2. Does your final product reflect your original intentions?
I feel my final product aptly reflects my original intentions. My
intentions were to create a hand drawn children's book that was simple
and kept a style throughout. I also planned to have my book in the
style of unrealistic cartoon, I feel as though my final product reflects
this. My illustrated flat plan was very similar to my final product, I
discovered that In order to colour the image in post production I
needed to include less detail. In my original intentions I also stated that
I would include both full page spreads and cut out images, I kept this
idea and included it in my final product. An aspect that has changed
since my original intentions would be the use of only black, white &
blue. Originally I had intended to colour the entirety of the pages, this
changed when I decided to make a unique visual style.
Flat plan Final product
3. How well have you constructed your images?
Pre- colourisation Post- colourisation
I feel I constructed my images well. In my original proposal I stated
that I would hand draw my illustrations, scan them onto the
computer and then colourise them in photoshop. This process was
effective as it was simple yet I feel it produced good results. In my
pre-production I looked at existing children's books (stick man by
Axel Scheffler & Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss) and I always found the
ones that utilised white space effectively as the most aesthetically
pleasing. I decided to incorporate this into my own images. A hurdle
I ran into while constructing my images could be having to redraw a
few pages if they weren’t matching the style of the previous pages.
4. How well have you used text to anchor your images?
Before After
The page layout/style I was directly influenced by was The Cat in
The Hat, the text in that book doesn’t follow a specific pattern. I feel
as though I replicated it well, specifically on the page in which the
protagonist climbs the tree, I placed the text down the middle of the
page as if it were written onto the tree. I did encounter an issue on
one of my earlier pages, I realised I have placed too much text
below a certain illustration and that another page would need to be
created to accurately display that stage in the story. I feel this varied
placing of text anchors my images well as it is refreshing, offbeat
and matches the style
5. Is your product suitable for your audience?
In my proposal I stated that I would target my book at 4-8 year olds
of both genders and their middle aged parents. I also stated that this
book would be universally accessible making it predominantly in the
demographic of ABC1. Most existing children's books are in this
market as it is the most populous demographic therefore more likely
to sell copies. My book is suitable for this audience as it has no
distressing moments and uses age appropriate language and
storylines. The only concerning moment I would have could be a
moment in which the protagonist is invited into a strangers home,
while this isn’t a negative moment in the story it may give off the
wrong impression regarding safety with strangers. From a marketing
perspective I think the cover of my book looks unique and would
hopefully catch the attention of a parent looking for a book to read to
their child.
Original proposal
6. What do you like/dislike about the techniques you have used?
Original scanned image
As previously stated my production method was hand drawn
illustration. This process involves drawing out each page by hand,
scanning them into photoshop and then colourising certain parts of the
image using the paint bucket tool. I chose this method as it best suited
my capabilities, I also really enjoy the look of other childrens books that
were created this way such as Stick Man, The Cat In The Hat and the
Gruffalo. Some things I disliked about this technique were the loss of
detail that sometimes happened when boosting the boldness of the
pencil lines in photoshop, this meant that some of the original drawing
was lost due to lines overlapping one another. This problem was solved
by including less small detail in the original images.
7. What do you like/dislike about how your final product looks?
I am very fond of the look of my final product. I
set out with the intention to make something
visually unique and I think I have achieved
that. I particularly like the simplistic nature of
the illustrations, by combining a few different
ideas I had during the course of creating test
pages I reached the unrealistic cartoon style
that made it into the final product. In my
proposal and research I reference my main
influence as Axel Scheffler, the designer for
books such as the gruffalo and stickman. My
final product shares a certain likeness that I
am personally proud of. I also like the way I
have laid out my text, this is something I went
back and amended as I felt the text was
displayed in a boring way. Despite these
positives I dislike some elements of my final
product. For example I feel I slightly dropped
the consistency of my doodled style in the top
box of the fourth page. However I feel that
possibly with a few tweaks my book could
reflect an industry standard level childrens
book.
8. Why did you include the content you used?
In my proposal and throughout my evaluation
I have stated that I had intended to create an
offbeat & unique looking book, I decided I
would include this as the childrens book I
always found most interesting were the
strange ones, like The Cat in the Hat and the
Gruffalo. Story-wise I decided to adapt The
Ugly Duckling as it is a very well known
childrens story, this way the different look
could be anchored by a familiar and happy
story. I included lots of the colour blue as it is
a vibrant and eye catching colour. The font I
included, Gill Sans, because it is plain and
easy to read. The adaptations I made to the
story were done to keep the story interesting
as the reader will likely have heard the
original and opt for a more traditional copy of
the book. The overall visual style I
implemented was to create a distincitve visual
style so that if, hypothetically, I created more
stories my work would be identifiable.
9. What signs, symbols or codes have your used in your work?
My book is full of symbols and codes some of
which unintentional and some deliberate. For
example, I designed the book so that all the
negative story elements and moments happen
at night time this was to play to the
preconceived notion that nighttime is
dangerous and scary, this is prevalent across
many childrens books in a similar genre. The
story is also set in the woods, which is viewed
as a dangerous place in the minds of many
children. A symbol that was pointed out to me
was that the higher up the tree the story is set
the happier the moment is, for example he is
alone and scared when he is on the ground yet
when he is at his highest up the tree he has just
been reunited with his parents and is thrilled.
Assumptive gender roles would also indicate
that because my book is predominantly blue it
would appeal more to a male audience, which
is not necessarily the case.
10. What representations can be found in your work?
A positive of using anthropomorphic creatures is that
things such as religion, political context or gender
disparagement do not necessarily need to be
represented, except possibly to make a point.
I feel as though my book represents all people
equally and without prejudice. Due to the brevity of
my childrens book it is hard to distinguish many
character types which could be a representation in
and of itself.
A retrospective concern I have that did not cross my
mind during the production or writing of my book is
that all the characters that help our protagonist are
strangers which may be dangerous or misleading to
represent in a childrens book as it could give
children the wrong idea about strangers. At one
point someone who is a stranger to the protagonist
even invites him into their home, and while this does
not have a dangerous outcome in the story it may do
if it were to have real life ramifications. My book has
an overall positive representation of animals as it
allows the reader to identify with them, this is very
common across all forms of media and harmless.
11. What style have you employed in your products?
The style of my childrens book would be
classed as unrealistic cartoon. I decided
upon this style whilst researching
existing products such as The cat in the
hat, stick man & the gruffalo. These
books influenced me greatly as I loved
the way they created completely new
perspectives on ordinary objects and
played to the reader's imagination.
These books also looked so distinctive
and unique which is something that goes
hand in hand with the unrealistic cartoon
style as the possibilities are endless.
I also thought this visual style could be
created to a high standard using areas of
production that I consider myself strong
at, for example drawing images by hand
and then scanning them for your
illustrations.
12.
13. What were the strengths and weaknesses of the pre-production
and planning?
Pre-production and planning were extremely helpful as they helped
me form a clear idea of exactly what I intended to create and then
organise and develop this idea. A strength of my planning was the
research I did into existing products, without this influence and
professional standard work that I could contrast mine to I do not
think I would have been able to develop the style I chose. I
completed my childrens book very quickly despite the time I had set
aside for production, I feel as though this is both a positive and a
negative as on one hand I was worried that I had rushed and on the
other I had lots of time to tweak and make improvements to parts I
was not happy with. A weakness of my planning was my failure to
spot potentially negative representations within my story e.g
strangers. I think if I had possibly spent more time investigating
audience I would’ve noticed this. The second lot of test pages I
completed were very successful, so much so I felt i could include
them in muy final product, this is why my production time was so
quick. Before I had these successful pages I tried other methods
such as shapes, pencil tool and fully colourising the image none of
which I felt happy with.
15. Historical and cultural context
The adventures of Animal Wood: Bird Tree is based on the old folk
story and adapted childrens book of The Ugly Duckling This story
was originally penned by Hans Christian Andersen. There have
been hundreds of incarnations of this story including the extremely
famous Disney animated movie from 1939.
In order to understand the current versions available and help
create a unique spin on the story I researched a few currently
existing versions including:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ugly-Duckling-Ian-Beck
The Ugly Duckling by Ian Beck (2007)
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ugly-Duckling-Ladybird-Loved-Tales
The Ugly Duckling by Hans Christian Andersen (1979 publication)
By researching these books I learnt how this story has been
manifested and adapted over time. This research influenced my
decision to change the species of the protagonist, this also helped
me decide to expand the story by creating the distinctive setting of
Animal Wood. My book is visually different from any other current
version of this story I could find. This can be both a positive and a
negative thing, on one hand it is unique on the other it can be off
putting as it is too different.
16. The Ugly Duckling by
Ian Beck (2007)
The Ugly Duckling by
Hans Christian
Andersen (1979
publication)
My childrens book
