Possible Media for book cover design

Possible Media

·         Traditional vs. digital or both?

·         Should I use a combination of media?

·         Paint- Acrylic,oil or water colour

·         Drawing ink

·         Crayons – Pencil or watercolour

·         Pencil

·         Chalk/ Charcoal

·         Oil Pastels

·         Conte Crayon

·         Collage

·         Could it be 3D?

·         Print – Woodblock, Screen Printing etc

What does the book cover illustration need to achieve?

What does the illustration need to achieve?

·         The  book is targeted at primary school children , but an adult will be buying it  so the illustration should be ideally appealing to both

·         Needs to stand out among other book so that people will be drawn to it and choose the book over other books

·         Needs to be unique and not similar to a previous design for the book

·         Needs to be relevant- should reflect the themes of the book

Wind in the Willows Setting/ Location

Setting/ locations

·         Edwardian England (1900-1910)

·         River Thames

·         River Bank

·         Toad Hall

·         A year goes by (Starts and ends in the spring)

·         Inn

·         Wild Wood

·         Prison

·         Mr Badgers house

·          Mole’s house

·         Ratty’s house

 

 

 

Transport

·         Steam Train

·         Motor Car

·         Rowing boat

·         Horse drawn barge/ caravan

Colour

Colours

Primary Colours : Red, Blue, Yellow

Secondary Colours: Green, Violet, Orange

Complimentary Colours:  Red and Green, Yellow and Violet, Blue and Orange

Colour Association

·         Red- Power, Passion, Danger, Desire, Love

·         Yellow- Loyalty, Warning, Happiness

·         Orange- Creativity, Determination, Success, Determination

·         Blue- Stability, Trust, Faith, Intelligence

·         Green- Growth, Life,  Nature, Safety, Harmony

·         Violet- Royalty, Loyalty,  Wisdom, Luxury, Mystery

·         White- Light, Innocence, Purity, Cleanliness

·         Black- Death, Evil, Fear, Authority

 

Colours Associated with the book

·         Nature colours

·         Greens – trees, leaves, plants, grass , toad  etc

·         Blues- sky, rivers etc

·         Browns-  Weasels, trees, bark,otter, ratty etc

·         Greys- Rocks, buildings, pavement, squirrels , badger, mole etc

Colours Associated with the clothing at the time of the book

·         Black

·         Grey

·         Brown

·         White

Things to consider about the project

Things to consider

·         What does Toad hall look like?

·         What do the other characters houses look like?

·         What colours do I associate with the book?

·         What objects do I associate with the characters personalities?

·         What colours do I associate with each character/ their personalities?

·         What would the characters wear?

The wind in the willows characters

The Wind and the Willows Characters

            Mr.Toad

·         Wealthy

·         Spoiled

·         Conceited

·         Impulsive

·         Obsessive

·         Gets bored easily

 

Mole

·         Mild-mannered

·         Home-loving

·         New to the outside world

·         Has to adapt

 

Ratty

·         Cultured

·         Relaxed

·         Friendly

·         Lives a life of leisure

·         Loves the river

·         Can be stubborn/mischievous

Mr.Badger

·         Gruff

·         Solitary

·         Hates society

·         Wise Hermit

·         Friend of Toad’s dad

·         Optimistic

·         Brave

·         Skilled Fighter

·         Lives underground

·         Has a large cudgel

Otter and Portly  

·         Stereotypical cockney character

·         Has a son called Portly

·         Extrovert

·         Tough

·         Self-Sufficient

 

The Gaolers daughter

·         Only Major Human character

·         Helps toad escape from prison

 

The Chief Weasel

·         Main  Antagonist

·         He and his band of stoats, weasels and ferrets plot to take over toad hall

 

Inhabitants of the wild wood

·         Weasels.stoats, ferrets, foxes

·         Can’t really be trusted

 

 

Pan

·         A god who makes a single appearance

 

The Wayfarer

·         A vagabond, sea faring rat

·         Makes a single appearance

·         Ratty briefly follows his example

Squirrels and rabbits

·         Generally good, but rabbits are described as “a mixed lot.”

The Wind in the willows

This week I started a new project:

The Task

For this design in context brief I was given a number of competitions to choose from and had to pick one .  These were : D&AD – Department of health : Make exercise  a healthy habit,  Penguin/Puffin Awards (Book cover)– The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler (Penguin) and The Wind in the willows by Kenneth Grahame (Puffin), YCN  - Fedrigoni  : Inspire  printers across the UK to work with Fedrigoni papers , and  Holocaust international Poster competition ( Jewish Cultural Centre) – Keeping the memory alive  by making a poster to raise awareness.

Instantly I was drawn to the book cover competition  particularly the Wind and the Willows one as I am interested in doing childrens book illustration, so I decide to do this task.

 

 

Initial Research

I had never read the book before so I read a summary of the plot and characters on Wikipedia.

I started off by doing literal research – research relating directing to the story. I collected images of the animals the characters were based off, what I thought the location was like, transport etc.

 

PDP

Questions

What media did you use?

What is your work process?

How long does it normally take for you to produce work?

Who is your favourite artist/ What is the biggest influence on your work?

Best advice to an aspiring illustrator?

What is your working environment like?

What made you decide to be an illustrator?

What is illustration to you?

What kind of salary are you on?

What’s the most you have been paid for a job?

How would you describe your style?

 

Illustrators

Hannah Davies

Chris Corr

Gail Armstrong

Katherine Asher

Jamel Akib