A Childs Life

A children’s story that is well written will reflect a child’s life. When a child reads a story it gives the child an opportunity to rehearse past, present, and future life events. “Whether thought the literal interpretation of the story, through the message behind the story, or through the meaning and insight derived from the story, children gain valuable experience interpreting the complex emotions at the foundations of their personal worlds.”- Hannah Nuba

Qucik Facts to remember

It is important to remember that your main audience when writting a CHILDRENS book are the children more so than the parents. It is important to remember to write accordingly, using generally short words, sentences and paragraphs. Simplicity is the key to success. Be direct. Do not over complicate the story with twist and turns.

TEXT

When beginning to place type, I thought it would be simple to just make a box and stick type into it. It ended up looking horrible. Then when I began to do research and read actual children’s books I realized no one uses box’s to stick their type in. The typography is just as important as the illustrations. That’s when I decided to combine the type and illustrations together. The first step is reinforcing the text through the use of pictures. It helps children understand the characters and settings. The next step is called description. Every choice I make as an illustrator and author plays a major role in helping the child relate to the book. Choosing the text color is very important. I choose white, because white is innocent just like the main character, Canon. The next step is called the reciprocal “ The story hovers between the words and pictures remove one and the story disappears.” Establishing is the last step. The pictures help establish the story just as much as the words. The pictures help the child engage actively in all the areas that make up the story.

Illustrating Childrens books

When I began to illustrate my children’s book I used bright colors, but after much research I found this to be a horrible idea. What do these colors mean? How do they relate to the story? I had to stop and ask myself. The background colors in the top picture are light, cool tones the sky is a bit grey/blue. The picture below is the very last picture of the children’s book. It is the brightest page of the entire book. The colors seem to be so full of life. There is a reason for these color choices. When you see a character at the beginning of a book and the sky is grey/blue and the colors are dull. Then as the character reaches the end of the book the colors are amped up, bright blue sky’s with bright green grass, shows the progression and potential growth of a character.

PACE

When dealing with the PACE in a children’s book it is essential that you begin the action immediately from the start and make sure that you bring the story to a secure close. For example: The first page starts with Canon immediately walking down to the river, the ending is the two of the main characters hugging goodbye.  If I dragged on the beginning of the story before Canon got to the river the reader would have immediately lost interest. If Canon did not walk down to the river and was automatically placed there then the reader does not have enough time to become excited about the story. Children’s books should generally not include flashbacks, or jumping around in time. Everything should go in a chronological order of events.

Character Archetypes

Before you begin to write a narrative it is important to think about the CHARACTER ARCHETYPES . Character archetypes are character profiles that outline the behaviors or motivations of a character. As a writer it is very important to think about how your character will behave when put into certain situations. Characters archetypes help create a character the reader will deem believable. When I began to think about my main character, Canon, I wanted her to be relatable to the child (reader). I wanted her to be pure and innocent, like a child. When Canon was put into the situation of meeting, Shelly the turtle, she remained innocent and inquisitive.  It is important to stay consistent with the characters archetype. Take the characteristic traits of people or animals that you may know and can use to help the character come alive, from mannerisms to physical traits!

            It is essential that when writing a children’s book you keep a low number of main characters, so the young children don’t get too confused. In a picture book it is not necessary to give a description of your characters. Picture books are mainly visual and the description of the characters will be evident in the illustrations.

THEME

It is important to have a THEME in Children’s books. The books that have been reviewed and deemed best written all have a theme that is important to a child’s development. Its important to keep in mind that the theme can be the developing growth of a character throughout the story. Other different themes include but are not limited to: Coping with life traumas, self-esteem, caring, kindness, consequences of one’s actions, perseverance, and developing a sense of affinity and attachment to others. I wanted to focus on attachment to others. In my character book I focus on the stress of making friends with someone who is different from the normal. It stresses that it is important to expand your horizons and learn about someone new who is not quite like yourself, and who knows you may just have a new friend at the end of it all! The theme is supposed to come in subtly during the story. As a writer its not advised to blatantly state the theme unless you want to be boring or preach-like. In a children’s book it is more important to “show” then “tell.”

Cover

Here is the Cover to my story! I wanted to keep it simple, with Canon as the main focus! I didnt want to give away any hints about the Turtle in the cover this way the reader will wonder "hmm rocks cant move, lets see what they are talking about!"

The back cover is simple and has the feel that the text pages do inside of the book with a simple landscape illustration above it! I've worked on this book and the illustrations for hours and hours on end, its nice to see my book finally come together! I am very proud of all of my hard work!

Friendship never ends

Last full page illustration of the book! I still have the text to finish for this page as well as the back and the cover and title page!

friends that swim together stay together

Up Close and Personal

Here is another illustration --> Progress --> I have not put it into photoshop yet, but here the two main characters are talking to each other!

Here it is after being put into photo shop!

Always room for improvement

So as i went and looked back over my first page I noticed that Canon's fur was too dark. I redid her fur, I re-did the trees and blurred and basically fixed up the whole page!

The Moving Rock

"all of a sudden the rock Canon was sitting on started moving and walking away from the river"

More illustrations!!!

So after doing this illustration, im thinking about making the first text page more organic. Here is my second text page along with the next page of illustration!!!!

Text Page and Illustration

I plan on getting my book printed by a website ( www.blurb.com/book/pricing ) --> It will be a Standard Landscape and the sizes I have to work with will be pages that are 10 x 8 inches. Here is the first 2 sets of pages with text and imagery.

An artist work is never complete

So i re-did the picture once again, but this should be the final picture! Her fur is now a carpet texture! The dirt texture is moss, I like the muddy feel of the dirt leading to the river!

This is the final after being photoshoped! I added some shadows and i blured some of the back so that your eye gets drawn to Canon! Enjoy!

Canon..again!

I put this picture in photoshop and added shadows and blured the page so your attention is drawn to the main character. I made Canon large so that the reader will have an instant connection to her, and if they look close they will see the turtle hiding along side the dirt path.

Here is a picture with the type added in, Im having difficulties wondering where to put it.

First Page Rough Draft

Here is the rough draft illustration to what will be my first page of the story!

Canon

Here is the main character of the book- i will be fixing her/ tweaking, but i thought you all would enjoy seeing her progress!

Turtle- redo

I took out the strong black outlines and fixed up my turtle character! I think he looks great now and more unique!

Photoshop/Illustrator fun

I went to visit my Director, Monica, today and we went over a few techniques I could use for my children's book. One of them was to use the blur tool in photoshop to help the viewers eye focus on the main "subject". I think it worked perfectly. Its almost as if we are looking through a camera at the character on the page, only focusing on the character! I used the burn tool and added some shadowing by the fish as well! Then I added some text, which i will have to keep working on but this is just a rough draft!

Start to another page

Here is the start to another page!

Fish

I made some fish to put in my book!!! They turned out great especially after I put them "under water"!

Rough/Story board ideas

Here is my story board I made a while ago for a reference.

Illustartion Progress

Here is/ will be one of the pictures I will be using in my Book! Its a start!

This is going to be the page where Canon sits on the rocks to look at the fish..* i just added in the turtle* i will be adding in fish and then Canon to follow

Meet Shelly the Turtle

This is one of the characters from my Children's Book. Her name is Shelly. She was hand drawn and put into illustrator and I put textures inside of her. She took me all night! Im pretty proud of her! Textures really help a flat character become alive!!!

My story

One summer afternoon Canon, the puppy and her owner Elizabeth went down to the river.

Canon wanted to watch the fish in the river, so she walked over and sat on a pile of rocks that were close to the edge of the water.

All of a sudden the rock Canon was sitting on started to move!

Canon looked down and saw a strange creature looking up at her!

"What are you?" asked Canon
"Im a turtle" Replied Shelly

"Why do you have a rock on your back?" asked Canon.
"It's not a rock silly, its my shell. It a house that is a part of me and I can take it anywhere! It keeps me safe and warm."

"What do you like to do for fun" Canon then asked.
"I like to swim in the river and play all day!"
"Me too!" replied Canon.

Then Shelly and Canon swam in the river! They splished and splashed all day long!

Soon it was time for Canon to go home. She was sad she had to leaver her new friend. Shelly then told Canon "dont you worry, friendship last forever! I'm sure I'll see you again very soon!"

Dancing Drum

I have been checking out children's books from the library. The first book I read is called Dancing Drum, a Cherokee legend. Written by Terri Cohlene and Illustrated by Charles Reasoner. The books illustrations through out the book have a blue/grey color tone until the very end where the landscape is bright and sunny and there are green fields, which as I have talked about in previous blogs shows the progression and potential growth of a character. What is interesting in this book, the main character is not the one that ended up learning and growing, it was the sun and not the little boy. As far as the illustrations, the characters are simple and most of them have a texture underneath which helps bring life and dimension to them. Most of the time in books the main character is closer to the reader, but in this book they did not follow this rule. I believe that if the illustrator did, then the book would have been a little bit more sucessful.

Pictue/Text Interaction

The illustrations in Picture Books helps novice readers understand the meaning behind the text as well as the theme or plot. There are four basic mode of picture/text interaction  reinforcing, description, reciprocal, and establish.

Reinforcing:
When reinforcing  ( a mode of picture/text interaction) the text- pictures help to provide more details for simple text, especially in childrens books. This will help novice readers learn new vocabulary, as well as understanding the characters and settings.

Description:
An illustrator such as myself may use color, line, shape , and various uses of composition. It will enhance the readers understanding of the text because it helps set the setting,character, and tone. Colors can play a major role in the use of description, especially when illustrating  a childrens book where text is limited. For example the use of warm colors such as the pink cheeks in snow white can show a warm heart, purity, and kindness that a reader will want to relate too unlike the dark colors of the outfit of the evil queen or pale complexion.

Reciprocal:
Illustrations take on more weight because they provide more detail. Illustrations will provide more insight into the personality of the character. "The story hovers between the words and pictures; remove one and the story disappears. The reciprocal nature of the pictures and text in these books suggest and apt name for this mode of interaction."

Establishing:
Pictures establish the story. Reading the pictures are just as important as reading the text in a picture book. This helps the reader engage actively in all the areas the make the story.

A picture is worth 1000 words

A picture book tells the story through the use of both text and illustrations.When dealing with picture books, the readers comprehension is based " on the readers ability to read the pictures as well as the text."-O' Neil. As an author and illustrator of my own childrens picture book it is my responsibility to accurately portray the meaning through the use of color, shapes, text, and my artistic illustration style. Color helps set the mood. Red can be seen as a very exciting, dangerous, or hot. There are colors that can help enfluence a persons hunger as well, such as yellow. Furthermore, color can help set a focal point. For example if there is a dark background and the character is bright it creates a focal point for the readers eye to be drawn to.

When illustrating a character or anything else, "smooth,flat, horizontal shapes gives us a sense of stability and calm' and ' Diagonal shapes are dynamic" they imply motion. Gestures, facial expressions, posture and positions on the page give a greater depth of meaning to the story without the use of words. Another key concept to keep in mind, is the positioning of the characters. A character who is overlapped by other elements (such as swiper in the show Dora the explorer who hides behind trees and rocks- he is an evil character not ment for children to want to relate to)  can be harder to relate to then a character who is in a more open field or "closer" to the front of the page.
The setting and its colors can play a crucial part in a characters development. For example : If a character begins in a gray city to a green open field it can show that the character has growth potential. The use of illustration can help readers through a sense of meaning derived from the illustrations.

Senior Capstone

I will be creating a Children's Book about my two dogs and their adventures. I am taking a graphic design class called Modes and Methods this semester which will focus on creating and broadening my horizons will illustations, using Adobe Illustrator. I want to understand and learn about all the elements that go into a successful Children's Book through marketing, publishing, design, colors, illustration and narative.

I have already started to record some of my children book story ideas and naratives in another blog.

You can find here : http://canonsadventures.blogspot.com/2011/08/canon-misses-neo.html