Olivia created a children's book for her FMP that focused on her dog Ottie going on adventures for her first birthday. She did extensive research on illustrators like Julia Donaldson and Oliver Jeffers to inspire her style and storytelling techniques. Her book uses bright colors and focuses on unrealistic scenarios to engage young readers. Olivia planned her book thoroughly, writing the story first before illustrating each page. She received positive feedback and worked on varying Ottie's poses more based on suggestions. Overall, Olivia's book showed her graphic skills and was a personal project that allowed her to challenge herself artistically.

1. FMP evaluation
Olivia Groom

2. Research and methods
• My research was a big part in my FMP as I wanted to collect a lot of inspiration and ideas from
existing children's book illustrators. My work was mainly inspired by illustrators such as Julia
Donaldson and Dr Seuss. The style of my characters and backgrounds is most similar to the work
of Julia Donaldson- her book ’The Gruffalo’ gave me the most ideas and I used it to interpret my
own unique illustrations.
• COLOUR- My use of colour was very important to me during my production so I did a lot of
research on existing products and the types of colour used. As my product is focusing on a young
target audience, I felt colour played a big part at helping children read emotions, imagery and
explaining the story to them better. Illustrators like Julia Donaldson use bright and vibrant colours
with solid fills which I really drew towards more than watercolours and less vibrancy. Dr seuss
used a lot of blacks, whites and reds which I found less intriguing, however his work Is still
extremely fascinating and the artistic techniques he used especially inspired me. I chose Dr Seuss
mainly because his work is very memorable and something I take from my childhood. The book
was praised as exciting and alternate to traditional primers. This made me want to create my
book in the same sense, something with more modern features rather than a traditional theme
like winnie the pooh and roald dahl’s work. The research I did helped me realize this was the type
of path I wanted to take in my production, as my first initial thoughts were doing some dainty,
sketch like illustrations using water colours as this was the style I tended to go for with my
artwork. The research helped me explore my skills and challenge myself a bit more than I would.

3. Research
Language and story writing- initially, I wanted a simplistic take on the story. I
based mine off what research I collected. Julia Donaldson's work such as the
Gruffalo was a bit too far fetched and descriptive for what I was going for, as I
was aiming at a younger target audience. However Oliver Jeffers really caught
my attention with his books, the language wasn’t overly descriptive and he
focused more on his illustrations, creating meaning with the shadows and
angles to portray this. I found this really interesting and for children this tells
the story more through visual language- I found this very clever and
interpreted it into my work. After this research on Oliver Jeffers I realized I
could take bits out of the text on each page and add details to tell the story
more visually, rather than adding more text. His fonts were also a big interest
to me as he convey child like characteristics through this. His fonts portrayed
how a young child would write, which obviously relates to children and is
more on their level. His work had a lot of juvenile aspects that children
themselves are known for so I really liked his style and techniques and
researched a lot of analysis on his work. What drew to me most during my
research was the idea of my illustrations determining the audiences feelings
and thoughts, by using darker colours or my shadows I could immediately
change how my audience was thinking and make them feel empathy or do
the opposite with bright colours and revert the thought process not just from
writing about it.

4. Methods used and missed opportunities
One method I took from my research and carried throughout was
the use of giving my animals human traits and making them friendly
and inviting, as this is quite a popular children's book theme.
Children find this very humorous and animals are a big part of
growing up and interacting with them. I chose a dachshund as the
main character of my book, mainly because it is inspired by my dog
Ottie, but also the fact Dachshunds are sausage dogs and you can
describe them with humour and it’s quite quirky- Dachshunds have
especially become really popular over the last recent years and are
seen a bit as ‘designer dogs’, I realised from my younger sister and
her friends that they are very popular and adored by younger
audiences. I would say one missed opportunity was not taking a bit
more time on researching books on Dachshunds and seeing my
competition, or how other illustrators or authors portrayed them.
However when researching, I felt if I looked at other children's books
with sausage dogs I wouldn’t be focusing on being original and
would start taking too much from other existing work.

5. Final concept
From the get go I had a good idea on what I was going to produce for my FMP and how I would do this, however the
additional things I took from my research really helped bring it together and come up with my final concept. My concept
was to create a childrens book between the ages of 3-5, on a dog named Ottie that runs away from home on her first
birthday and goes to un-realistic places such as space, the jungle, shopping etc. I initially was going to make the story on her
and my sister going on a walk and going to these places together, but felt as though the concept of Ottie running off alone
would be more funny for a child to read about. I wanted my book to be unique and memorable, and something that meant
something to me that I can take home for my family to read. I thought if I made my concept personal and something I know
a lot about and already have knowledge of, it would help me to excel more. I thought the concept of Ottie travelling to
unrealistic places was perfect for a children's book, as after researching I realised children's books always tend to focus on
concepts that are unrealistic and wouldn’t happen, as its more creative visually for young kids and helps them explore their
imagination at a young age. I stuck to my final concept the whole way through my project, as I felt confident in my decision
and knew it was right for me. This goes back to previous projects from the beginning of my second year, such as my fanzine
work and client project, where my work began to improve and I learnt new techniques. I found my artistic skillset within
graphics and applied this to my work, and once I had found my own personal style everything seemed to excel from there.
My fanzine was a really strong piece of mine where I managed to bring again more personal work to my course and this
helped me as I knew what I was working on and trying to express. With my fanzine project, I also learnt to use a graphics
tablet. This was the beginning of me being able to try new techniques and create my own individual illustrations with my
projects, this is why I feel my final concept on a children's book was perfect for me after my previous work practicing with
past projects. I also learnt new techniques on photoshop, such as the filter gallery effect where you can interpret your
original drawings with different textures and styles of brush strokes. Overall, I feel my final l concept was perfect to show off
any skills I had learnt over the 2 year course.

6. PlanningFor my planning, I covered everything needed for my project. I began with planning writing my story and my illustrations
and how I would go about this. My story was the first thing I had to begin planning as I needed to write this first to base my
illustrations on it. I think due to my planning, my project went very smoothly. I managed my time especially well because of
this, and it all went to plan as I thought it out and didn’t rush into anything in the wrong order. With my illustration
planning, I completely stuck to what I wrote about. I planned on creating pages with full backgrounds, and then a couple
with smaller illustrations around the page instead of a full page covered. I also planned the size of my pages before I began
working on them, so the measurements were correct before I started working on them. I also thought about the amount of
pages I was going to create, I said 10 pages and then the cover and the back cover, but ended doing 12 so 14 all together. I
planned the to have 2-4 sentences on each page, which I also stuck to. The planning part of my pre production was quite
simple for me as I just needed to decide on things then I just began producing my pages and writing my story. I also began
doing some pre-production illustrations which really helped me with my confidence and I interpreted these into my final
production. Once I had began testing out my illustrations I knew exactly what kind of style my work was going to carry out.
A big part of my planning was setting out my pages and looking at different layouts. I looked at existing products such as
Oliver Jeffers as he has a variety of page layouts, as well as Julia Donaldson ‘Tiddlers Tale’. In the Gruffalo by Donaldson, her
pages are all quite full and detailed but in Tiddlers Tale her illustrations are separate and spread over the page which I like,
which is why I chose to do a variety in my book. I also did planning on my fonts and colour schemes. With my colour I stuck
to bright and vibrant colours with a high saturation, as I felt this was the best way to tell a story to children and I planned
this from the beginning. I planned to create a lot of different tones within the colours I used. I think this is what makes an
illustration that bit better, having the tones all mix in with one another whether it be the sunset or grass, I involved this
technique throughout my production.

7. Production
My production began with writing my story, which didn’t take up too much time. After I had researched other existing children's
books I had a good idea on the language style I needed to use and how much writing was necessary. I started off writing my
story by introducing Ottie and explaining it was her first birthday, as well as describing her as a sausage dog. The story is then a
short description of the adventure she goes on and what happens along the way. I realized when writing my story, that it
needed to build up to something and make the ending interesting, so I made the ending humorous for children involving Ottie
stealing a star from space when she got home and giving it to her owners to make up for leaving them. I thought this was a nice
touch as its simple but entertains children for an ending to a short story. When it came to my production I only ended up
leaving out one page from my story that I didn't’t feel was necessary to include. After my story writing I could begin with the
illustration and I started with the drawing of Ottie, one from behind sitting down and one from the side standing up. This is the
one thing I really struggled with during my project, I found drawing my main character really tricky as I wanted it to be perfect
and for me to like it, and to reflect my own personal style. I mainly couldn’t decide on the type of illustration I wanted to go for,
as I am normally quite abstract with my artwork and like to do a lot of sketches and not keep it a solid fill. However, I tried to
come out my comfort zone a bit with this and create a character that had cartoon characteristics and a bold fill of colour. Once I
created the drawing of her standing sidewards, I went over the outline a second time and erased any lines that were not
needed then used the paint bucket tool to fill her in. I also used the poster edges effect on filter gallery as this gave a cartoon
aesthetic and I liked how it made her face look a bit clearer. The illustration of her sitting with her back towards the audience
was the easiest to create, I just had to get the right outline of her body from the back but this was the easiest postion for me. It
wasn’t till the end of production I created one of her laying down with her eyes closed, and a full frontal illustration of her- this
was the hardest and most challenging for me as I could seem to create the same kind of characteristics facially like I could with
the others, but I managed to make one that I was happy enough with, although it could have been a stronger illustration.

8. Production- drawing Ottie.

9. production
I practiced creating my front cover after I had designed my character, which looking back was the
wrong first step as it didn’t have any idea on what other illustrations I would be producing and I that I
could actually interpret these into the cover for a hint at what was going to happen in the book. It was
good practice for me as it made me realise how I wanted my front cover to look. I initially imagined
Ottie in some fields with a sunset behind her, however when I practiced this I didn’t think it suited my
style or the theme of the book. I’m glad I spent time thinking about this in the beginning, when it
came to the end of my production that was when I produced my front and back covers. I thought if I
finished all my illustrations, I could pick certain ones that portrayed the adventure theme of the story,
with Ottie going off and visiting all these places, I could place little hints to what the book entails on
the cover. When I researched front covers and the specific artists I had chosen to inspire my work, I
noticed they also did this and it made sense to me to do the same. The Gruffalo and The cat in the
hat, displayed the main characters and the hints to the story, aswell as Oliver Jeffers with all his books.
Oliver Jeffers used the main illustrations and anything that related most to the books story on his
cover. I thought including parts of my books on the cover would only make my book more
memorable, especially for children as they would be seeing it more than once through the duration of
reading it.

10. Production
The next step in my production was creating my first page. I knew what I wanted to
introduce the purpose of my story and character. As the first page is telling the audience
about Ottie and describing her, and her it being her first birthday, I drew some small
illustrations along with Ottie standing sidewards to get the best overall introduction before I
got more descriptive- I thought if I opened with a detailed illustration with lots going on this
would distract my audience as they are younger. Since I had thought about my project a lot
before I began, I had a few pages I had already designed in my head that I was desperate to
begin, so I didn’t create all my pages in order. The second page I created was when Ottie
went up to space. I knew from the get go I wanted to have bright purples and navy blues,
with a rocket and lots of shades of deep colours blended into each other. I could already
picture this in my head, and the graphic tablet was perfect to help me blend in all the
shapes and add detail. I would say this page was one of my strongest, along with page 4
when Ottie was at the beach. With this page I tried to vary out the backgrounds as I didn’t
want them all to fill up the whole page, and rather focus the detail on to smaller
illustrations. I created square shaped outlines for me to draw ottie facing backwards looking
at the sea, adding smaller details to the waves and different tones of blues, the graphics
tablet helped me make the swirls of the waves with being able to change the harshness of
my brush strokes. The best thing about this page was the smaller drawings of beach related
things, such as ice creams and shells. I focused on the pastel colours and made the details
on them tiny. I really liked this variation so I created another page nearer the end of my
book with the same design.

11. Production- Strengths and weakness’
There was a variation for me with my strengths and weakness’ during my production. Overall I feel my
project has more strengths, and was a perfect project for me to show my graphics skills and was a good
choice as it was personal. My time consuming and planning went better than my past projects. I think
the choices of colour were a big strength, and how much it varied. I could never decide if I should of
focused my audience of girls from age 3-5 or both girls and boys. I never specifically chose a gender for
my audience as I didn’t feel it mattered with it being for young children. However, I think my book has
such a strong variation of colour and different scenery’s, that it appeals to both young girls and boys.
My weakness’ were probably keeping my production really detailed, as I tend to go off and be quite
abstract and sketchy with my designs. I tried hard to ensue my work was as good quality as I could, I
wanted it to stand out from my past projects but keep my own style within this. I went back a lot on my
illustrations and used the filter gallery effect to smarten them out, as well as going over lines and
colours a second time to make them stronger and more effective. My strengths were definitely the
creative side of my backgrounds and the use of different environments on each page. Adding to this,
my work was also all hand-drawn. Each of my drawings was either drawn by hand then scanned onto
my computer or I used the graphics tablet- all my work is completely original designs.

12. Technical problems
Don’t know what to write for technical issues?

13. Feedback- my questions

14. FeedbackAfter doing my peer feedback, I felt very confident and happy with my
product, as well as taking my constructive feedback on what I could improve
on into consideration. One thing I really agreed on and worked on was giving
my character Ottie more varied poses and angles, as it was a repetitive
product of her either standing side wades to the right or sat down with her
back towards the audience. To improve this, I flipped her body side wades
facing right, and also produced two new positions for her. I produced one
with her body laying down, and her eyes closed so she was sleeping and a
frontal one. Ottie only hasd one expression and my audience felt that if she
had different faces in most of the pages, the child audience would connect
more with the character and easily be able to identify the character’s
emotions on their own instead of having to read the text first every time- I
also really agreed with this. This is an example of facing my feedback and it
being well recipiated. One thing I didn’t improve was the text. I got some
feedback advising me to add some colour and variation to my texts as I used
the same font through out and all my text was in black. I didn’t change this as
personally I felt that it was the best use of text for my product. I did however
put shadows around the text so it stood out, but I thought with so much
colour and imagery going on anyway, the text was best kept minimalistic.