Sketchbook Development

Today as part of narrative illustration module, I begun my primary development for the creation of my book.

I bought four separate sketchbooks.

The first two sketchbooks I bought.

Two will be for the creation of my characters and illustrations (A4), one will be for the plan/development of the literature side of things (story), and finally, one will be for the tying together of the illustrations and the body text, in a rough format.

For my character and illustration books, I will initially, from the first few pages of each book, spend a large section of each book sketching a variety of characters in different poses and colours. One will be down the route of the cartoon-like style, whilst the other will be down the route of a more hybrid approach (cartoon/realistic) I wish not to go fully realistic in my illustrations, as I feel this would work more for say, an adult audience, not a children's. This development phase will help me to practise perfecting different animal anatomy, as well as to help develop my styles, and also my characters in terms of expressions, poses, visual look, and also the personality of my characters. I aim to make this the book that brings my featured animals to life.

For my story plan book, I will use the pad to jot down initial ideas and concepts for the book, as well as one or two drafts, before I finalise the story.

In my third book, I will write the draft story down on the paper, and place a few sample illustrations amongst the text, to indicate what each scene will look like, where the images will be placed, and how the flow of the book will look, sound, and feel like.

All of the books are very important, and each one plays a very crucial part in the development of my book.

Alongside everything, my narrative illustration blog online, will accompany my research.


Thomas.