Evaluation

Evaluation

I began this project with the idea of creating a fun, contemporary book about artists from throughout history, for the ages of 9 and up. I wanted to create this product because when I was younger I had no books based on art that interested me at a young age and the only things that I learnt about art were from art lessons at school. I decided to stick with the average children’s book size of 32 pages so that it would fit in alongside other books on the market.

I decided that so this book would sell, I would have to make it appeal to the adult market as well as they would be the ones buying it for their child.  For this reason I decided to go with a contemporary style that would draw a modern parent to it as well as a younger child. The colours played a large part in making the book appeal to both audiences, I chose a colour bright enough that a child would want to pick up but muted enough that it fits in with the latest colour trends, the colour that I decided to go with in the end was a slightly pastel version of bright yellow. I feel as though this worked well as it fit in with the black line drawings used throughout the book.

I wanted to stick with slightly simplistic drawing style that would appeal to a younger audience, I didn’t want to have the drawings too simplistic though because I feel as though that would bring the target audience age down to a much younger age. For the profile drawings I decided to keep them fully coloured so the reader could get a true sense of what the artist looked like. I kept the rest of the drawings in black and white because I was inspired with the old horrible history books as they had a similar style of book to mine and they worked really well.

       

For the typography I wanted to keep it very miss matched but still stuck to a format to keep it looking professional. The reason that I wanted to keep the text styles mixed is because that seems to be a current trend within the illustration market and I feel as though this would appeal to a modern parent. I combined my own hand drawn typography with digital because I felt like too many hand drawn styles would just end up looking messy. In my learning agreement I stated that I wanted to improve my hand written typography skills and I feel like this project has really helped me with that, as I am now much more confident with drawing letters than I was before.  

Although the layouts were quite informal I kept them very similar for every page, as I wanted to keep a professional feel throughout. I also added a banner to the top of the page sticking with the muted yellow colour that I decided on with the name of the book and the page number on. I did this because I noticed that it was a common thing throughout books on the current market and I found that it really finished off the pages and brought them all together as one finished book.

For my last profile I decided that instead of choosing an artist to write about, that I would leave the profile, information and activity page for the reader to fill in so they could feel more inspired about art seeing their own pages amongst other great artists. I feel like getting them involved will make the book a lot more interesting for them.  

When I had completed all of the book I decided to add an extra bit to my book to make it feel a bit more special so I decided to add a sticker page to the back of my book. I feel like this adds a bit of extra fun for the young person reading it. For the stickers I decided to use the profile pictures of the artist as I felt it would be nice to have them all together in one place, I also thought that the shape of them was very fun and a bit quirky for a sticker and this fit right in with the overall style of the book.

Overall I am really happy with how the final product has turned out. I feel as though I have fulfilled my original intention and it looks exactly how I had planned in the beginning. I think that my ability to reach a professional looking standard has improved vastly from previous projects and this is something that I originally really struggled with. I think the strongest aspect of this project has been the strong use of hand drawn typography and the design of the front cover. If I was to re do this project I think that as well as submitting digitally I would attempt to make the final product into a proper book rather than just presenting a mock up. One last thing that I would improve if I was to re do this module is the back cover as I don’t think the design was as strong as it could have been.

Final Product

As I have completed my front cover design and finished my page layouts I decided to make some mock ups of how the final book would look if it was professionally printed. Here are my mock ups I used photoshop to apply my images to some blank templates. I am very happy with how they look and seeing how they would look if they were printed properly has made me realise that my book would not look out of place on a book shop shelf. My goal for this year has been to progress with my professional finish and i think by looking at these finished products that I have became much closer to achieving that goal.  

Final pages: something a bit different

As this book is aimed at a younger audience I decided that instead of having one more artist the last 3 pages could be for the reader to complete their own profile as if they themselves are an artist in the book. I thought this would be a good way to get the reader involved and excited about art.

I will include a little frame where the reader can draw a mini portrait of themselves, and a space for them to write their name. I will also include some sun headings below the name such as date of birth, where you live and hobbies that you have. Below the profile I will have a drawing of the gallery guide and a blank section for the reader to write a bit about themselves.  The next page will be for the reader to write some facts about themselves and draw some doodles to match the facts. The last page will be an activity page, this is going to be where the reader can create their own piece of art.

I think this idea will be successful amongst the target audience as it is a fun little activity for them to get involved in at the end. Its a bit like a little added surprise for them at the end of the book. I also feel like this might inspire the reader a bit more as they will feel like they are in the book alongside some of the most famous artists from history.

Front cover

For my front cover I didn't want to give away too much of what is inside of the book so that people would be interested to open it. I still wanted the cover to communicate what the subject of the book is so I decided to have a paint palette as the main image. I used water colour paint for the image then scanned it in, I decided to have the palette yellow as this colour continues through the book and I think this ties everything together nicely. I thought with the palette in the centre it gave the cover a nice composition and made it look striking. I also decided that I wanted to include big bold lettering for the title so it would be visible from far away, for this I used a hand drawn lettering style. I then added a little tag line at the top of the page to balance out the composition and finally added my name in a little black oval, I placed the name off centre to add a bit of movement throughout the image as this will guide the viewers eye around the page. When I had completed the image I still felt as though it needed something so I added a very faint texture in the background and this finished off the cover nicely. Overall I am happy with how the front cover came out because I think it looks very interesting and on trend.

End Pages

For the end pages i wanted to use a repeat pattern as thats what most end pages have on them. I wanted to make my pattern look really contemporary to fit in with the rest of the book so i opted for a simplistic pattern using long horizontal shapes. Another thing that I wanted to do was keep the same yellow that was used on the page headers, to keep the book looking uniform and professional. I think this worked out well in the end as the pattern looks stylish and contemporary, and the colour choice really ties the end pages in with the rest of the book. 

Fact Pages

I decided to keep all of the fact pages black and white so the book looks like if follows the same format throughout.  I also decided to have a mixture of hand made and digital typography to keep the pages looking professional. 

Profile Pages

Here are all of the profile pages for the artists that i have created so far. I kept the profile pictures in colour to give the reader a better idea of what the artist looked like. I kept all of the other drawings in black and white because I wanted the book to have a uniform look. I think this worked out well because i think if the whole book was it colour it might have looked a bit too much. 

Andy Warhol Research

I wanted to include a diverse group of artists in my book so I thought it would be good to put Andy Warhol in as he created pop art which is very different to all of the other art styles in the book. He also is known for drawing products rather than images that tell a story so I thought that would be interesting too. 

Born: August 6, 1928
Died: February 22, 1987
Movement: Pop Art

• Andy Warhol got banned from art club when he was in secondary school because he was better than all of the other students.
• Theres a 5 minute video of him eating hamburger on youtube.
• As well as creating art Andy Warhol owned a nightclub, produced music and had a TV show for MTV called Andy Warhol's 15 minutes. 
• Andy Warhol drew products rather than people so he had a lot of commercial jobs working for big companies. 
• His most famous and most recognisable piece of art work is probably the Campbell's Soup tin painting. 
• Andy Warhol's name was originally Andy Warhola but he dropped the 'A' when he became famous. 
• He was one of the leading pioneers in the pop art movement.
• He had a  nose job because he hated the way his nose looked. 
• Andy Warhol wore grey/silver wigs and eventually he died his hair the colour of his wigs. 
• he once got told he had a lazy eye so he decided to start wearing blacked out glasses with a pin hole in them to hide his eyes. 

Layout research

The second book that I looked at for some help with layouts was a book about printing called 'Print workshop.' I initially was drawn to it because the drawing style is very similar to mine. This book has very nice simplistic layouts and lovely illustrations. I liked on page in particular because it used the edge of the page really well. I thought I would keep this page in mind when planning my layouts. Here is the book cover and the page that I thought worked well. 

Layout Research

I wanted to get some inspiration for what my book should look like and how to lay it out well. I headed down to the library and picked out some books that looked really nice and fit in with the style that I wanted my book to be like.  The first book that I picked out is called 'My even more wonderful world of fashion.' It fit in perfectly with the style of my book and it really helped get ideas for my layouts. The bold black lines and use of space worked really well. I also really liked the style of typography and the different fonts that are used together. Here are a few pages that helped me out a lot. 

Beatrix Potter Drawing

This is my Beatrix Potter line drawing and colouring process. I used the same technique as I did for all of my other drawings by layering up the colours on photoshop. As there was no real full colour photos I had to do a little bit of guess work with some of the colours. I think that the image worked well considering I had to guess which colours to go with.  

Beatrix Potter research

As I am struggling to find famous woman artists from the past that are appropriate to include in a book for a young person, I decided to branch a little bit into illustration, as it is still relevant and woman illustrators from history played a large part in shaping the future of the art and illustration industry. I also thought that younger people would like to have someone such as Beatrix Potter in this book as they will most likely remember reading her stories from their childhood and they will be able to relate to her and her art.

Born: 28th July 1866, South Kensington London
Died: 22nd December 1943
Movement: Illustration 

• Beatrix and her brother Bertram kept small animals as pets. They had mice, rabbits and even a hedgehog! These were the inspirations for her stories. 
• Beatrix potter is most known for creating her cute illustrated children's books featuring talking animals. Her most famous book is probably The Tale of Peter Rabbit.  
• Nature fascinated Beatrix, Her love of nature was inspired by the yearly trips that she took to the lake district with her family. 
• Before Beatrix potter was took on by a publishing house she privately printed the first edition of her book The Tale Of Peter Rabbit.
• Beatrix was a very smart business woman and she created merchandise to go alongside her books. She created Peter Rabbit dolls, board games and wallpapers along with other things. 
• Beatrix owned a lot of land including sixteen farms and over four hundred achers of land!  when she died she left all of her property to the national trust.  
• Beatrix Potters books are still so popular that on average four of her books are sold every single minute. 
• The Tale of Peter Rabbit has never been out of print since it was first published.

Image Taken from: http://www.greatthoughtstreasury.com/author/beatrix-potter

Georgia O'Keffee Research

Georgia O'Keffee could be known as one of the most significant artists from the 20th century, she is most known for painting large bright beautiful flowers. She was determined to live out her dream of becoming a painter.She achieved her dream and her career spanned for more than 60 years and even her failing eye sight didn't stop her from creating art.  


Born: November 15, 1887 In Wisconsin, United States
Died: March 6, 1986 In Santa Fe, New Mexico, United States
Movements: American Modernism

• Georgia O'Keffee lived until she was 98 years old.
• She made over 200 paintings of flowers. 
• as she got older, O'Keffee started to loose her vision so she stopped painting but she continued to make drawings and pottery. 
• She knew that she wanted to be an artist from a very young age and would not stop until she achieved her goal. 
• When she was at school everyone loved her drawings. 
• her painting 'Jimson Weed/White Flower No 1' Sold for 28 million pounds, making it the highest ever priced painting done by a woman. 
• she loved to paint flowers in a very large scale so that people could appreciate their beauty more. 

Image taken from: http://www.biography.com/people/groups/famous-named-georgia

Leonardo Da Vinci Research

Leonardo Da Vinci is one of the most well known painters in the world. As well as being a highly talented painter he was extremely clever and first invented a lot of things that we use every day such as helicopters and bicycles.  



Born: April 15, 1452 in Vinci, Italy
Died: May 2, 1519
Movement: High Renaissance

• Leonardo Da Vinci is one of the best known painters in the world with his legendary works including the Mona Lisa, The Vitruvian Man an the Last Supper.
• Da Vinci wrote in the opposite direction to normal meaning that if you wanted to read it you would need a mirror. 
• He was obsessed with Anatomy of the human body and became an expert by creating hundreds of  drawings of human bodies.
• Da Vinci was not only a painter he was also an inventor, scientist, mathematician, engineer, writer,musician and much more. He was very, very talented.    
• There are a lot of theories surrounding Da Vinci's painting 'Mona Lisa.' for example some people believe that it is actually a self portrait.
• According to face recognition software the Mona Lisa is 83% happy, 9% Disgusted, 6% fearful and 2% angry.
• Da Vinci first invented many things such as a parachute, a helicopter, a diving suit, a giant crossbow, the bicycle and many many other things. 
• Leonardo Da Vinci was very tall, his height was 6 foot 4 and a half !

Image taken from: http://galleryhip.com/leonardo-self-portrait-drawing.html

Salvador Dali Activity page

For Salvador dali's activity page I thought it would be fun to create an activity where the reader designs their own crazy moustache for Salvador as he was very well known for his bizarre moustache creations.

I started off with a line drawing that I had created. I then erased the moustache in photoshop and added a title and some text so the reader knows what to do. I decided to keep the image un coloured to allow the reader to add their own colours if they want. 

Frida Kahlo Activity page

When thinking about what kind of activity page to create for Frida Kahlo the idea came to me to create a drawing of Frida with a flower crown that could be finished off by the person reading the book. This activity seemed very fitting as Frida Kahlo wore a lot of pretty floral headwear.

 I started off with a drawing that I had previously done but not used. I then opened it up in photoshop and erased the flower crown and started off a new one to give the reader a bit of an idea of what to do. I also decided to keep the drawing as line work only so the reader can also choose to colour in the image their self if they choose too. I then finally added a title to the page and text to inform the reader of the instructions of the activity. Overall I am happy with how this activity Page turned out and I will follow a similar format with my other activity pages but I will change the activity making it appropriate to the artist that it relates too. 

Van Gogh's Starry Night Development

I wanted to include some of the artists work and to be able to do this I will have to create my own versions of the artists paintings. As I am including a fact about the Starry Night painting by Vincent Van Gogh I thought it would be fitting to start off with that. I started off by looking at his painting and mapping out where all of the main lines are. I did this in black to follow the format of all of the other drawings in the book. 

When I was happy with that I decided to add hints of colour underneath. I started off with yellow as that was one of the more predominant colours within his original painting. I chose a shade that I liked, I decided to choose a more contemporary mustard yellow to add to the modern feel of the book. 

I finally added some blue strokes to finish off the painting. I wanted to keep it very loose and modern to give it a bit of a twist and make it feel more fitting with the rest of the book. Again I chose a more subdued shade of blue to complement the yellow. I also added a little bit of dark blue to darken up some areas of the image. 

Overall I am happy with how this image turned out and I think it will go nicely with the rest of the images in the book.