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. 

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

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. 

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. 

Book cover research: Eleanor and Park

As for the 'Oranges are not the only fruit' I am creating a pretty contemporary cover for a story that is set in the 60's I felt that it was appropriate to reference the book 'Eleanor and Park' by Rainbow Rowell. It is a romantic novel that was written in 2013 but is set in 1986. I am aware that 1986 wasn't that long ago but the cover very much looks like this is a very contemporary story. Two book covers have been released for it and they are both very modern and don't reference the time period that the story is set in at all. Despite this the book has been incredibly successful. I think it is a really good thing sometimes for older books or books set in a different time period to have modern covers to open the book up to a new younger market that usually wouldn't consider even picking the book up. In my opinion If this book cover had been done in a style that referenced the time it was set in, I don't think it would have been half as successful. I know they say you shouldn't judge a book by its cover but its clear that people will and do, do that because it gives the first impression of whats inside. I really like both of these covers and although I haven't yet read the book these covers encourage me to, and I think I will when I have some spare time. 

Eleanor and Park book cover, Image taken from:
http://pixgood.com/eleanor-and-park-book-cover.html

Emeanor and Park Book cover 2, Image taken from:
 http://pixgood.com/eleanor-and-park-book-cover.html

artist research: Fran Meneses

I decided to have a look at Fran Meneses or better known as Frannerd for my research for my oranges are not the only fruit book cover. Fran is an illustrator that lives in Berlin she creates very cute little cartoon style drawings that often are based on real life things that happen day to day. She creates zines, cards, stickers and calendars along with a few other things on her etsy store and also makes youtube videos about her life as a free lance illustrator.  
I received one of her zines for christmas as a gift and it really inspired me with this book cover because I was really stuck with what to do for it so I took a break for a while and sat down and read the zine. I really liked the scrap book feel to it and I also am a big fan of how the different hand drawn typography all works together on one page so well. I also think that the delicate line quality is really nice. Overall I just really like cuteness and the simplicity of her drawings. Here a few different drawings that I really like and a video from her youtube channel. 

From the zine 'Perfect tree shapes' Photo taken from From: http://frannerdsblog.blogspot.co.uk/search?updated-max=2014-07-
01T12:29:00%2B02:00&max-results=10&start=10&by-date=false

Image taken from:
 http://frannerdsblog.blogspot.co.uk/search?updated-max=2014-07-01T12:29:00%2B02:00&max-results=10&start=10&by-date=false

Image taken from:
 https://www.dropbox.com/s/s899uf5c88jfsqd/Screenshot%202015-01-06%2011.21.22.png?dl=0

Artist research Gemma Topliss

I was looking for illustrators that have a really simplistic look because for my oranges are not the only fruit cover I want it to be quite simple but effective. I came across this illustrator called Gemma Topliss from Australia, I really love the line quality of her drawings as it is very delicate and this adds a really unique feel to them. Her drawings take you to a whimsical but also quite creepy world and i like that her drawings have the ability to do that. I also really like when simple hand drawn typography is added to the drawings as this adds an extra element of interest to the image. I think that for this book cover I would like to include some line drawing as that is one thing that I enjoy doing but haven't done much of lately. 

Gemma Topliss
Image from: http://www.parallelplanets.com/2014/03/gemma-topliss-dream-little-dream-for-me.html

Gemma Topliss
Image from: http://gemmatopliss.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/new-sketchbook.html

Gemma Topliss
image from: https://www.tumblr.com/search/gemma+topliss

Oranges are not the only fruit

For my second book cover design I have chosen to illustrate a cover for Oranges are not the only fruit because it is a fiction book and I feel like it will be easier for me to read that rather than freakanomics although that does sound interesting too. I feel as though I can get more information and symbolism from a fiction book because it has a fully developed story with lots of different characters and themes. As a starting point I thought I would have a look at previous book covers that have been designed for this book. My next step is to read the book and think about what id like to create for the cover it shouldn't take me to long to read so I can start on my concepts quite soon.   

 Im not to keen on the above cover, personally i'm not too fond of the illustrative style but there are a few other things that I don't think work that well. For example the border is very strange for a book cover because it just goes down one side of the image, and I feel although the text is slightly boring and harsh against the illustration that has barely any black in it. 

 I think the above cover is quite nice in the way that it gives a vintage classic a modern look. The quality of the drawing looks modern and the fact that the character has tattoo's really brings it into this day in age because when the book was set tattoo's would have been very taboo. The bright use of Orange against the washed out drawing gives the cover a really eye catching pop as well.  

 I do like the above cover but I think that compared to the one above it, it is not as strong of an image, I think this is because it is less focused compared to the other cover and I think the negative space at the top of the page makes the image look un balanced. I know that there is text there but I think if it was re arranged a bit it would work better. 

In my opinion this is the strongest cover I think its because it is very unique compared to all of the other covers. I like the more simplistic look and the composition of the text and image, I think they work well together. I also really like the colours that have been used in this cover because I think that the orange bible really stands out against the blocky black. 

Overall I have concluded that i like the more modern looking covers so I would like to go down the route of creating a more modern looking cover rather than a cover that represents the time period that the book was written in. 

Typography

I am going to do a lot more research into typography but for a starting point i thought i would type in 1940's fonts into google and i found a website called my fonts, it was quite helpful because you can search fonts by decade. A lot of different fonts came up for the 40's and they might not be historically accurate but they resemble and relate to fonts that might have been used in the 40's, some are modern and some are more old fashioned. It gave me a bit of help and ideas anyway, now I can build my research up from here and do more research on appropriate typography.   

Colour Palette research

I know that if I decide to use colour for my image, I want to hint towards a more vintage feel as the setting of the book is the 40's. Im not yet sure weather to go with a classic vintage colour palette or a more modern but still vintage looking colour palette. To help me decide I went to the website colour lover to help me out with ideas for colours. Here are a few modern and classic colour palettes that I really liked. When I start to piece together my image I think that will also help me to decide which colours will work best.

 

Yew Trees

In the part of Carries war that I would like to depict on the cover there are a lot of trees, in particular yew trees. Yew trees usually have very wide trunks and a big bushy foliage apart from in autumn and winter when they shed their leaves to reveal long spindly branches that look quite whimsical but at the same time slightly scary and twisted.  
I decided to have a look at some yew trees for some reference to help me re create them. I looked at yew trees in the autumn/ winter time because I feel as though it will add a bit more of a creepy look, this will work well as the part of the book that I am focusing the cover design on is quite scary. Here are some images that I liked and thought would be good to work and get ideas from. 

I decided to then simplify the design of a yew tree a bit whilst still keeping it recognisable, so it was possible to make a paper cut. I created a little trial to see how it would work out. I drew the design first, I drew the left side slightly different to the right to see how I liked the branches to look, I decided that the branches on the right side look a lot better, then i carefully cut it out. I am pleased with how the test has worked and will build and develop this design for my final trees. 

Waterstones trip: Book cover research

A few days ago I went to the waterstones in Newcastle and looked at different book covers that I liked. There was a large variety of different styles that caught my eye, this might be a long post because there were so many books that I liked. I think I will just include a line of text under each photo stating what I like about the cover just to keep the post a bit shorter. 

 The contrast of the bright rainbow spine against the realistic subtle drawing of a robin is what attracted me to this book, I feel as though it added a modern element to a classic looking book cover. 

This book cover attracted me because I like the use of white and orange against the harsh black background, I also like how the imagery looks like it has been done using a paper cut or digital technique and the text has a very hand  rendered look to it, it adds a unique look to the cover. 

I think that the colour use on this cover is really lovely, the off white cream colour really sets it off nicely and also gives it a more retro feel. the use of three colours is also really good because it makes the cover more striking.

The above cover has really good use of typography and although the cover is very simple I think that it works really well because it has strong concise imagery. 

 I think the very hand drawn look works really well for this book cover because book covers usually have a very finished pristine look to them but it is a nice refreshing change to see something like this that isn't prefect and looks very raw. I think that the more finished looking typography might help with tying it all together and making the book look professional.  

 The above book has a really nice lino cut look to it,  I like that it looks more like a piece of art rather than a book cover. it is very unique for a book cover and thats what really attracts me to it. I also really love the use of colour because it is quite a strange selection to have chosen it it works really nicely. 

The above cover is very simple and mainly focuses on the typography, it is very simple but effective. I think that the colour choices are what makes this book look really nice and elegant. 

 Through the woods cover is very bold and dark, i really like the use of the black red and white. I don't think these colours are appropriate for the book covers that I am designing but it works very well for this book cover. This cover really draws me in because it looks very dark and mysterious. 

Again its the hand drawn quality of this book cover that really draws me into this book because its not usually something that you see an the front of a book. I think this book is more of an an art book but I still really like the design of it

The above book os so unique because the imagery is made from tissue paper, I think this is so unusual and creative. It is very effective and delicate looking. This book is helpful because I am planning on creating unique book covers using paper cutting and ideas like this are helpful to me. 

This life of Pi book is so simple but so effective. The shapes and colours that are used are very striking also the fish underneath the boat add a more interesting element to the image. 

The cover for Gulp has a very clever use of imagery and typography, it works very well and when I saw it I thought it was really impressive looking for such a simplistic design.

The Wolf Princess cover is very simple and whimsical, it looks like a fairytale book cover. I really like the use of snow interacting with the typography I feel although it draws you into that world a bit more.  

From this waterstones trip I have found that a lot of different things look good on book covers and its getting the right balance of typography and imagery that really helps the book look like a finished cover. I am going to really consider the typography in relation to the imagery that I create and hopefully that will make my cover more successful.