I was equally excited and anxious to get started on this exercise. I have really been enjoying the research I have done into children’s books and children’s book illustrators – I felt really inspired. I was definitely anxious as I have never really drawn animals before this! I know how important it is to push myself and I often find myself learning so much.

After researching children’s books and illustrators, I got started in some research about the actual topic of the book. ‘Animals from Around the World’. I started by making a mind map. As well as the mind map I made a collage with lots of images of all different animals from around the world. I wrote the name of each animal and any words that I thought of in response to each animal. I just wrote down the first thing that came into my mind – I wanted the animals I drew to have character – but I didn’t want to over complicate it – this is for children after all.

Next in my sketch book I made some very rough sketches of animals based on these images/images I had found online. They are very rough as I drew quickly but doing this stopped me being too ‘precious’ about my work and stopped me being to scared to start.

Next I started coming up with some thumbnails of potential book covers. I allowed the characters to become more child like and ‘cartoon-y’. I actually had a lot of fun with this. I took the thumbnails I liked and I put them into procreate to develop them further. I did initially like the one with the animals on top of the globe but I later saw a very similar image online as I was looking for reference images for my characters – I wanted to make something original so I scrapped that idea.

I took the remaining thumbnails and developed them further, eventually turning them into the client visuals. The drawings are quite loose and sketchy in style – that is not just because they are a client visual, but I also thought it would be a nice idea for a children’s book illustration. When I think about the targeted age range (7-11) I thought it would be a good idea to create something that not only look appealing to children but also was relatable. I wanted them to feel invited into the book – I think anything too serious/realistic could be intimidating or seem ‘boring’ to them.

 

The difference between getting them to read the book or not at that age could be a funny illustration of a cheeky monkey. Children are more receptive to learning when they are having fun. I also wanted them to feel like they could draw the same pictures of the animals, I thought that could also make it relatable to them. I took the lion and elephant out of one of the larger sketches, I really like the way they are interacting and wanted to focus on them.

I tried to choose fonts that seemed fun, and relevant to the topic. Make them seem kind of ‘wild’ and less formal. I think I still have a long way to go when it comes to lettering and the graphic design aspects of illustration.

Although I am happy with the illustrations for the client visuals I do feel like you can see my weakness on the graphic design side of things in these illustrations. As I move through the rest of the illustrations on the course I am going to pay closer attention to the design aspects. I have noticed within this exercise that even in my thumbnail sketches I pay less attention to details such as fonts and the placement of titles and names etc.  I’m hoping that as I progress through my OCA journey I can perhaps pick up some modules on graphic design because it is quite clearly a weakness of mine. If not I will sign up for a graphic design course outside of the university as I really need to build my skill set. I think it is something that is vital for me as I progress.