Day: March 2, 2016

Along with a colour scheme, any good children’s book will have a strong typeface to support it. This may include one typeface for the main title of the book and then a different, maybe contrasting, typeface for the content.

Here is my typeface trial:

 

I think I will use a handwritten style typeface for the title of my book and then possibly a rounded sans-serif font for the text in my book.

For now I am going with the title ‘What’s Wrong, George?’ which will be what all of the other Savannah animals ask George the giraffe when he is looking sad and walking about alone. Repeating content from the book as the title is a good way of using repetition in a children’s book, which is one of the key ways of a child acquiring language.

Before I can experiment any further with character creation and backgrounds, I need to create a colour scheme to base my work on.

For research, I have looked at photos of the Savannah (where my story will be set) and have pulled some key colours out from the photos.

I have discovered that the colour palate I choose will either be rich or pastel-y, depending on which looks best when I begin to create my characters and background. I might switch some colours around so that the sky is not blue and the grass is not green to subvert children’s stereotypes and add something different to my story.

I think I will go with the top right hand colour and possibly add a green for my own colour scheme…

Today I thought I would try out using a graphics tablet as I think that is how a lot of children’s books are illustrated now.

This was my first attempt…

 

Then I had a go at drawing a giraffe for my own story…

 

 

 

Which turned out better than expected. I may use these giraffes in my story so will save them for now. I have decided the one on the left is a beautiful girl giraffe and the one on the right is a male giraffe that has no markings.

I have also drawn a lion that looks a bit like Scar from the Lion King.

 

And am trying to figure out a landscape for my story.