Year: 2016

The original mountain that I produced wasn’t suiting the remainder of the book, so I made the decision to go back and develop it so that it would fit the aesthetic.

This is the mountain that I came up with. I decided to make it in block colour (such as the previous pages I’ve produced) as well as having simple colours that contrasted against each other. Each stage of the mountain has been blocked with 3-4 different tones of the same colour to represent the 3D element and contrast of the rock-face. I wanted to have it all in the same style, concentrating on one set of colours; however, as I developed it I liked how it worked with the two sets of colours contrasting against each other, and with the blue ‘river’ in the middle of the mountain/rock-face it really worked nicely.

I developed this into the double page spread. Because this was the very beginning of the book I knew that by having a dark aesthetic would be the wrong direction to go in. Thus, by reflecting the simplistic by effective sky and sea I loved how it looked. The one element that I will go onto develop is the placing of the typography in the actual type face along with Nessie’s positioning, as currently she is too close to the mountain and it might look better if she was separated into the sea.

As the beginning pages of the narrative and the illustrations I thought that it was important to make them look as nice as possible, as well as making them professionally and colourful before it delves into the black darkness of depression. The first page encompasses the calm blues of nature surrounding Nessie (which is completely different to the black visuals of the later pages) which I think sets a nice tone for the book and will, hopefully, appeal to children. The cartoon-like nature of Nessie too will also appeal to them.

By continuing this design onto the first double page spread which falls directly after this page, it allows the story to slowly develop, while also beginning to get into the narrative and Nessie’s problems. The development stages that I have gone through I think has professionalised it and made the aesthetic distinctive and appealable to the young target audience. By using block colours, especially primary colours where appropriate, I think that it will help the audience understand the world of the narrative while being exciting and engaging. Compared to these three pages, the other pages are extremely dark- though I like how this progresses into this to reflect the theme; and then ends on the night in the dark- though showing the nice, beautiful side of it, as well as Nessie sharing it with her new friend. Overall, I am over the moon with how these have turned out and I am proud of my illustrations as I have learnt a lot and developed my skills on Illustrator and other technologies (i.e. the graphics tablet).

The progression above depicts my development within the landscape. Because I wanted to adapt a style that made the design continuous over two pages I tried this with the setting this time, while also treating them as separate pages. I love how this has turned out because it captures the dark mood and danger that surrounds Nessie in her everyday like, along with a division between the monsters and illustration so that it is interesting for the young audience to look at. Adamantly, I know that the narrative probably wouldn’t appeal to the young audience or that it is too difficult for them to get their head around; however, I have approached it with a suitable style of illustration in an attempt to tackle this tough issue.

With the decision to create shadows in the background it made the visuals a lot less dense and vibrant, though I still liked how it looked on the page. By doing this it became apparent that the deep blue background wasn’t suitable for the one page (as shown it is less visible on the second page of the spread), thus, I continued to refine it to look as professional as possible. Another element that I decided I would also change was the colour of the narrative. I only want Nessie to be the single element in colour as I think that this would be more powerful.

Because I dimmed the colour down so that it matched the mood and aesthetic of the page, I also had to develop the typography. I made the decision to have this in a light grey as this wouldn’t distract from Nessie (so that she is the only element of colour within this DPS- as she is trying to fight her monsters) and it also made it readable for the target demographic. With the key words which had an alternative type face, I refined these into a white because they stood out and I continued with the monochrome colour palette so that it would look professional and easily readable without it being too distracting.

As I had wrote the narrative beforehand it was simply a decision of what double page spread I should begin next. As I have been producing them in order (almost), I decided to go onto the next two lines of the narrative to illustrate. I had an initial idea for this one, mainly focusing on the aggressive monster that won’t leave Nessie alone. As this was the pinnacle point of the depression I knew that I could get away with having dark, black visuals; though I still didn’t want it to be an overpowering black.

To begin with I transferred my illustration of Nessie and a monster into the double page spread to see how I could configure this page. Because it is becoming personal for Nessie and she is ultimately discovering her ‘internal war’ I knew that I wanted to focus on her head, which also differentiates against the previous pages wherein Nessie is further away and shown as a whole. To juxtapose the soft curves of of Nessie’s character I had the monster sharp and bold, distinctly represented in a solid colour to insinuate a shadow while being bold enough to recognise within the illustration. The surround setting will represent this too, and I think that it could make it interesting for the target audience because of the difference from the previous surroundings.

This progression still is of when I have been developing the surroundings and scene so that it portrayed the mood of the narrative. As with other pages wherein I decided to change the tone of the background, I directed this one towards a dark green tone which was entirely different to the previous pages. This would make it more engaging for the young audience, but by having it in this green tone it looks quite murky and mysterious. It also slightly contrasts with the vibrant green of Nessie which I love and think works extremely well. The illustration of the surroundings were in the same silhouette style, but in this instance I attempted to make them sharp and dangerous to match the aesthetic of the page.

Because of the nature of my design and the silhouette base that I have decided the style will encompass, I continued this through the next design in order to create continuity. As it was for children and I didn’t want to repeat the design on every double page spread, I wanted to go for much more of a bold, recognisable aesthetic and visuals that link to the underwater scene and danger surrounding Nessie. Thus, I decided to represent this through shards of rock, sweeping in an arch motion wherein Nessie could possibly be placed into the centred to show that she it is trapped by her demons.

I continued with the style of perspective, using the fade of navy and black to subtly juxtapose the layers while making the illustration look dangerous. Instead of, with some of the previous double page spreads that I have designed, having the design span across both pages I decided on this one to only have it on one of the sides. This was to mix it up and allow more detail, thus, making it interesting and engaging for the young demographic. This also wouldn’t be a problem with the design because I could also make it flow with a different adjacent design with the same colour palette. On the adjacent page I was not sure what different visual that I was going to use, but I hope to include a hint of colour to differentiate the pages.

As the narrative is focalised on the monsters that surround and haunt Nessie, I decided upon having the opposite page having a monster silhouette which would contrast against the silhouette of Nessie. As I wanted it to take up a large proportion of the page, while still being identifiable, I had to make sure the monster wasn’t too elaborate or unrecognisable. The monster is quite abstract and it feature a large proportion of it’s body wherein the fist shows the aggression in the page and it’s eyes are mainly the only feature you can see as previously used in other pages because I love how this worked with the contrast and boldness which it had upon the aesthetic. however, it is very dense and dark so I will continue to develop the page so that it suits the young target audience and is in0keeping with the rest of the book.

By developing these elements of the double page spread to flow with the aesthetic and suit the nature of the children’s book, I think that the outcome has been great- although quite dark in the visual representation; however, this could work as it suits the theme of depression and loneliness. With the new composition of all of the elements and development of shadows and symbols that make the audience’s eye just around the page, I think that this page is more suitable for the young audience and is tackling the subject well. However, now that I have completed this double page spread I will continue to add more colour into it so that it is vibrant and incorporates the typical conventions of a children’s book.