Proposal First Draft
For Illustration LAUIL504 Studio Brief 2, I am going to be continuing with the foundation of
work I created during Studio Brief 1 for the Carmelite Prize 2020 live brief, ran by Hachette
Children’s UK, illustrating Jeanne Willis’ children’s picture book text One and Only. I will be
making a 32-page picture book in the required dimensions (250mm x 250 mm) to illustrate
the narrative of a lonely bird of paradise who eventually finds a friend. This particular
outcome is most appropriate to the competition brief. My project is ambitious in that I have
never created a 32 page picture book before in under 10 weeks and it is particularly
challenging to my low level of vision.
I am especially interested in the themes of loneliness, identity, overcoming hardships, and
accepting our differences to build strong relationships with others. This is highly relevant to
the market and these times as social exclusion, difference and an ever-evolving diverse
society of people continues to grow and we need to learn to look past others’ differences
from an early age; whether that be of someone’s appearance, what they choose to wear
and how they choose to represent themselves, gender identification, religion, race,
disability, financial situation, emotional struggles, and so on. It is relevant to myself as an
emerging practitioner interested in illustrating children’s books, who stands apart from
other sighted illustrators, as I often feel that sense of exclusion in many areas of my life due
to my disability and mental illness. It is highly important for me to illustrate that loneliness
and longing I often feel. Children’s books are powerful tools to help children imbue valuable
morals at a young age and to be the one to lend a unique voice to this learning is impactful
to me and gives me a sense of purpose and responsibility. The aims and intentions of this
picture book are to challenge, to educate and to open up a conversation between children,
friends, carers, parents and teachers.
The initial research I have undertaken so far includes photography and observational
drawing of plants around my student accommodation to help build up the composition of
the rainforest based on real plants, contextual research on Henri Rousseau who often
painted rainforests with layers of hidden fruit and animals and a visit to Waterstones to see
what is available on the market already in children’s picture books and how my work can
situate within it. Further research I would like to conduct includes a visit to Leeds Museum
to learn more about rainforest plants and animals and a visit to Tropical World. Both trips
will enable me to build up a better sense of the rainforest environment in a genuine way for
my spreads while providing strong evidence of first hand research.
As I identified in the previous winners’ work of the Carmelite Prize, the panel of judges
prefer a digital approach to the outcomes for a more professional aesthetic, so I started
Studio Brief 1 by attending the Photoshop Brushes workshop and working digitally with a
Wacom tablet. I would like to learn how to use the Wacom Cintiq that are in the studios to
make the digital drawing process much easier and quicker, than using my Intuos, by drawing
directly onto the screen. I need to consider the text in my book, particularly on the front
cover of the title, and whether I want to create that by hand as with the success of my
Dracula font or with letterpress and woodblock letter printing workshops that I enjoyed
during my Agatha Christie brief. My book will be binded using the perfect binder method
which I have had an induction in. I will need to consider project management requirements,
time restrictions to the processes and workshop availability during this brief and plan my
time very carefully so as not to lose track. The digital print room will be important to the
printing of my final book so I will need to book ahead in good time.
The methodology I will employ for this project includes creating a series of observational
drawings from Leeds Museum and Tropical World, roughs, thumbnails and sketches of
spreads, character design using basic shapes and lines as a prompt, selecting a limited
colour palette, creating a font for the title One of Only, creating a dummy book to
understand how the final outcome will be, refining any changes based on the dummy book
before finally printing and binding the final picture book.
Feedback
• Clear, well informed, well structured
• Expand research into practitioners who explore themes of loneliness or challenging content for children
• Identify the specific target age range for the book; this will influence the aesthetic and type of text I will develop
• Include relevant imagery, previous winners, relevant practitioners, thumbnails, process testing, images I've made.
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