Last week, I had an enormous amount of fun working on an assignment where we were given a task to illustrate Hans Christian Andersens, 'The Snail and the Rose Tree'. This is a short story, with the moral story-line: never give up on personal achievement. How relevant! It was a great challenge as I have always wanted to illustrate a book.
This is my final piece. Everything was hand drawn using pens, pencils, watercolours, or painted with acrylics and then scanned and collated in Illustrator.
At the beginning of the process, I developed the two main characters, and I hope you can see the amount of pleasure I had with this assignment through the amount of drawings and sketches I made that covered the kitchen table... and floor? It was an organised mess!
I started the drawing process by looking at the snail and trying to get his character right. He was the hardest for me because I wanted to make him look 'cute' but not loose the shape and character of a normal snail. Below are some of my sketches that did not make the cut.
I have to admit the Blue snail almost made it to the front cover. I feel he is a very jolly little fellow. But, this was before I had read the storyline. He looks too happy and needs to be more grumpy.
Next are the sketches for the border. When we were asked what was our favourite children's book, I immediately knew mine from childhood. The Riverbank Rumpus by Simon Joyner. The detail and quirky little characters really inspired the way my cover developed. The idea for the border was that in the story, the garden is surrounded by hazel bushes, so these sketches are what created the edging on the book cover and they would be inhabited by some little characters that might not be seen at first glance. Look out, there are four of them hiding around.
I hand painted my background using techniques I had developed on the Flora Bowley course (which you can see in a previous post here) and then the final pieces were: the writing (which is a whole post in itself) and the rose tree with the bushy eyebrows. He was the one I had the most fun designing and I hope to develop him further in future projects.
I hope I achieved the rose tree character to look thoughtful and wise but not too scary for a children's book. I love how his character evolved from bushy eyebrows to hairy ears. He makes me smile every time I look at him! I really had tremendous fun in creating this book cover and could visualize a whole book. Maybe one day? Now I must look to this week challenge of orange and green... that I will post about next time.
Last weeks challenge, I feel, has really brought out more of my personality in the use of different art mediums, rather than just through ink and pen. Thank you Lilla Rogers. Your amazing input and encouragement is bringing out the best in all artists on your course. I cannot speak highly enough about Make Art That Sells. This course is really showing me that by using stepping stones I can achieve my goals.
I can't wait to have a spare moment to catch up with my fellow bloggers. I have slightly got behind. Sorry.
Until the next time, have a good week.
Until the next time, have a good week.
Andy
