FMP Evaluation
For my final major project I have designed my own book cover illustrations for a number of existing fairy tales. I also have created a few chapter pages to go with the books and kept them in a similar style to the covers. As you will see, throughout all of my illustrations I have introduced an Aztec pattern, this is to show that my books all have something in common and can be recognised as a collection. Additionally, I have also included a few photographs of my books, so I have a variation of media to present at the final show.
I have thoroughly enjoyed working on this project, as we were allowed to choose any subject we wanted to base it on. Since, I love fairy tales and I’m a very keen illustrator, I think I made the right choice for this project, and been able to produce a high standard of work because I’ve interested in my chosen preference.
To start off my project I began to plan out my work using mind maps, I found this very useful, as it allowed me to narrow down my initial ideas to work on, and decide on what style of work I wanted to produce, and what I artists/illustrators I had to look into. From looking at a wide variety of illustrators I was able to decide on what design style I wanted to use, which was minimal line work and patterns. One of the artists that inspired my work the most was Zoe More O’Ferrall. Her work really inspires me as I love her clean and minimal style of work . She pays great attention to detail in her lines, which is very unique and quirky. Another artist that massively inspired me was Sveta Dorosheva. she was the main reason as to why I illustrated a ton of lines in the hair on my covers. I also liked all of the patterns she decorated almost all of her drawings with, they’re extremely elaborate and pretty.
When it came to making my logo, I started off with a few different designs, and decided to make a tally and ask my class which logo they preferred and seemed most appropriate for my book brand. Without a doubt, my owl logo was by far the favourite in the class, followed by “Peacock Tales,” and lastly my robin logo. Since the owl was chosen, I then went on to create a questionnaire to determine what colour, brand name and layout looked the most suitable. I successfully managed to finalise my logo and design a professional looking design branded “Little Owl Books.”
Throughout my research I tried to research as many artists/illustrators as I could to help me build up my ideas and open my mind up to as many different styles and techniques as possible. I did in fact look into golden age illustrators, who designed some of the first fairy tale books written by Charles Perrault and Hans Christian Andersen. I discovered that a lot of the illustrations that they produced were really detailed, and portrayed what the stories were actually about, by including key elements in the books. I did also do some research about the original authors of the fairy tales, just to learn they’re background history and broaden my knowledge on why and how fairy tales were written. Charles Perrault was the man who laid the foundations for the genre ‘fairy tales’ in literacy. They are formed from pre-existing folk tales written well before the 17th century. The original fairy tales written by Perrault, were actually much more gruesome and depressing than the stories you read today, as they reflected what it was like to live in the 17th century, and the reality of poverty.
In my sketchbook I have shown a mix of notes and ideas on what I would like to include in my final outcomes. I have written out a few pages on the colour schemes I had planned on using. Originally, I wanted to create very colourful, watercolour like images, but then decided that this would not at all suit my style of work for this particular project. I then went on to keep my colours minimal, like my illustrations, and thus decided that each book would have it’s own set colour (blue, red, green and purple.)
To show how I came to my final outcomes, I have taken screenshots along the way, so I can explain each stage and how I got to the next step. As you will see in my sketchbook, most of my work was done using Adobe Illustrator, to draw in the program I used my own Wacom Bamboo tablet, as I find it a lot easier than using a mouse. Since I used my tablet, I was able to create my illustrations rather fast, as I have been using one for about three to four years now. After designing in Illustrator, I then transferred my image into Photoshop, to experiment with the colours. The book covers did not look right in full colour, so I went with just filling in the lines and instead of using colour to fill spaces in, I pasted in my Aztec pattern.
Initially, I wasn’t going to create a promotional poster for my book brand, but I decided it would be best to. So I borrowed my brothers SLR camera and took a few shots of my finished books outside in my garden. I’m really pleased with the turn out of my photos and I have managed to create an original and successful poster.
Overall, I am really pleased with my project outcomes and think that my work is produced and presented to high enough standard. I think I have produced a good amount of work to show for all my research over the 10 weeks and have shown a connection between what I’ve looked at and what I’ve presented.