Part 4 Exercise 3: A children's book cover
When Searching for inspiration and childrens book covers in general from the past and also today I found that back In the day the covers had a lot less bright colours, they seemed softer in appearance and they were mostly in the medium of watercolour and ink or pencils (traditional). There was more detail in terms of trying to capture the story on the front page and the lack of colour must have made the children use their imagination a lot more. In more recent years children’s books may have been drawn in a similar medium but most are now done digitally. The colours are also a lot more vibrant, and the illustrations can be a lot more digitalised in the sense the shapes and lines are far cleaner than older books drawn freehand. Modern book covers also when done digitally layers become a thing which can help in creating depth and separate things in the image giving the artist chances to chnage and redo parts easily then they would hand drawn on paper.In a way I feel book covers back in the day had a lot more character to them, now a days it looks like a lot of this has been faded out or dumbed down just to attract the eyes of children. However I do like mnay of the modern designs, the new elements that are introduced are a lot more exciting and even sometimes there are textures and shiny or raised parts on the cover which makes for a more interactive and intruiging style. Also because technology has grew kids seem to need more visual stimulation then the softer tradtional vintage style, something that isnt boring. the cover designs of today maybe reflect how fast paced and exciting things need to be, where as when classic storys were around (like the ones included) were one of the only forms of entertainment for kids so the covers didnt need to be as intense as they are now.
Classic Book (general) not reference books
Modern day books more colourful and chaotic images on the covers. Colours are a lot bolder and the writing is a lot more childlike with the size, shape and compostions its just a lot more playful and I think one of the reasons these texts are more successful is that there probably werent as many font options back in the and a lot less technology to change things.
Childrens books in general
Childrens reference books
The reference books have a lot of information on the covers, the images are there to cram as much detail about what the book will include as possible again playing on that intensity of today. The illustrations are obvious relating to the title and particularly the animal books itself explanatory. Having popular or many animals on the front will intrigue a child more if they see their favourite animals.
Before Making my client visuals I wrote a few things down I wanted to include after seeing these features on animal natural history books. I started by making a small mind map and list of well-known animals and animals that todays books contained. I then thought of what the background could be and whether plants and such could look good, what colours would highlight the animals if I were to include any, if the title would be italic or raised or nay part of the cover would have a texture. I concluded that I wanted a variety of specific well-known animals and earth to reflect the title.
This cover was a good reference for inspiration.
I did 6 in total 3 in portrait and 3 in landscape to experiment with composition and space. The main elements I explored was the use of animal prints rather then the animals and combining them with the green regions of earth as appose to having animals. I hadn’t seen any books do that. Another idea was just the animals by themselves with a simple background and then other versions of animals and the earth on the page. I had a hard time deciding for myself because I liked multiple.
This seemed to be the most popular choice when asking friends and family (blue with all animals)
But this one with the animal prints was one of my favourites. I found some animal prints to use on the island parts and went from there.
So, in testing both digitally I found that the one containing animals was a lot harder, and it didn’t turn out the way I wanted first. I think patience was partly an issue because there were so many animals and proportions and details to get right it annoyed me when I couldn’t make it as real as I wanted. I had to change the realism for a different style, something a little more comfortable using my own mixture or realistic and cartoon. I really like how it turned out especially after all the time I spent changing it.
First try that I didnt know what style or colours to use and blend.
I pasted all the real-life animal pictures I found so I could use them as a
template and add my own cartoon twist and details. The compostion of it just came to my mind natrually, i knew right away I wanted the bottom and side edges to be like a crowded line up of animals. from the list I organised them into fish to reptiles, popular mammals usually know for being in africa and asia then moving to animals from australia and then the cold regions.
final illustration with tester title
I coloured and styled the animals before finally pasting a picture of earth to be faded into the background to add a bit more eventful.
Full cover and back cover too.
Final illustration without the title
Final animal print cover without the text.
Children’s books reference general
www.booktrust.org.uk. (n.d.). Best Books for 0-5 years. [online] Available at: https://www.booktrust.org.uk/booklists/1/100-best-0-5/ [Accessed 17 Aug. 2021].
www.waterstones.com. (n.d.). Books for Ages 5-8 | Waterstones | Waterstones. [online] Available at:https://www.waterstones.com/category/childrens-teenage/ages-5-8.
www.coverbrowser.com. (n.d.). Classic Children’s Book Covers. [online] Available at: http://www.coverbrowser.com/covers/classic-childrens-books [Accessed 22 Aug. 2021].
Children’s reference books
www.waterstones.com. (n.d.). Children’s Reference Books | Waterstones. [online] Available at: https://www.waterstones.com/category/childrens-teenage/reference [Accessed 17 Aug. 2021].
www.goodreads.com. (n.d.). Children S Reference Books. [online] Available at: https://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/children-s-reference [Accessed 17 Aug. 2021].
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