Unit 2-Lesson #4 – Illustrating the Book

Here are a couple of examples of student work from previous years:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B20h2wC2N1pxTHBSc3dJTXJqZTg/view?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B20h2wC2N1pxU2taWHdSRjA5ODg/view?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B20h2wC2N1pxczM1WUJqWFlrUXc/view?usp=sharing

Once you have storyboarded the whole story thereby completing your plan with a pacing and set of illustrations that work show the story effectively, then you begin illustrating your prepared pages.

1. Define your illustration style through your choice of art medium. Use an art medium that you have at home and like to use.  Some of you will use pencil crayons or markers, others have paints or inks.  Digital illustration is good too.
2. Prepare the total pages – Your pages should be no more than 8 inches high and no more than 8 inches wide. A good size is 8”x6”  or 7″X5″and your layout for that is either “landscape” or “portrait”, whichever you planned for in your storyboard.  Page layouts MUST be the same as your page layouts in your storyboard.
3. Each page is prepared separate from the other pages. If it is to be a double page spread then it is double the size.   Do not try and make a book with folded pages.  Cut all of your pages.  Be exact with each page size.

4. Illustrate the middle pages first. The first and last pages should have the most finesse because they impact the reader most.  You will get better at illustrating as you progress through the pages.  Pencil draw/sketch in every page before finessing and colouring any.

5. On double page spreads do not put a major image in the center foldline (called “gutter). This cuts your image in half.  It is definitely frowned upon.  Illustrator’s images are sacred. If you designed an image in the center on your storyboard then redesign the page  so that

6. Colour choices–  YOU NEED A COLOUR SCHEME for your book.  It needs to be unified by its colours.  You do not have to use all of the colours in your crayon box. A strong mood can be created by selecting only some colours for the entire book. Think in a colour scheme.  Arbitrary colours offer no unity or consistency through the book.

7. Avoid getting colours too dark behind the text – the text does not show up if you do this. If necessary fade the colours away in the space where the text goes.

8. Production Line -do all the colouring of a particular feature throughout all the pages at the same time, for example colouring the character’s shorts. If you colour the shorts on every page of the book all at the same time they will look consistently the same throughout.  This keeps all the colours constant, and saves you time as well.

9. Write the text on a separate piece of paper for most of the text and cut it to fit the space where it is to go. This is so that the illustration remains intact and unmarred by text.  If There are words that are part of the art design then treat them as art.  Typically we would scan in the illustration and then lay the text onto the page using a publisher program.  We won’t do that this time since several of you do not have the equipment.  (If you do have a scanner and a publisher program go ahead – that’s great.

10. Text can be art as well – sometimes words can have special design for emphasis or reading play.

11. Spend the time – a book can last a very long time.
12. DO NOT ILLUSTRATE THE COVER YET. That is for the next lesson.

Keep all of your pages seperate.  Do not try to bind them together into a booklet.

When you have finished please complete a SELF-EVALUATION using the criteria listed below.

You have until June 5 to complete the illustration work of this project.

Criteria For Self-Evaluation – rate your performance in each category  0  to 5  where 0 is not at all and 5 is fantastically superb.:

1. Story Pacing – Each page gives illustration to only the significant parts of the story and leave out the insignificant portions. The story climax and the story ending have good illustrative attention.
2. Unified appearance – every page is designed with similar features to the rest of the story pages. These features could be the colour scheme, the technique with materials, page framing, or scene elements. The main character appears consistent through the entire book. IEvery page has a visual connection, something that unifies it to the rest of the pages.
3. Art style is uniquely your own – the illustrator has not copied the designs of the illustrations from another version, but instead has developed imagery and illustrations that are uniquely your own style and method.
4. Handling of the art medium competently– the illustration work shows a consistent, capable handling of the medium that you chose to use.
5. The illustrations tell the story – each illustration contains substantial emotional and story details that carry the story from page to page. If the words were eliminated the story would still be told through the illustrations alone.
6. Impactful design work – the degree to which the look of the pages works to affect the reader’s engagement with the story.  Impactful, charismatic illustration work has finessed touches that draw the reader in and hold the reader through the story.

A cover design is the next assignment for this Children’s book unit.  I will post the particulars for that portion of your children’s book design on June 5.

Lastly,  on June 8 I will  post instructions on how to present this book on a Power Point slideshow with you narrating the book in a voice recording.  That will conclude this unit, and this course.

All Art assignments need to be submitted no later than June 17, 2020 if marks are to be applied to this course.