The Brief
This brief features a choice of 4 possible projects to address:
I've decided to pursue the picture book for early readers, and the story I will work from is an adaptation of How The Elephant Got Its Trunk by Rudyard Kipling.
Additionally I will adopt some appropriate self-imposed parameters for the outcome of this project:
Front Cover Illustration Parameters:
Research & InspirationIllustrated Children's Books
The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling - Illustrated by Patricia MacCarthy
Atticus The Storyteller's 100 Greek Myths by Lucy Coats - Illustrated by Anthony Lewis
ElephantsCrocodilesElephants & Crocodiles TogetherAnimal Reference Art ToolInitial ThumbnailsFront Cover Illustration Thumbnails
For the front cover illustrations, my focus was primarily on visuals that include the trunk of the elephant as the key element.
I left some visuals without a type treatment applied to them, and some with the type illustrated. I feel that the visuals that include a typographic treatment are stronger and more valuable as thumbnails.
Single Page Illustration Thumbnails
Throughout the single page illustrations I've explored the interactions within the book that the Elephant has with the other animals to see which ones could be explored to create a more interesting outcome.
I've tried to abstract the subjects into less realistic depictions so that they may have a greater appeal to younger audiences.
Double Page Illustration Thumbnails
I decided to focus on the interaction between the elephant and the crocodile for the double page spread, as it's the key incident in the story, & has the potential to be a very dynamic image.
Appropriating reference images in a transformative manner allows a greater exploration of a variety of treatments & styles without bogging down the process with needlessly detailed drawing.
Developed ThumbnailsFront Cover Illustration Thumbnails
I liked the initial thumbnails that obscured the elephant, showing the trunk in greater focus. The idea of showing the elephant in tall grass and having the trunk revealed is probably my favourite treatment for the cover.
I couldn't resist developing the Dune cover parody thumbnail a little further.
Single Page Illustration Thumbnails
For the single page illustration, I decided to show an event near the end of the story, the crocodile being exhausted after all the other elephants decide they want trunks too. The struggle for this piece was conveying exhaustion & tiredness using the body language of a crocodile, anthromorphising the crocodile somewhat definitely makes it easier to get the message across.
Double Page Illustration Thumbnails
The concept I decided to develop as the double page spread illustration is the climax of the story, focusing on tension crossing the double page spread through the characters' body language. Lots of straight lines and pulling motions that go through the center of the spread.
Final Idea Development & Production (WIP)Front Cover Illustration
My objective for the front cover was to establish the setting of the book & its primary character. The intention of showing the elephant with its trunk is to invoke the question of how the elephant got its trunk, which is answered in the story.
The above series of image shows key stages of progression in this illustration as I created it.
After considering my thumbnail visuals I've identified some improvements that could be made:
Final rendered image with the 3mm bleed area denoted by a faded border.
Front cover mock-up image. The image could be extended to cover the spine & rear cover of the book, but for the purposes of this mock-up I decided to have the spine be a single flat colour similar to the sky in the illustration.
Double Page Spread Illustration
The focus of this illustration is the climax of the narrative, when the elephant gets its trunk due to an encounter with the crocodile. This scene is supposed to convey tension, but with the light-hearted weight of a children's book level of peril.
The composition of my thumbnail visuals was rather flat and uninteresting, as they were all side-on from the action, to address this I've tried to add a greater sense of depth in the perspective. How well this has been executed is debatable, but I'd rather fail spectacularly than succeed tediously.
Double page spread mock-up, showing the center line & revealing that no key elements of the illustration are affected by its presence in context.
Version with adjusted type elements, to improve their clarity & reduce their hardness after feedback.
Single Page Illustration (WIP)
This illustration depicts the end of the story, at which point the elephants all go to the river to get their trunks pulled out by the crocodile. I thought that this part of the story would be overlooked, so I decided to feature the crocodile being exhausted.
The body language of the crocodile on its back with limbs akimbo is meant to convey its tiredness, meanwhile the elephant with an upstretched trunk looks impatiently at the crocodile.
Single page mock up & possible type treatment for accompanying page.
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Author:Elliot Watson, Illustrator with a background in historical swordsmanship and all the weird and wonderful trappings that entails. Archives
November 2021
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