humorist and  songwriter who was born in 1923 and died recently in 2006. He was featured on many radio shows as well as live performances of his poetry, some of which solo and some including backing accompaniments. Cutler also published several books of his work, including illustrations of some of the characters in his poetry, the ones below being part of his unpublished bestiary circa 1966-71, created right on the eve of his first published book.

I find Cutler's style of illustration charming, as despite looking very childish, they are obviously very well thought out. As well as their accompanying poetry they are quite bizarre.