Children's Book Project

As part of a mini group project we are designing children's books. I am in a group Abi, Adam B, Katie and Hannah Y and we decided to make the main character a puppy who is looking for a home (sad, isn't it?)

Puppy started out life, as many puppies do, as a line drawing. I previously uploaded a version I had applied textures to on Photoshop. I drew out the line drawings and separate ink layers for the rest of the puppy images in the book, but this morning I decided on a different direction.

Hannah brought in the children's book 'Wild Animals' by Bettina Paterson. She tears coloured paper and arranges it into animal forms. It's such a simple procedure but it also provides a lot of texture to work with. The sugar paper has a grainy look and the torn edges look like fluffy fur.

                                    
I was immediately drawn to this technique because of the layers and textures. It allowed me complete control without having to rely too much on Photoshop (I didn't end up using for the illustrations) because I used blu tack to each component so it could be moved, angled and replaced if necessary.

Here is the puppy I created. I think it has been moved a few times since I first constructed it but I will post images of the puppy on the pages. I made this from the line drawing I did. This was a freehand version that was originally going to be a mock-up, but we were pleased with the outcome and it has a hand-done feel in both an adult and child-like way.

The bird!! I had in mind to do mock-ups for all the animals but the rest of the group were happy with them. I made this one without a template or line drawing. Looking back, I should have made a line drawing first but this is natural and spontaneous.

Again, I made this without a template which I probably should have made but I liked getting a feel for the paper and making the curvy lines. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed making these and I like the amount of control one can have over paper. It so often dictates what we do as designers, but every now and then we need to get our hands around it.