fmp planning take 2

1. Writing my story
• My plan is to write my story begin with first before my production, then go on to creating
my artwork and how many pages I want with whatever content will be on each page, due
to the story and what events are taking place. As the idea of my book is the dogs outings,
I want to create the story and write it out first, and then draw the illustrations in detail so
I can then connect the artwork to the the story accurately. I think initially most of the
ideas of places and different scenery will come to me whilst writing this, but I will also
plan a rough idea of what content I will be designing so I’m not just thinking of it on the
spot. My plan is to create a cover and a back cover first, and write the blurb so I have an
overall description of what my books about, then fill in the rest of the book. I plan to
have about 10 pages, depending on the detail of my work. I want to spend a lot of time
on the backgrounds, as it was a choice between applying a lot of detail to the character
or backgrounds and I figured the background would draw my attention and fill up the
book with more colour and life to it. The story is obviously also a big part of the book,
but as I am aiming of a target audience that is quite young I don’t have to involve too
much detail within the language. I am planning on writing 2 sentences for each page,
possibly involving rhymes as this is what children tend to remember at a young age.

2. Illustration planning
• I plan on doing 10-15 pages of illustrations, with and filling all the pages with color and drawings,
focusing on the backgrounds. To do this, I will need to have a plan of what order my story will be
in, therefore I will write this first and stick my drawings to the text on each individual page. I know
the focus of my beginning and ending, so I will start with drawing these pages and do the middle
lastly. I think if I stick to this plan, I will also be producing solid work for the beginning of the book
which is probably most important, spending a lot of time on some really detailed illustrations so I
don’t panic when if I run out of time instead of rushing to through the first few pages and then
get to a point where my work isn't reaching the best quality. To do this I need to plan what size
paper I am going to create my work on, probably A5 as this means I can create smaller drawings
with more detail. I will need to make sure the measurements on Photoshop are correct for me to
do this correctly. To produce my illustrations, I will be using Photoshop and a graphics tablet, and
potentially draw a few sketches onto paper and scan them onto the computer to use such as the
character drawings where they involve more expressions and positions. From doing research on
Julia Donaldson, I do also really like the idea of having a variety with some pages having a white
background, with smaller illustrations on the page, instead of just focusing on the background. If I
do this, I would use shapes around the illustrations similar to Julia Donaldson's work, and make
little backgrounds for the individual illustrations.

3. Existing products of shape backgrounds.

4. Different styles of background illustration

5. Example of using just a white
background with separate
illustration and text
This is just a rough idea of not using
background with my illustrations. I
quite like the idea of not using a
background on my cover, as it draws
more attention to the name of the
book and the character. Obviously in
my final production I will include
more detailed illustrations instead of
this quick bit of grass I used the
brush tool to create.

6. Drafting my story
• As I will be writing the story myself, it will probably include a few changes
along the way. To make sure I can evaluate my work at the end of my
production and have a clear overview of how I wrote the story, I will log all
the changes made and my drafts to the finished product. Doing this, I will
be able to explain why I made any changes or what the strengths and
weakness’ of my use of language and creative writing skills were. When
writing my story I will most likely begin drafting on some paper,
handwritten so I can just play around with ideas and what kind of language
I’ll be using, whether I want to create rhymes or a little poem on each
page, as well as focusing on what events actually will occur in the story.
Once I have a finished draft I will then log the story onto a PowerPoint so I
can put it onto my website as somewhere I can display my work.

7. Equipment
As most my work will be hand-drawn and doesn't’t
involve any camera equipment or animation, I don’t
need too much equipment however I will need:
• Sketching Paper/full sketch book
• Colored pencils and sharpie pens to sketch out my characters
• Graphics tablet and pen
• mac computer
• Photoshop
• Paper to print the book out on
• Printer to scan work and print out
• Memory stick

8. This is an example of drawing some
illustrations with their own individual
backgrounds rather than filling out a
whole page. I definitely want to create
a variety of pages and having these
different styles of backgrounds, as I like
the idea of being able to draw smaller
individual ones and build up this effect
rather than make a one big illustration.
I quite like this use of impact as this
brings more life and interest to the
page with there being more sections of
drawings to look at, it draws more
focus. I also think the way the text is
set out underneath the illustration
creates a better over all approach to a
children's book layout.

10. Colour schemes
• For my use of colour, I want to make the pages stand out with bright
vibrant tones, but as there will be different places that the character visits
on each page, there will be different colours used to portray this. My plan
is to involve a lot of colour, and a variety of colours but all vibrant and eye
catching. I also tend to use different tones of the same colour as that fits
with my kind of style I like to work with. For example, if I am doing a
background with some grass or the sky, I will alternate between different
shades of blues and greens to add more texture and then I’m not just
working with block colors. I also plan on sticking to certain colours, as this
will create a theme. The character will have the same red collar on in all
the illustrations, and the same coloured markings as it’s a dog. I don’t want
to change the colour as I think this is what makes the character so
memorable for children.

11. Colour schemes- tones of colour

12. Character colour scheme
This is the character I will be using for my production, however I
might make a few changes for the final product. This is the colour
scheme I plan to use, with the same tone of brown and black. I
wanted to use a signature red collar for all the illustrations of my dog,
and this shade of red is exactly what I wanted to use as it is bright
and memorable. As I am focusing a lot on my backgrounds and the
objects or accessories that go with these places, I thought keeping
the character simple but memorable would be important. However, I
still may chance the face of my character, as it has quite human like
features. I like this however I wasn’t planning on this kind of style, so
I am not sure I am 100% committed to it.

13. Existing children's books fonts

15. I spent a while practicing with creating this pre-
production piece. I knew after I had done research
on other existing products that I wanted to include
space as one of my places that my character visits, as
I feel this appeals to children and is a fun feature to
add to my story. I started off with creating a small sky
with different tones of blue and adding stars and
white specs to the background. I then went onto
filter gallery to play around with the brush strokes.
This created the different angles and blurred strokes
which I plan to use my final production. I then
enlarged this drawing and turned down the opacity. I
then decided to overlap layers to create this depth to
the illustration, as it creates shadows and a 3D effect.
I then decided to draw a rocket and place it in the
sky, with my character at the bottom of the page

17. Progress log
• I plan to keep a record of all the screenshots I have taken of my work
and progress so I can use them in my evaluation at the end of my
project. I already have began using screenshots of my pre-production
to show how I get to my final product. I will document these onto my
website and on a PowerPoint, and keep a diary of what I have done
each week. This way I can show my process and talk about why I
changed certain features.

18. fonts
• As it’s a children book, I will be using quite a big sized font. After doing
research on existing children's book, they tend to use a very simplistic
approach to fonts with round letters which are bold and spaced out. The
fonts are quite big sizes too, or some words are bigger than others to show
emphasis. I also noticed from researching existing products that the layout
of the text can be different, whether it is words spread around the page in
patterns with different sizes, or just a simple sentence at the top of page or
at the bottom. I quite like the idea of fonts following a feature on the page,
for example if there is a path, I write the text following this. I think with
some pages having less background there is more room for the text and
fonts to create an interesting effect whether I include a bit of typography or
involve the text into the illustration somehow.

19. Page research planning

20. Page research planning