Salvador Dali Development

I started off drawing Salvador Dali by looking at photos and old videos that he was in. I liked that he always seemed to be pulling funny faces on most of the photos that I found of him. I wanted to capture these poses in the drawing that I did of him. I started off with a few sketches, as soon as I decided what I wanted the drawing to look like I took it into photoshop and completed it digitally.  

Initial sketches 

When I was happy with my initial sketches I scanned in the drawing that i wanted to used and cleaned it up in photoshop. I changed the levels to make the whites white rather than cream and the blacks more black.

I then started to build up layers of colour until I was happy. I started off with a solid base colour for the skin tone. 

 I then added shading to the cheeks and coloured the eyes and lips.

I then proceeded to colour in the hair and clothing I stuck with darkish grey colours as I feel this worked as a nice masculine  colour scheme.

 To complement the dark green eyes and add a pop of colour I coloured the tie in burgundy. I think this worked out quite well with the rest of the image. I then decided that the image looked a bit strange and realised it was because there was no shading on the neck so I coloured it a bit darker than the face colour. I think that this worked out well and finished off the image nicely.

Frida Kahlo development and colour

To improve and further develop my drawing of Frida Kahlo I started off  by putting in into photoshop and cleaning up the lines using the levels tool. I made the backgrounds white and the lines more black. I then decided to change the head dress a little bit because I liked a different one more, I did this digitally and it worked really well.

Once I was happy with the outline I decided to start colouring the image. I wanted to use tasteful modern colours. To help me out with the colours I went onto the Colour lovers website and chose some nice dusty pastel colours for the flowers I used this as a starting point, I then added my own colours that worked with the palette. I think it worked out nicely and the colours work well together.

I then went on to colour the hair and eyebrows, I just decided on using a dark grey colour so none of the detail in the hair was lost. I also coloured the cheeks and the lips in a dusty pink to fit in with the colour scheme. 

I finally added the skin colour. For this I decided to colour pick Frida Kahlo's actual skin tone on photoshop from a photograph to make sure I got a close enough match to her actual skin tone. It worked out matching really well with the other colours that I had chose.

I am happy with how the colour turned out and I think I will stick with this format for my other illustrations. I will now clean up my other illustrations and continue colouring them, I will also create a frame to go around the illustrations. 

Frida Kahlo initial drawings

I want to draw all of the artists in the same style line drawings. I will then colour them digitally. Here are the original drawings that I did of Frida Kahlo. I think that the first and last drawing  work well but I'm not too keen on the second drawing, I think that the face shape is too round because of how I have drawn the jaw line. I do like the head dress on the second drawing so I might end up combining it with the first drawing. As these are just initial sketches the final image might change slightly from what goes into the book. The next step is to clean the final drawing up on photoshop and colour it digitally.

Pablo Picasso research

Pablo Picasso was a great artist from a very young age. I feel as though he will be good to include in the book because it will make children realise that they can achieve things at a young age. Picasso also had a very interesting life and there are lots of facts fun about him to include. I also included a photo of Picasso 

Born: October 25, 1881 in Málaga, Spain
Died: April 8, 1973 in Mougins, France
Movement: Surrealism, Cubism

• Picasso's had an incredibly long name, it was: Pablo Diego José Francisco De Paula Nepomuceno María De Los Remedious Cipriano De La Santisima Trinidad Martyr Patricio Clito Ruiz Y Picasso.
• His first ever word was pencil. Well he was Spanish so technically his first word was 'Piz' which is short for 'Lápiz,' the Spanish word for pencil.
• Picasso completed his first proper painting at the age of 9. It was entitled 'Le Picacor' and it depicted a man riding a horse in a bull fight. 
• Pablo Picasso's farther trained him as a painter from the age of 7.
• He sometimes painted other famous artists paintings but in his own style.
• Some of Picasso's paintings are amongst the most expensive in the world. 
• Picasso did not only paint, he also created Ceramic and bronze sculptors, drawings, etchings and even poetry! 
• When Picasso first began to paint he had a very realistic style but his style evolved into a more abstract, surreal style. 
• Picasso created the Cubism style where the subject of the painting would be drawn using lots of different shapes. These paintings looked a bit like they had been cut up into different shapes and glued back together. 
• Picasso sometimes burnt his own paintings to keep his room warm. 

Book research: Lets Make Some Great Art

Whilst conducting some research I came across a book called Lets Make Some Great Art by Marion Deuchars, I think that this book works really well for getting younger children involved with art in a creative way. It has information and a lot of activity pages. The style that this book is very modern and on trend, I feel as though because of the way this book looks it would attract an older as well as a younger audience. The layout of this book is very relaxed and doesn't conform to usual children education books, I would like to follow a similar informal layout style as i feel as though it will be more visually interesting for a young person rather than using plain text in linear straight lines. 

This book is a similar style of book to the one that I would like to create. My book would be a lot more based on facts but the idea of including a few more creative pages for young people to take part in would be a good idea for my book. I feel as though this will inspire children more to get creative and feel more involved with the artists in the book. Here are a few images from inside the book. 

Frida Kahlo development sketches

I started off drawing a few loose sketches to work out how i'd like to draw the characters in my book. I also sketched a few different details to see what I think worked best, for example I drew a few different eyebrow styles and ear rings. When I decided what I think worked best I combined them into more refined drawings that I could work into digitally. As I cant work from a real person as I am drawing a particular person from history I had to draw from photos from the internet

In the end I think that the top and bottom left drawings worked out best so I will clean these up and work into them digitally. These will then go into the book. 

Artist research: Scriberian

I was really inspired by the style of work that the group Scribarian create. They are a company of people that you can hire out to an event and they will write and draw on a wall in front of everyone, a bit like taking notes but in a more interesting artistic way. They use a very interesting hectic style that combines typography and little illustrations, mainly using black lines but with hints of colour throughout. I like the way that all of the different typography seems to work together, I would like to attempt a similar sort of thing to this for my book pages. Im not sure if it will work out but I might experiment with this sort of style to see how it goes. I think that this will work really well with keeping a child interested as all of the different visual aspects will keep their minds and imagination working. Here are a few that i think work really well. 

Research: Horrible Histories

I looked at the 'Horrible Histories' books to get a few ideas on how to write information that will appeal to a younger audience and how to successfully incorporate illustrations. The comic style strips that they include with the text works well because I feel as though a child would read the text then the little comic will help them to understand it and it will help them to feel fully immersed in the history and as if they have been transported back to the time that it happened. This gave me the idea to create my own little comic strips within the book showing interesting things that happened in the artists lives. I also think that the dates at the top of the page works effectively because it keeps everything clear and there is no confusion as to when things happened.  The variety of different drawings methods of presentation and breaks up the text and keeps the book interesting for children. I aim to create the same interesting exciting look that will draw young readers in. The funny jokes and things that the characters say are also a really nice touch to keep the subjects light hearted and humorous. Here are a few examples of pages that I think work really well from a Horrible History book. 

Salvador Dahli research

Salvador Dali lived a very obscure life, he was very eccentric  and had a lot of quirks. I thought he would be very interesting to include in my book as young children will find him very fun to learn about. Here are some facts that I have found so far. I have also included a photograph of him.

Full Name: Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dali I Doménech
Born: May 11, 1904 in Figueres Spain
Died: January 23, 1989 (age 84)
Movement: Surrealism, Cubism, modern art, dada

• Dali thought that he was the re incarnation of his dead sibling who was also called Salvador Dali. His parents even encouraged him into believing this.
• He produced more than 15000 paintings in his lifetime. He also created books, short films and illustrations. 
• Dali would do anything for a bit of extra money, you wouldn't think it from looking at his paintings but he even created the Chupa Chups logo.
• He has an intense fear of grass hoppers.   
• To ward off evil spirits Dali would carry around a piece of lucky driftwood.
•  Dali was fascinated by the shape of cauliflowers, he even once once drove around in a limo full of then and handed them out to the people of Paris. (They got very confused.)
• He liked strange pets and even had an Anteater and an Ocelot.
• Dali had a very unique moustache that he would style in all sorts of wacky ways. 
• He once sold a strand of hair from of his famous moustache for $10,000 but instead of sending the hair, Dali sent a dried out piece of grass. He was worried that the person buying his moustache would use it for which craft.  
• When Dali went out to a restraint for dinner he would invite a large group of his friends. He would pay for everyone but to avoid the large bill the Dali would draw on the back of his checks, the restaurant would never cash the checks because they had an original sketch by Dali which would probably be worth more than the bill itself.   
• Dali painted very surreal images that depicted things such as melting clocks, elephants, eggs and other very peculiar objects. 

Research: Children's Art Books

I decided it would be beneficial for me to search for art information books that have already been made for children as there are already a few out there. I came across one book called Children's Book of Art, This book goes through all the different art periods and also has a small amount of information on artists. It was quite helpful to see how this book had handled the topic and the age group. It seemed very basic and didn't spend too long on each artist, I liked what it did say about the artists and I will have similar things in my book but I aim to go into more detail about the artists. I think that the page layouts work well for thus type of book but i would like to create a more creative overall look to the book, to keep with the creative theme. I also think this will make the book look more interesting. here is the book cover and a spread from that book. 

I also came across a children's book series that explains 13 different things that children should know about, for example there is a 13 artists children should know, 13 buildings children should know, 13 woman artists children should know etc. These books but they sound as though they are along the lines of the style of book that I want to create. I have found a few photos from the internet of the inside of one of these books. In my opinion these books look very informative for children but I think that the font styles and layouts are very boring and un inspiring for a child to read. Here are some photos from the 13 artists children should know book.