Author: Anna Osborne

Now that I have created my story, I have worked out that I need 2 other characters for George the giraffe to ask about his spots to. Today I have been using the graphics tablet again to draw some other African animals that could be used in my story.

This is my snake:

I might change the colours a little but I am quite happy with this – I wanted an evil looking snake and feel it looks okay.

Update:

These are all using my colour scheme. I think I like the middle and right designs the most.

My meerkat:

and the 2 characters I am not going to use:

Before I can create anymore illustrations, I need to have finished my story so that I know what images can support the text.

I have completed a first draft for my story, trying to include rhyming and repetition which are two commonly used features of children’s books. I have also called the protagonist (giraffe) George as the double ‘G’ is alliteration which is also a common feature of children’s books.

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…