Part 4: Exercise - A children's book cover

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Original illustrations for the book Charlotte's Web by Garth Williams
[Accessed 12 August www.the literaryheart.wordpress.com] Very realistically sketched in pencil and humanitarian, yet childlike and simple at the same time. I have tried to mimic this in my drawings of animals below.

My photos of a tame giraffe at The Giraffe House

The Animal Atlas illustrated by Kenneth Lilly, www.anotherturnusedbooks.com
[Accessed August 2014]

Some Bugs, by Angela DiTerlizzi
www.buzzfeed.com [Accessed August 2015}

My photos of animals I visited above, and my observations in my drawings come from these pictures.

I started this project sketching quick thumbnails of book cover layouts. I collected the most interesting book covers I could find. What appealed to most were hand drawings or paintings of animals for children. The aim of the project was to create a 'modern book cover' entitled Animals Around the World. I looked at Garth Williams' work for Charlotte's Web. It is similar to the Alfie and Annie Rose series by Shirley Hughes.

I picked some animals with photogenic and aesthetic attraction and sketched them in my sketchbook first.












FIRST BOOK COVER
The challenge with my first book cover was that, even though I knew which layout I wanted, I couldn't translate that visually into the space and I knew this as I created it, which prompted me to do the second cover. I lost enthusiasm for this first attempt and I think it can be seen. The spiderwebs in the corner of the book do not translate visually to the concept and are more fitting with a fairytale or Halloween theme. Just one visual can change the entire communicative message. What I have learned through this, is that perfection is not the ultimate aim.




SECOND BOOK COVER
I knew I wanted to feature animals in a more characterful way so used my giraffe drawing (copied from my photographs) here. The globe of the world had to be central to the picture to indicate more strongly the content of the book. I wanted to keep the cover simple, with storybook characterisation and kept the pencil crayon and graphite images subtle.
My experience with InDesign is more editorial but I do know that with a little more graphic design tuition and experience, a flat red background and a beautiful thick white font outlined in sketched black line would offset the hand rendered quality of the elements of the drawing. This is something I find appealing yet limiting in some ways and I wasn't wanting to commit to a bright red background in paint!



My response after my tutors notes: I have managed to take a formal course in InDesign and install a copy of my own program. This has opened up new possibilities!
I scanned the covers into Adobe InDesign and played with typfaces and borders.  The font below is Durum Kebab, weighted and coloured red. I think it adds formality yet drama to the page especially since the drawing features from the left side nestled in at 90 degrees. It's appealing to children because it's easy to read and colourful.



The font below is Little Bird. Lovely because it looks hand rendered, with a fine felt tip pen that complements the pencil sketch,



THIRD BOOK COVER

Italian illustrator Simone Rea
[Accessed 12 August 2015 www.fishinkblog.files.wordpress.com]

I like the symmetry in this design and the oddity of it. It reminds me of Sara Fanelli's work. The red, blue's and ochre are similar to her style of colouring.
Regardless of the above design, I kept with my theme using graphite and pencil and simplified the cover even more. I drew the giraffe looking up at the earth. I added a bird which fights for attention on the page, so I rubbed it out, but it left a faded image. I think it looks better faded, but would want to leave it out.

I believe my covers look unfinished and would like to develop them in Adobe Illustrator but lack those skills. I think they need a solid veneer as a background with strong chunky typography.

My response after my tutor's notes: 

I took my cover a step further particularly with the typography which I referenced on www.dafont.com (DK Breakfast Burrito and Gigi)

The word 'from' needed to be a different font from the rest, a lighter, more hand rendered looking font with a naive style that fits with the light strokes of the pencil drawing (DK Breakfast Burrito). 

The curly font is purposely decorative and I chose to outline the drawing with light dots so as not to draw attention away, with a hard solid line, from the rest of the drawing. 

I still had a problem with the background and, looked to Harriet Russell's work for a solution.

Looking at her work, particularly her books, I noticed that the use of a dotted or softened line throughout the page is very kind to design and pulls elements together.

I drew the line digitally, freehand and added the widget;

Visual metaphor: a little bug/animal , tracing the giraffe's gaze towards the earth - a fun element, almost like a miniature narrator that could be introduced as a character that leads children through the visuals and narrative within the book.

Originally I'd drawn a small bird but think this works better in context for communicative reasons.

Harriet Russell whose work I have found immensely helpful: Use of line, naive drawings, very cleverly communicated such as with the pig constructed from a flock of birds - interesting visual metaphor. I used the dotted line idea to connect elements as in her design at the bottom:

Source: www.harrietrussell.co.uk  [Accessed 20 June 2016] - note her use of line to connect elements. Very diagrammatic drawing, could be useful in the future for instructional drawing. A lovely departure of realism. Copied the line idea.