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| character building of the monkey in monkey and parrot narrative |
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| giraffe, monkey and parrot character building, ink, pen and watercolour |
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| two panels of one of the scenarios where monkey is angry because parrot has told him to climb the mountain, oil pastel,ink and watercolour Influences Kristof Tariznyas (freelance illustraor), Charlotte Dumortier (pinterest), Brendan Wenzel (pinterest), Sukanto Debnaths (pinterest), Pat Pervy Looking at Chris Ware pan optical representation of time and memory and introducing it to my work....maybe using the monkeys face as a "raccord" (frank king experiments with this as well) format and fragmenting it into a matrix of panels e.g. mouth, ear and eyes...panels within panels.  |
what's working/ not working for you? - composition/format
have you researched for inspiration/ to solve your problem?- lauren child
looking at character design
what function can a character have for the audience, and for the artist as a storyteller?
how do we create a memorable, interesting character? - exaggerate a feature
Try character/expression sketches - different angle - different expressions
Try background involving characters (situation sketch, cover artwork)
Try situation sketch one in colour
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| Storyboarding the Big Fat Jungle Rave with Monkey, giraffe, lion and Parrot |
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| Expressions |
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| Studio space |
 giraffe and lion character development |
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| Leah the lion development with collage |
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| Monkey sneaking up on angry Leah the lion in the Jungle - collage- influence Lauren Child |
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| The Big Fate Jungle Rave Sketch in colour - Felt tips |
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| Lauren Child - The Pesky Rat |
Process of Change
- color
- perspective
- composition
John Muafangejo Visons of Love and Sorrow
- Process of change of culture in South Africa
Andy Goldworthy
- process of change of nature
- “When I’m working with materials it’s not just the leaf or the stone, it’s the processes that are behind them that are important. That’s what I’m trying to understand, not a single isolated object but nature as a whole.”
Jamilla Okbuo
- process of change in Diaspora culture
- "I really enjoy working with an array of mediums such as painting, digital/hand-painted prints, garments, and collaging. Color is definitely a key element in my work as well as prints. My work mainly focuses on subjects of the Diaspora because I just love the beauty within our culture and people. I just feel as though it is my duty to remind people of color that we have such a rich culture, and that we should love ourselves and one another. So I strive for my work to have a balance of conceptuality and beauty"
Week 5 - learning and trying to capture Leah the Lions Movement with Collage using my own stencils on paper from the print room!
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Sub conscious thinking exercise after reading the hug poem and the new girl story set by Fumio - really freed up my drawing  Preparation for my final illustrated story. i have picked the part of my story where monkey gets invited by giraffe to the big fat jungle party, where there is lots of pinky pinky fruit for money to get merry on. Monkey embarrasses himself and Voodoo Parrot spikes monkeys pinky pinky fruit with magic mountain water to make him become a nice unselfish monkey. Therefore i have decided to call my illustrated story The Big Fat Jungle Party using pink, blue and yellow as my colour scheme. The symbolic object of the story will be the exotic flower and the visual red herring will be a boat in the distance. I am planning to do 3 A1 size illustrations in collage with potentially white type (still needs to be decided). So far i have started the scene where Giraffe invites monkey to the big fat jungle party. Inspiration from Beatrice Alemagna and Sara Fanelli   |
Patterns and Symbols
Patterns and motifs can become a useful visual component that helps to emphasise you ideas, themes, humours, and even characters feelings hidden beneath the surface. In simple writings (lyrics, poetry, children's books) we find a phrase that repeats itself between chapters and paragraphs. It provides a certain rhythm which bonds the threads of lines and stabilises the content. In visual sequences this can be replaced by a sort of pattern on motif.
E.g. Nigel Peakes - in the wild and maps
David B - epilepsy
Week 9 - Deadline for sequential illustration - THE BIG FAT JUNGLE PARTY
Brief - work on a completed section of your story. do not attempt to illustrate the complete narrative, nor should you cherry pick the ebst or most dramatic scenes. You should select one small sequence. There is no absolute minimum or maximum number of pages you should do; but as a guide- three pages or five to ten cells on each would be an appropriate submission. Think more quality than quantity.
decide;
title - The big fat jungle party
the section of your story - giraffe invited monkey to the big fat jungle party and monkey gets his pinky pinky fruit spiked with magic mountain water by vodoo parrot, monkey makes a fool out of himself.
the lettering- hang lettered white and gold
the colours- blue, yellow, pink
the non narrative element within your sequence - sunrise and moon (process of change)
a visual motif- pink exotic flower
a visual red herring - pirate boat in the distance
finish piece 127cmx227cm
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| playing with white and gold typography Evalutation - overall i think i have improved on simplifying colour and form throughout this brief. However i would like to try and do some more of my own coloured papers using the printing room next time? Even though i work best on large scale and i feel my movement within the characters freed up by working large. It is a struggle to scan and photograph! i enjoyed playing with different material and using pattern but i need to becareful i judge postive and negative space correctly and not over do pattern! i think this piece would suit a nusrsey board or an interactive workshop with young chidren that could learn about colour and the senses by tocuching and responding to the material? (127cmx227cm) Childrens book Researching children's books The Illustrators - the british art of illustration - 1800-2007 by Chris Beetles very intricate and detailed with fluid line - old children book illustrations - black and white   Elephant Wellphant by Nick Sharrat published by Alison Green Books - enjoy the pull outs and added flaps in the book to make it playful and the play on words! "cinderellaphant"    The very hungry caterpillar by Eric Carle published by puffin books - the cuts outs of circles through the book are interesting to follow the caterpillar going through them whilst reading the typography - playful and exciting   
Where the wild things are by Maurice Sendak published by harper and row - like the cross hatching technique gives a gurney forest edge to the story - the main bit of the story is double spread to show full movement of the characters - quite dark blues and browns and greens - dull - different to other children's books
  Picasso quote " All children are artists. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grow up." "i paint objects as i think them, not as i see them. it take a long time to become young." Kids drawings tell us - Deformation, Exaggeration, Simplification and Impression A child drawing has all the essence expressing forms with sensuous. they draw their portraits and their family members bigger than their houses and cars, but as the same time drawing tulips as tall as themselves. they don't care about the sizes reality. They depict things without any restriction dn rules that we, grown ups, think we have to mould into. What's important for kids is simply impression that they get from the subject. First, in child drawing, there is simplification of forms. They rarely draw all the fingers but it still looks like a hand. Second, the exaggerate sizes of heads ad faces, as they are most notable parts of our body. And lastly they deform shapes into something they can easily articulate and control but their dogs can still look like dogs. Kids show us how to deconstruct existing languages and reconstruct with new ones, by simply relaying on impression and sense of their own rather than observing and emulating facade (the first thing we learn at art school)
Week 10- 11 Analysing Zagazoo by Quentin Blake (look for images on professional practice page)
Quentin Blake is the author and illustrator of Zagazoo that was first published in Great Britain by Random House Children’s Books 1998, Red Fox edition published 2000.
My first impression of Zagazoo is that it’s very funny and makes me reflect on my stages of childhood and what I put my parents through. The synopsis of the story is about a young couple Bella and George that are happy with their lives doing lots of different activities together. But one day a patterned package comes through the post that they unwrap to find a baby called Zagazoo that they love dearly. Soon, unexpectedly he turns into a vulture, an elephant, a warthog, a dragon, a bat and a large hairy creature that makes the parents, Bella and George, question, after every unique change! In the end Zagazoo changes into a well-mannered young man and Bella and George have grown old to see their lovely son fall in love with Mirabelle. However Blake gives us a cliffhanger at the end of the story by Bella and George turning into Pelicans unexpectedly.
The book is about showing the stages of growing up and bringing up children through children’s eyes and parents eyes. Blake shows this through metaphorical imagery by playing with each stage of growing up from a baby to a teenager through different animals and their unique traits to convey emotion. For example a bad tempered teenager is shown through a dragon setting things on fire on pages 14 and 15. (1)
The narrative is paced through careful juxtaposition of words and imagery and colour. At the beginning of the story Bella, George and Zagazoo have bright colours however when Zagazoo has his first change that is a screeching vulture, a dark blue background is added that dramatizes the happy atmosphere into a serious one (2). But when another change happens the colours have a high contrast again that lifts the reader’s mood (3). When the story nearly reaches the end, the colours have a low contrast that makes the reader think things are slowing down (4). Until Zagazoo colours contrasts with his parents that makes the reader feel uplifted (5). Therefore the emotional pace is very up and down.
At the beginning there is use of repetitive imagery of Bella and George throwing Zagazoo as a baby in the air on pages 5 and 7 emphasising emotional intensity of how happy they are with their lives, so Blake makes the reader at his or her happiest point so he can change the emotional dynamic when Zagazoo has his first change (6). The story develops by Zagazoo changing into another animal on every other page and being formatted differently every time using space to show a strong or weak relationship or presenting images on a double spread in 4 boxes that run horizontally. The story is told by Blake (or the first person) that gives us an outside view of family life. Here is an example of imaginary words when Zagazoo as a dragon sets the carpet alight “He scorched the carpet” that is shown brilliantly with vibrant oranges and reds with splatters of ink to convey smoke. (7)
All the characters use diverse poses and expressions especially when different animals are conveying a particular emotion. The baby elephant is stereotypically known to be clumsy and annoying (like any young children) and Blake uses the elephant’s trunk to show this. With other props, like a tablecloth being pulled off by the baby elephants trunk (8). Bella and George are uniformly dressed in specific colours all the way through the story. For example Bella is always wearing pink and green dress and George is always wearing blue or red and yellow stripy jumper that stereotypes a young middle class sensible couple. After every animal change Bella or George question what is going on “This is appalling,” said Bella. “How can we cope” making the reader want to read on (9).
Location is never definitely defined in this story because a white background is always used. On the other hand props are used from the characters to suggest interior or exterior surroundings. Page 16 and 17 represent Zagazoo’s mood changes (that many teenagers have) from a bat, to a warthog, to an elephant to a dragon on a double page in a 4 box horizontal layout (10).
There are no end papers in this book that is a shame because it would give a clear presentational finish. The front cover has big bold black letters saying Zagazoo and Quentin Blake written in blue in his sketchy writing on the top border of the page, with an illustration of Zagazoo being opened up from the zig zag patterned parcel by Bella and Geroge. The back cover is also a white background of the blurb “the day the postman brought the strange looking parcel to George and Bella things started to change, and change and change. In fact, nothing was ever the same again.” Underneath is an illustration of Bella and George throwing the baby to one another with a quote from The Times and The Guardian “His books are skilful, original, exuberant and witty, and three generations of children have loved them.” (11)
The placement of text and image vary throughout the book. There are three key layout Blake uses. One where he formats 4 boxes of illustrations onto a 2 page spread (page 18 and 19) (12), two where he puts 3 boxes of illustrations underneath each other usually when a conversation happens (page 22 and 23) (13)and three where he leaves a large amount of space between characters to show the emotional relationship between the two characters (page 21and 22) (14). Blake has made the text always horizontal and given a times new roman typeface. This traditional typeface and traditional media used (ink and watercolour) I feel, gives a well-alliterated voice to the book, almost an old England tone.
The book could be read wordless because the images have space and composition to let the reader convey the narrative. The images have a bright use of colour at the beginning and low contrast of colour at the end (Bella and George uniforms) to show change of mood and movement that text wouldn’t be able to describe.
I feel that Blake depicts positive and negative space on each page that then changes the dynamics of text and image to emphasise the message he is trying to get across on that particular page. For example when Zagazoo changes into an elephant and explores various activities text is shown horizontally underneath each image so the reader looks at the illustration first then the text (pages 12 and 13) (15).
The text does not have rhyme but has rhythm mainly in the middle of the book, after Zagazoo changes each time into a different animal a phrase is used “but then….”. The language uses is a bit silly “its screeches were terrifying” (page nine) but most of all the content is funny “George ad Bella got up in the morning and discovered that Zagazoo had changed into a huge baby vulture” due to animals being related to the stages of growing up and parenthood (16). On some pages there are more text than others especially on pages 21 and 23 when Bella and George are having a conversation on what to do with Zagazoo (17). On the other hand on pages 20 and 21 there is a large amount of space between text and images because of the horror of Zagazoo turning into a hairy creature. Therefore Blake has used space to give emotional impact to the reader (18).
The line within the illustrations is angular, fluid, confident, organic and delicate. The tone is bright, dark, contrasting, pale and intense. There is an occasional Zig Zag pattern that is repeated (the parcel has zig zag patterns where zagazoo comes in) that I personally think is done to represent the main character and title Zagazoo. Blake has named the main character Zagazoo because this name can be anonymous and therefore relates to the story of constant changing into anything. However the textures are flat and soft within the book. (19)
Overall Blake has used metaphorical imagery to get his message across about the ups and downs of parenthood and childhood. He has done this by using animals to convey the stages of growing up. Through anthropomorphism he shows the highs and lows of bringing up a family that makes the reader relate to the characters easily. Due to the content being about family life any age group can relate to this therefore making it a universal book to read. At the end of the book you are left with an important message to realise that as a parent or child your are not the only one going through the same experiences of mood swings and changing physically and mentally. Also the book makes you feel everything turns out ok in the end in life “every cloud has a silver lining”. (20)
My Children's book story - The Lost Hearted Girl
Week 12 - Alfred the Owl - experimenting with different mark making and colour yellow and blue gouache and ink
- looking into the main character (the lost hearted girl called lucy) and developing her and her surroundings   |
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