Welcome to my Book

This is my finished book, for this unit. For the unit, I bound a book together that contained an assortment of animals, coupled with an assortment of letters. I am very happy with my finished book. It is well bound, and also lay out in a way that allows each illustration to stand out, against the appealing, childlike, colourful background, that each page contains.

My book is oriented toward children's illustration, created in a 1950s style. The animals included in this book are the following (in order)

Elephant - e

Dog - B, L

Lemur: - n
Leopard Gecko: - a

Lion: - z

Cat: - c

Peacock: - F

Centipede: - S

Thomas.

Final Piece #11

For my 11th, and final piece for use in my book of drawings, I have created a watercolour painting of a centipede. I wanted to include at least one animal deemed a 'creepy crawly' in my book, and with the discarding of my spider illustration, I was lacking this. I feel that this illustration however makes up for this.

I started out by sketching out the letter 'S', and then went around this point, by sketching the basis of my drawing, using a very fine pencil. This laid down the area and shape that I wanted to go with.

Initial sketch of my illustration

Illustration with simple colours.

Finished the painting of my centipede illustration, now it just needs to be prepared for placement in my book.

Cutting out the illustration from the paper, I needed to be very careful not to slice through one of the legs, or the body accidentally.

 This animal represents the letter 'S', and will be featured in the final page of my book of drawings. I am really happy with the development of this piece, and also the finished illustration. It is a bit more complex than my other finals, and It is one of my favourites. I like the tones if colour that I have used, and how the black legs stand out in contrast from the body, and also the background of my book page.

Despite this, there are some things that I am not happy with in my design, for example due to the legs being so thin, I accidentally sliced halfway through about 3 of them. Luckily I stopped before completely cutting them off, however now several legs are left with a few cuts through them, which i think makes the illustration look a bit less professional.

Thomas.

Final Piece #10

For my 10th final piece, which is of a lion in the shape of the letter 'z', I kept to the theme of my previous illustrations. This illustration resembles children's book illustration from the decade of the 1950's. It's 'pastel' tones, as well as the style of drawing help to accomplish this visual look.

When starting out my creation of this piece, I again sketched the letter 'z' in order to give me a kind of plan to go on. After this, I began sketching the actual lion illustration using a very fine 'H type' pencil, and went over this with a darker shade after I was happy with the way the animal was progressing.
Then, for the colour, I used watercolours, and picked a shade that closely resembles Lions fur.

I really like this piece, as I think the colour scheme is really sticking to my pastel tone palette, and it does resemble the themes of existing 1950's illustrators, not just in terms of colour tones, but with the simplicity too. If  I were to try to improve upon this piece, I would have altered the lower section of the image. I wish that the illustration was a little bit wider, in terms of width in the area just above the tail.

Before addition of simple mane.

After addition of simple mane and tail.

Thomas.

Final Piece #9

For my 9th final piece, I have created an illustration of another canine, this time however a different breed, a golden retriever, not a west highland terrier like the one that I created before. The west highland illustration as a note however can be found on the left page opposite.

The dog here is in the shape of the letter 'L', and like the majority of my book illustrations, however not all (coloured graphite), I have used the medium of watercolour, in order to stick to my 'pastel' like tones.
I began creating the illustration by initially sketching out the basic letter 'L', using a very fine and light pencil. I then sketched the image around this, in order to maintain the overall shape of the letter being portrayed. I erased the guidelines, and added colour to mimic the colour tones of both a real life retriever, and 1950's illustration colour tones.

My Golden Retriever illustration, clearly in the shape of the letter 'L'.

I am very pleased with this, as a final piece to go in my book of drawings. it is simple, yet fits my 1950's theme of children's illustration perfectly. I decided to leave the eyes blank, as I felt this just worked well with the children's theme. I am pleased with pretty much the entire piece, however, I think the tail may be too bushy, I should have made it a bit thinner, maybe with a slight flick, of course the flick at the end of the tail wouldn't be too noticeable, because if so, it could distort the resemblance of the letter 'L'.



Thomas.

Final Piece #8

For my 8th final piece that I will place in my book of drawings, I have decided to choose to create a Cat illustration.

My Cat illustration.

When I thought about using the letter 'c', the animal that came to mind first was a Cat. After initially sketching out the outline for the letter, I drew the Cat around this using a very light pencil.  After I was happy with the drawing, I added some areas where I wanted to place colour, and I used a tray of watercolour paints to achieve 'pastel' tones. I added some light fur detail on the body, and used a dark HB pencil to add tone to the darker areas of the fur.
I added the black patch around the cat's right eye as a last minute addition, as I thought the face looked quite bare. I believe this patch makes all the difference to the piece.

This piece I am fond of, due to the simple black and white tones. The red in the collar, and the blue of the cats eyes seem to break this piece up, which is what I wanted.

The Cat illustration after being assembled, 'cut out', and applied to the colourful page in my book of drawings.

I really am happy with how my cat illustration turned out, this image really does match with the theme of 1950s children's illustration, and it sticks to the pastel type of tones. Also, the yellow of the background really makes this piece strongly stand out, which is good for a children's book. If I were to add or change something to make this piece better, I would have maybe given the cat a bit more fur. I would have liked more of the fur to have stuck out from the sides, instead of the body being a smooth curve.



Thomas.

Final Piece #7

For my 7th final piece, I have decided to create the image of a peacock, in the shape of the letter 'F'. I used reference from some of the photos that I took at flamingo land park, which featured a few peacocks in their zoo enclosures. For this piece I again kept to a strict palette of 'pastel' tones, as to resemble the 1950's style of children's illustration. I started out lightly drawing the letter 'f', and shaping the image around this like a frame. After carefully drawing the peacock with a fine pencil, I began to add colour, detail and tone using watercolours. To get the unique tones I used watercolour paint to achieve this. I also used a fine ink pigment pen, to add some simplistic detail, such as the feather shapes and to also go over the beak and crest. I feel this makes the image more 'striking'.

Overall I am really happy with this piece, I love the shape, and the detail on the body, and it is one of my favourites. However, even though this still sticks within the pastel tone of colours, I wish I painted this in a slightly more vivid blue, like a sky blue. I feel this would have made the illustration that little bit more interesting.

I cannot wait to see how this will go in my handmade book, which will contain 6 pages (excluding covers).


Thomas.

Making the Final Book

For making the book, I have decided to use stitching to bind the pages together.

I began with 3 pieces of A3 multicoloured card that I bought from Ryman's stationary, and folded them together to create the style of an A4 book. Then, I used a thin but sharp needle with black thread, to bind all of the pages together.

A3 pages folded into A4 sized pages ready to be bound after making sure all the pages were neatly aligned.

Before I began stitching, I marked out where I wanted the thread to go, so I would have a rough idea of where the needle entry holes, and thread will be positioned. I equally spaced out the gaps through precise measurement with a ruler, to create a professional looking book. After this I carefully bound the pages together, which I tied very strongly, to make the book as secure as possible. I am really happy with how I did this, and I am very sure the book will be durable.

The fine stitching that is directly in the centre of the page spine.

You can see in the image above, how the thread is aligned perfectly with the spine.
After I made sure all of the stitching held together, and that everything was as planned, I moved on to attaching the cover, which contains the base for the planned book cover design. The cover consists of a different card than the pages, and is white card, that has been covered in light blue ink using a sponge. The card has been carefully measured and cut, as well as glued using spray adhesive, using extreme care.

(image here)

The book cover consists of a simple light blue background, with a small, cut centred illustration of a husky dog in a rough shape of the letter 'm'. The image was coloured using watercolour paint, in my 'pastel' tone colour scheme, and through this illustration, I hoped it would represent the style of drawings that will be inside.

The front cover watercolour husky illustration, as a work in progress (WIP)

The almost completed front cover, with the husky painting cut out, and placed onto the card.

The insides of the pages contain an individual theme, to the illustration being placed, alongside the actual letter that the drawing is trying to convey. The slight exception is the double page below, that uses a shared theme. I explain this in the text below, that is with the image.

Two pages that shared the same colour due to the binding style. To avoid a clash of contrast, I used animals that roughly shared a similar environmental habitat. So in this case, I could use a shared leafy type of theme. This now looks like a continuous flowed theme, and I am really happy that I managed to make these two images work so well side by side.

Thomas.

Book Evaluation

The book that I have assembled for this end of unit module, consists of a card (front and back) cover that was originally white in colour. I used blue ink and applied it to this with a sponge. I did this to create a contrast between the cover and the actual pages, as the pages inside are card as well.

For the binding method, I used a needle and thread to stitch the pages together. I chose this method over perfect binding, as I felt that it suited the book more, as well as the fact that in my trials there was fewer complications. I used a relatively thin needle, with black thread. I marked the holes where I wanted the thread to go with a light pencil, and inserted and exited with the needle via these points. After stitching was completed, I tied a secure knot, to stop the thread from escaping from the holes. I am happy to say that the bind has held really well, and still is holding the pages together. I have had no issues with my binding technique.

For applying the front and back covers onto the bound pages, I used spray mounting glue. At first this seemed like a successful idea, but after a few days, the card began to lift up, and be removed from the rest of the book. To combat this, I applied some double sided sticky tape in the areas where the card was peeling, this corrected this minor issue, and I am happy to report this in my blog.

Overall I am really happy, and proud with my book, from the stitching, to the way it feels in the hand. I believe it is a well made book, even if I did have a few minor quibbles, for instance with keeping the covers securely 'fixed' in place. I did get around to fixing this, using additional glue and double sided tape.

Thomas.

Preparing Final Pieces

Now that all my final pieces are complete, I am preparing them to be placed into my empty book of drawings. This is the book that I have been assembling from scratch.

The preparation involves completely cutting the image from the sheet that the illustration was originally drawn on. This is a very tricky process, especially when there is a lot of detail sticking out from the main body of the image, for example with additions like fur. For cutting around the images, I have been using a very sharp craft knife tool.

My canine illustration in the form of the letter 'B' as an example, after being completely cut out.

Cutting the pieces out, allows the colourful background of my book to fully be displayed underneath, and also looks much more professional than keeping the page intact in my opinion. I am interweaving related themed illustrations around the images, for example a watercolour ball, and dog treat to go with with this canine illustration, as well as a diagram of the letter 'B' to show which letter I am trying to convey in my drawing. Doing this will make the book more professional looking, and will add a bit of character, as well as unique elements to each page, as I want each page to be different, but at the same time running along the same theme.

The letters featured are a random assortment, coupled with an illustrative version. I have tried to be clear with resembling the visual letter, at the same time whilst retaining the shape, and detail of the animals.


Thomas.

Final Piece #6

For my 6th final piece, I decided to use the letter 'e'. The animal that sprung to mind as soon as I though of this letter, was an Elephant. The trunk and head shape resembles the letter naturally, if bent that way, which can be very easily done. This is what attracted me to using this particular animal, along with this letter.

The illustration, as a work in progress (WIP).

To colour this image, I used watercolour paints, and used a few shades of grey to get an accurate colour, that a real elephant would have. I left the tusk uncoloured, since the ivory is naturally of a white hue, and also I liked the shade it was to begin with. After adding the paint colour, I added some detail on the animal's skin, using a HB pencil.

I have decided that this illustration will be featured on page one of my book.

I really like this illustration, it is one of my smallest ones, yet it really is one of the most striking to me. The grey shade, coupled with the white tusks and the black eyes, create a pleasing contrast to me. However, If I were to improve this illustration, I would have perhaps made the detail a little more realistic, especially on the tough, wrinkled skin of an animal such as an elephant.



Thomas.

The Animalarium

This post, is about a great link to an animal illustration webpage, that I thought I would mention.

It is a blogger site called Animalarium. It is full of artwork that appeals to me and my route in this project. I will use this site as part of my inspiration, as to how to develop my final pieces for my book of drawings.

http://theanimalarium.blogspot.co.uk/ < image reference at this link.

The blogspot site features a collection of different animal illustrations, and some of them are in the 1950's style of children's illustration. This is the style that appeals to the theme that I decided to go with for this unit.

As a expansive side note, my style is based around 1950's children's illustration, using a hybrid of carton and realistic forms. At the start I made this clear in a past blog post, and I still feel like this theme is a good route to take. I am having fun creating work in this style, and I enjoy doing what I am doing for this unit very much.


http://theanimalarium.blogspot.co.uk/



Thomas.

Final Piece #5 (discarded)

For my 5th final piece to be included in my book of drawings, I have created the illustration of a rat, in the shape of the letter 'S'.

Initial basis for the illustration.

The illustration was initially sketched out with graphite pencil, with a simple outline of the letter 'S' to wrap the image around. After laying down the rough shape that I wanted the piece to follow, I sketched out the basic lineart. After this I then coloured the illustration in, using 'pastel' like tones. For the colouring, I used coloured graphite pencil to start with, which gave me an idea of the colours that I wanted to use. after I was happy with the colour, I moved onto using watercolour paints. Once the painting was completed, and dry, I then added detail like fur, eyes and ears, as well as the tail texture, predominantly using a dark HB pencil.

The finished illustration.

Update:

After self review, I have decided to discard this illustration, as use in my book of drawings. I feel no longer happy with this image, as compared to my other illustrations, it just doesn't match up to standards enough, in my opinion. I will include this image as part of my development, but it will not be taking up a page in my book.

Despite scraping this piece as a part of my book, I do like the colours I have used, as well as the shape of the body. However, the negatives for me outweigh the positives, which is a key reason why I decided to leave this illustration out of the final book. For starters, the proportions of the animal are all wrong, the face clearly displays this, as it is not the right shape. Also I don't like how I created the eye, it looks like it should have been moved slightly. Another thing, is the ears are also in the wrong place, they are too far to the left, and I just generally don't like how I made this image look.

Thomas.