Part 4 Exercise 6: Visual Distortion is the first creation of the dog in the story 'patch' except she is changed to a regular dog instead of a collage as well as a collage girl in the same technique...

"Your final assignment asks you to draw on all the skills, insight and experience you have gained so far, by designing and producing a book of your choice. Use the following options to as a starting point or alternatively identify your own project"

 Out of the 3 choices, the option that I thought I would do the best in was the found and altered books as I found that exericse previously to be the best for me personally, it was a lot more stimulating and hands on than the typogrsphy and research. However I ended up pursuing my own project in which I have created a lifting flap pop up childrens book. Now while I didn't go to a professional printer/publisher I did try and construct my own.

 

 Research

Firstly doing a little research with pop ups and lifting books I found this website with the breif history of pop up books , paper mecahnics and such... I only chose to do a lifting book rather than a pop up book as the story fit with the mechanics as you would naturally look under and in things if something went missing in your house.

 Books that I remember reading as a kid that were lift the flap book were these

 

These books were inspiration for my own book, although its not as perfected and the writing isn't up to scratch the concept is there.

Had a look at these websites touching on the history of pop up books but more related to my book I read about the illustrator who did the 'wheres spot?' series Eric Hill who kind of invented the type of book in 1980 and flourished into toys, tv features ect... 

The Independent. (2014). Eric Hill: Illustrator whose invention of the lift-the-flap book. [online] Available at: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/eric-hill-illustrator-whose-invention-of-the-lifttheflap-book-helped-make-his-creation-spot-the-dog-a-childrens-favourite-9530566.html [Accessed 17 Feb. 2024].

‌

References:

The Independent. (2014). Eric Hill: Illustrator whose invention of the lift-the-flap book. [online] Available at: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/eric-hill-illustrator-whose-invention-of-the-lifttheflap-book-helped-make-his-creation-spot-the-dog-a-childrens-favourite-9530566.html [Accessed 17 Feb. 2024].

The Independent. (2014). Eric Hill: Illustrator whose invention of the lift-the-flap book. [online] Available at: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/eric-hill-illustrator-whose-invention-of-the-lifttheflap-book-helped-make-his-creation-spot-the-dog-a-childrens-favourite-9530566.html [Accessed 17 Feb. 2024].

‌

Corba, L. (2014). A Brief History of the Pop-Up Book. [online] Bookstellyouwhy.com. Available at: https://blog.bookstellyouwhy.com/a-brief-history-of-the-pop-up-book.

The book itself needs a lot more work before I'd ever get it professionally printed especially because I would have to find an editor or somoeone to clean up the words. Again I did quote a few places for the price of a book and researched some software such as illustrator and indesign and it was all quite difficult as Iv'e never used them before. I did draw all the pages and liftign parts on the app procreate.

The name of the book is 'The Dog ate it!". It is a story about a little girl who's parents adopted a pregnant dog called patch. There are items around the house that have mysteriously gone missing. The little girl thinks the Patch is the culprit for the things going missing, she is convinced they're being eaten. She looks about the house but nothing is found so when Mum and Dad's things also start to also disappear they go searching and are surpised at what they find.

The idea for this book was an adaption from a previous exercise, 

Part 4 Exercise 6: Visual Distortion  is the first creation of the dog in the story 'patch' except she is changed to a regular dog instead of a collage as well as a collage girl in the same technique...

 

 Part 5 Words and Pictures Exercise 1: Your Own Work 

This is the story as a stroyboard and still in the style of a collage. I used the same story as this exercise.

 

So going off from these intial ideas a started off with a flat plan of what exactly I wanted on the pages. Now the pages are all in portrait to fit better on the page but I did make it so the book was landscape so I could create entire scenes. I drew a line across the pages that the images where going to be. and wrote the lifting component and what room in the house was going to be.

 

 

 Character design and adpations

This was the dog I created from the original collage paper version but as I wanted to have the colours simple on the pages of my book so I scrapped the collage look for regular bull terrier to fit the new style. I got many references from pintrest and instagram of this type of dog and made them so they fit the style.  Using procreate this was an older adaption to the collaged dog when turning it into a cartoon. From this the dogs style changed into what it did in the cover bellow. The expression was important for the dog especially on the cover, I wanted to give the dog a suprised, guilty look but keep it silly and light hearted. To help that I added a sock to the dogs mouth to suggest maybe she did eat it and the story is a bit mischevious.

The style of the dog changed once again so the eyes were full rather than just dots because it fit better on the front. This style of the front page is consistent throughout the book apart from the change in the dogs eyes. I didn't pick the title or typeface until the book was finished.

 

 

reference for the hand was my own hand..

 

Moving on, originially the design I created for the little girl came from a character design study were I recreated some pictures I found and change or exaggerate something about them. In this case I changed with women into a girl but kept a similar outfit.

 

this is the style they became. The girl stayed relatively the same but I simplified the dog and used dots for eyes because I like that style.

 Mini mock up

Starting the process of physically starting to put the book toegther and figure out the contents inside first, I didn't use a great deal of reference, only the odd angles of cupboards, couches and a few furniture bits around my house. I will put the references beside the pages to show the similarities and inspiration. I knew I wanted to have a lot of colours to attract and audience and my living room is quite colourful so the most reference was from that room.

The first two/three pages I made for effect as if copyright and publishing names and such that would be put before introducing the actual title ' The Dog ate it!'.

I did a mini paper mock up of all the page spreads and where the lifting parts would be before fully designing them digitally. The style of the characters was still in a the collage state before I actually changed them. I used a hole punch and some string to tie the pages together which now looking back should have maybe done the same for the final book as maybe it would have turned less messy. I think the art style I would hve found a bit more time consuming if i left it patch work.

First pages were the title and then the introduction to the characters and story.

 First double page spread is the bedroom, as you can see I chose the curtains, waredrobe doors and bed sheets to be the lifting parts. My aim was about 3- 4 per page spread.

2nd page spread is the living room, the parts that lift are the blanket box, carpet and pillows. I ended up moving this room around and adding a plant and side table.

3rd page spread is the bathroom, the bubbles, towel and toilet seat are the moving parts of this page.

two single pages, one at school and another to show what items have gone missing.

this next spread is of the kitchen, the changes made to the final design was the table was removed and cupboards and an opening oven took its place. The fridge, a cupboard and under the stairs are the lifting parts.

The final interactive page spread was the garden where I ended up lessening thea mount of lifting parts to only the shed and the flower bed.

the last pages however was just the Patch and all her puppies.

 

Binding and structure

For the book itself I think I choose a layflat binding or sewn so that the double page spreads are one big scene instead of facing eachother. Because I didn't get it printed for budget reasons I decided to use a sketchbook that could almost fall flat to acheieve a similar if not the same effect. It isnt as neat and precise as I hoped but I think I got the sizing wrong for some of the lifting components and the pages themselves werent too easy to go from edge to edge becasue of the way the binding limited full scenes. Never the less structually it works and the pop up parts are good enough that you can interact with them. For now I am happy with what the book turned out as considering my limited options for printing and publishing. The essence of the book is there. 

 

As for paper choice and thickness, because the pages have moving parts I wanted the pages to be structurely tough and not be flimsy so a 140-160gsm thickness I would have chose if I were to get it professionally printed. The front and book cover would be a matt laminated finish. the thickness would be good for a audience who are generally hands on so fliping the pages and grabbing a book that is strong wont take as much damage. 

https://www.gobookprinting.com/what-kind-of-paper-should-we-use-for-childrens-books/

looking at this page was informative a long the lines of paper choices for a childrens book.

 

Digitalising and drawing

So, going off from my first coloured storyboard I sketched every room roughly to layout the rooms.

for example

the living room

Then after the first sketch in colour and black line is drawn over aswell as lines for the floor in a different colour.
 

How I lined up the parts of the images and the perspective was to use the drawing guide on the appa which made the screen a grid and becasue all these pages were created seperatley I had to count the squares for things such as the floor so they'd match up when put toegther.

 

 here are some timelapses of the creation of some of the pages, where the references for things came from...

this one is a video of the front cover being created

this of of one of the single pages

This page as you can see in the video I used a cartoon teacher to trace in that postion I wanted as I was struggling finding a reference for that positioning. I also used a image of a classroom blurred out for the background.

This is one of the last pages,  again I found some online references of pictures of bull terrier puppies, traced the body shape of a few and drew other myself depedending on how the puppy was positioned.

Printing, and making the final product.

Every page had a DPI of 300 and 297 x 210mm, so the quality when printed was clean and the size was A4.

 Looking into the layout of these books I found some websites that provided some templates to get the correct measurements of the book that is suitable for printing

https://printninja.com/printing-resource-center/printninja-file-setup-checklist/book-printing-file-setup-guides/creating-your-interior-pages/adobe-illustrator-book-template/

 https://printninja.com/printing-resource-center/printing-options/book-services/hardcover-book-endsheets/

Print ninja I found had the most information about the whole design process of a book. Checklists for differents steps and plenty of things surrounding file set up, printing standards, design softwares...

https://www.bestpopupbooks.com/pop-up-templates/

So here is the finished book...

 

THE PROCESS, THE GOOD AND THE BAD

Throughout the process of creating this pop up book I came across some issues that effected the final design and mechanics. The concept and artwork and storyline however I was mostly successful. I personally think If printed professionally would make a huge difference in the outcome.

Starting with the good points about The dog ate it!

• The drawings digitally are quite detailed, I wasn't lazy in making each scene is full and colourful, The only shortcuts used was the use of reference to help with some anatomy of the characters.
  

• The colours and shading are viberant and the style is complimentary.
• The character design and expression are great for a childrens book as they're are friendly and warm. The dogs also have a cheeky mischevious look about them.
• The storyline being interactive is engaging for kids as it's makes them feel helpful in a fun way.  
• The writing although not properly edited is easy to read and the words being big on some pages to symbolise shouting and such is also child friendly and good for the storyteller especially because of there being a catchphrase 'The dog ate it!'  too.
• The size of the book,writing, images, lifting parts are all a good scale. The details are easily seen, read and the interactive elements are a good size.
  

The bad 

• The colours turned out a lot darker then I expected so some of the images are a bit dark to see the details of such as the cupbaords under the stairs in the kitchen scene and the shed in the garden pages.

 

 

• The way the pages stuck to the pages of the sketchbook didnt work out great as the further into the sketchbook I went the less space there was to stick the print outs to fit the pages casue fo the bindng in the middle. So the mistmatch of page sizes I had to use cut offs of the scenes to paste over the 'white parts' of the page and again looks quite messy.

 

• The construction of the lifting parts as well as the pages are a bit scruffy. Some print offs weren't as big enough to work when being used as a lifting part so I had to bend them in dramatic ways and use celloptape to keep them attachted. The glue I used also was a little wet so it make the the paper flimsy.

•  The writing I coudl ahve septn more tiem on correcting and maybe even got help with making it better for the story as a whole. I lack the skills for writing a book such as the grammar, vocabulary and spelling, as I am the one who illustrates and creates the images usually.
• The blurb at the back I used Ai to write it as all my attempts I wasnt satisfied with, so I gave it the story line and what it was about and seen what it come up with.
• The story could be longer and more places could be added or at least more of a story like the inbetween pages where the dogs personality could be show or the characters could have a conversation or I coudl have brought more of the parents in.
• I think I could have added extra little silly 'easter eggs' in some og the hiding spots such as the bath they're could have been a duck under the bubbles or a spider under the cushions in the living room.

• I did get the measurements wrong for a few lifting parts such as the flower bed box which you can see is a smaller version connecting to the larger print behind it.

 

The lifting elements were done by printing off the images, glueing them to a piece of black card and then leaving a strip free to attach to the page so it could move smoothly when opening.