Man's Best Friend - Final Thoughts

As the end of my final project at Arts University Bournemouth draws near, I feel it is time to reflect upon my development in the Major Project phase of my final year.

Creating a story based around a very current issue faced in our society was always going to be a challenge - even more so when that story is going to be meant for a younger audience. I wanted to create a story about a homeless character that was aimed at reading age children, so ages 2 and above, and have it be a heartwarming story that parents can sit down and read with them - or leave them to enjoy on their own! 

I didn't want the fact that the man is homeless to be apparent or directly mentioned at all in my story, as the fundamental message in the book is to not judge a person based on them being homeless. You form an opinion of him based on his actions in the story and not whether he is homeless or not. 

I kept in regular contact with my friend who works for a homeless charity, constantly asking her for advice on the design of my characters and the story, and she loved everything I produced and was fully supporting of me and my book.

I used ProCreate for the first time ever to create my book once I'd gotten the go ahead from Joel, we both thought it was very successful in bringing my characters to life!

When the book was completed, I began working on the promotional materials that I would use in the charity campaign that not only promotes the book, but the charity 'Help the Homeless'. The idea is that the two would be in partnership with one another - with a percentage from book sales going towards the charity. The characters would be used to encourage families to help out in any way they can, and I designed a vibrant and exciting flyer that details ways in which children and their parents can help. These would be given out at stands - a mock up of which I also created, along with stickers. I also designed two posters to display on the promotional stands. These are similar to the usual 'Help the Homeless' campaign posters, but feature the characters from my story, and the slogan 'Don't Judge a Book by its Cover'. 

Overall, I am happy with my work in the final year. I'm glad I got to create a story which is more meaningful than any I have made in the past, and that I got to try out a new program to create it.

Man's Best Friend Printed Version

Today I received the printed version of my book 'Man's Best Friend'. I ordered it from Blurb, and chose the small square size option as I felt this suited my book layout the best. I have ordered from Blurb in the past and was very confident that they would produce my picture book to the highest standard.

I wasn't too impressed with what I received, noticing first off that part of my title had been cropped. I was displeased by this as not only did it not show up in my print preview, but in the file I supplied the company with there was a large amount of space above the top of the text.

The other issue is that most of my page numbers were partially cropped during the printing process, another thing that the preview failed to highlight. This almost makes me regret including the numbers altogether.

Overall, I'm pleased with the imagery. When you flick through my book, the illustrations are crisp and it reads well, it's just a shame it couldn't be as perfect as I'd hoped it would be.

Personal Project - Butterfly Dragons Book

As a bit of personal work to run alongside my picture book for the major project, I decided to carry on where I left off with the Butterfly Dragons at the end of the Pre-Major Project. To do this, I wanted to continue on in the same sketchbook that I started this work in and luckily enough Joel allowed me to do so - as long as it was returned to be marked as part of the sample!

This book follows the dragons on their adventure around the world to try out the foods that they can find, from pizza to nachos to sausage rolls to sushi! This adventure comes about as they are growing bored of only eating the fruit that grows in their volcano home. The adventure concludes with the dragons missing their fruit and flying back home.

For my hand in, I have produced a rough version of the book. I say it is 'rough' as there is more I wish to add and work on in the future, but would like to show what I have completed thus far.

This is the rough cover design for the book. I like the illustration, but would like to work more on the title and develop a design for the background.

The book begins with a spread showing the dragons eating their fruit.

I incorporated some of the illustrations from my PMP into the book, such as the sleeping scene, as I was especially fond of it.

Some countries visited in the story, such as England, have more than one spread to cover the food the dragons ate there.

Some countries are only covered by a single illustration on a page. This was done to stop the pace getting too slow in the story.

I featured a few larger full page illustrations in the story as well as the small spot images of the dragons eating food. These drawings took a lot longer to complete and look very impressive in my opinion, and I really enjoyed the attention to detail in these illustrations.

The dragons stealing a slice of pizza while in Italy.

The dragons order a feast in an American Diner.

The dragons enjoy a Cream Tea in England.

I hope to finish off this book in the near future as it is so close to being perfect. I however need to focus my attention elsewhere before my Major Project hand in, as much as I would love to dedicate my time to finishing this work.

Promotional Campaign Materials

With my book completed, I decided to work more on the Promotional bits to go alongside it, including the charity campaign to raise awareness of the issue of homelessness. This campaign is aimed at an audience a little older than the book itself, targeting school age children and their parents. The picture book is suitable for children of younger ages, including those as young as early readers, being for age 2 and above.

I've created a rough mock-up of a display stand to communicate my ideas for how this would be presented.

The campaign would involve a display stand, set out with three panels featuring my slogan 'Don't Judge a Book by it's Cover' - which is one of the messages communicated in my picture book. The stand would also include my two posters which I have designed to include different angles to that in my picture book, to create a more dramatic effect. 

Handed out at the stand would be flyers that encourage people and their kids to help in any way they can, detailing the methods in a list. 

The stand would also give out stickers to the generous people and children who help out, and these stickers I have designed to feature my character and be somewhat desirable to little children. 

The stand would also have copies of 'Man's Best Friend' available for purchase, with 10% of each sale going towards Help the Homeless.

This is the design on the flyers. It was drawn up in ProCreate with the text added in Photoshop. These flyers would be printed in bulk and handed out at the promotion stand.

These are my two posters. These would be on display at the stand and could also be used on webpages to spread word of the book and how it aims to tackle the homeless crisis. These posters would be printed oh high quality paper in A3 size.

These are my character design stickers that would be handed out at the stand to people and children who donate or help out with the charity.

Finished Book Pages

As I near the deadline for sending my book off to print, I'm working away to produce my pages and get them up to a high standard of quality for my Major Project deadline. I hope to have this book professionally bound to hand in on Friday 27th as this will showcase my work in the best possible way.

This is the spread showing the man making a sand sculpture...

...and the treat he bought his dog with the money!

This is the final realisation of the juggling spread I created a rough for.

This is the spread showing the man playing music on his old guitar.

These are just a few of the pages I've finished so far, and I will continue making them and checking them over until I am happy enough to send off the book to be printed.

First Finished Illustrations

 Today I finished up a few illustrations for my final book! As I've now decided on a final look for my characters and a storyline, I can now set out to create the art that will fill out the picture book! I hope to have a good mix of single page illustrations and double page spreads, and have drawn out a plan in my sketchbook so that the style for the drawings alternate as the week goes on in the story.

This is the final art for my characters juggling. In the story, the man and his dog juggle on a Friday, after the man buys his dog a red ball. With the money they make from their performance, the man buys his dog a collar!

This is the double page spread showing what the man and his dog get up to on Wednesday, drawing a huge illustration on the pavement in chalk! The man buys his dog a bag of treats with the money they make from this.

 The book ends with the man buying himself a guitar, as he enjoys playing music. On Saturday in the story, he plays music with a broken guitar, so this part of the story ties in to the happy ending.

Sketching Ideas in Watercolour

After planning in my sketchbook how my story will read through, and what activity will happen on each day, I have started sketching in my sketchbook some ideas for final illustrations that will feature in my book. I have coloured them with watercolour in order to get a better idea of how my proposed colour schemes will look.

I'm happy with these little experiments and feel I've got a lot to work with when I return to ProCreate to make my final illustrations.