Michael Rice

So I’ve decided that I don’t like my current designs/style so I’ve decided to change it all and rework it. Only a week until the deadline… not bad.

So the original designs have turned out looking rather flat and lifeless with lack of shading and really just a visual lack of motivation. I feel the motivation is down to the techniques and outcomes of the pages, for example I have been using a tablet and illustrator to create the past work and this just hasn’t been working for me. So I’ve decided to work on hand drawn sketches and this is already proving to be working a lot better than before. Below are the original designs.

Now for the new designs.

Having them hand drawn has given each character a new look and I’ve actively tried to create a rustic, unfinished effect to the piece. By doing this I’ve made it look similar to that of a illustration that a child has coloured in, something where the colour goes off the lines (I’ll work on this and try more of it?).
By splitting the text and images up between two pages, it strengthens the composition and allows for easier reading. The drawings also look less flat and appear to have more of a dimension to them, making it nicer to look at and gaze upon.

Here’s the second load of character designs, which includes a new look Panda design and a few new characters. 

Kung Fu Panda. Pandas. Reoccurring theme there but relevant. When watching the Kung Fu Panda movies, the parts that always stand out to me most are the areas concerning backstory due to their specific art styles. They seem to be very abstract and bright which in turn reflects and aids the effectiveness of the story that’s trying to be told.

I really like this style of art. It’s bold, bright, eye catching and effective in aiding a compelling and action packed story. Ideally I’d like to try and incorporate this style into my work.

If I did incorporate this style into the children’s book, I’d need the colours to be brighter and more friendly to the younger reader. It might be an interesting idea to blend the two styles that I’ve spoken about as seeing the bold and bright colours mixed with that of Eric Carle’s techniques might make something intriguing for the reader.

Below are a few designs that I’ve created for my planned characters. I’ve included (In this order): Panda White Fur, Parrot Green Skin, Fish Skin and Tiger Orange Fur. The idea behind these is that I’ll place them underneath each character design and in doing so I’ll be replicating a technique found in Eric Carle’s, ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’.