Eric Carle

Eric Carle - American Children's book writer and illustrator

He is widely known for his beautiful books on 'The very hungry Caterpillar', 'The mixed up Chameleon', 'The artist who painted a blue Horse', and many many more. I think he is an incrediable collagist, the images he produces are just breath taking. 

Eric Carle is a massive influence throughout my work and has impacted a lot throughout the progress of illustrating my animals. The textures and marks represented throughout his images are so free and innocent there just lovely.  

Here are some images of his work for his children's book 'The very hungry Caterpillar'; 

I love this Book I have this book to read and to inspire me when I feel I might be at a loose end, his work just lifts my spirits up, especially when I share his books with my 7 year old sister she loves them and the imagination she has when creating characters is fantastic. 

Here are some more Images of his work; 

Quote: "With many of my books I attempt to bridge the gap between the home and school. To me home represents , or should represent; warmth, security, toys, holding hands, being held. School is a strange and new place for a child. Will it be a happy place? There are new people, a teacher, classmates - will they be friendly?
I believe the passage from home to school is the second biggest trauma of childhood; the first is, of course, is being born. Indeed, in both cases we leave a place of warmth and protection for one that is unknown. The unknown often brings fear with it. In my books I try to counteract this fear, to replace it with a positive message. I believe that children are naturally creative and eager to learn. I want to show them that learning is really both fascinating and fun."


Eric Carle Website

Final Major Project update!

I have been currently creating lots of animals throughout my sketchbook producing a variety of different creatures to work with and for children to see the kind of different animals that are out there. 

Here are a few images that I have collaged using mixed media; 

Seahorse

Fish

Wild Sheep

Giraffes

 I also like to invert the colours using a format on the scanner where you can change them around so they look really funky and unique.  Here a some examples;

Blue Giraffes

Multicoloured Seahorse

Here you can clearly see the difference in colours whilst they are next to each other throughout this image of an Armadillo, I must admit I am a little addicted to this technique, its exciting to find out what different colours they come out with.

Original collage of Armadillo

Inverted version of the Armadillo

Once I have played around with the colours and am happy with my image I then create more of a composition giving it more structure, by adding a background and a more of sense of place creating more of a feeling where it might live, for example this is represented throughout the leaves I have added at the bottom of this image giving this character more of a personality.

Swan

I am currently working on more compositions like this which I will then be progressed into a children's counting book.

Beatrix Potter

Thinking back to when I was a child I was remembering some of the children's books I used to love and read about which were mostly based on animals. 'Peter rabbit' by Beatrix Potter was one of my favourites as well as 'Fantastic mr fox' by Roald Dahl as I enjoy the playful characters she has produced wearing clothes I thought this was a great element to add to the animals to give them a more sense of personality.

Peter Rabbit was based around her lovely real pet rabbit that she called 'Peter' and this is when she started to sketch rabbits however adding the feature of jackets or any other clothing.

Here are some images of her work from 1902;

She has also done lots of sketches for the feel of a sense of place of what surrounds the characters what is in the environment, this is what I am currently focusing on throughout my own project as it is based on animals I am also looking at plants, flowers, leaves, trees, grass etc working with different materials which will hopefully give me the outcome I want. 

Emma Reynolds

Today we had a lovely talk from a freelance illustrator called Emma Reynolds about character design, narrative and picture books. I thought this was a very intriguing quote that I will start with;

'The words change the pictures and the picture change the words' - Emma Reynolds

As it's something to think about when creating a narrative, to break down your story, identify the series  of events, whats the themes running throughout?, how can you show this visually?, how do you want the reader to feel? Do first hand research accordingly, Visit museums and draw from life especially when your designing characters learning about the habitat in which they live in.
Always be critical asking questions; what is the setting going to be?, what is the characters favourite food?, What kind of personality do they have?, How would they react to things? How do you want to portray character - think about shapes if you want them to be cuddly then use soft circles, if you want your character to be stocky (maybe have big shoulders) then use shapes that are more square also taking into consideration whether they are small, skinny, fat, tall, etc. Are they lovely?, remember looks aren't everything they could be horrid? Just play around with all these different forms and be inventive, have fun.

Also when designing a character draw them lots in different positions, angles, poses as this will help to create them from the front, the sides, from behind etc. whether your character is human, animal, a creature or even an object. Think about the lines you use for instance;



Here are some images of her work showing the different angles and positions of characters she has created;

Bear Concept Layers

Throughout her work she uses media such as Acrylic, Gouche and Pencil sketches.  

Inventor Animal 1

Inventor Animal 2

Emma Reynolds also talked through what to do when creating a picture book which is 32 pages long.She advised us to start with an idea, a script, a story maybe have a funny situation think of what characters would best suit these situations it could be a meaningful doodle you have done. During picture books there is minimal text as text is for dialogue and main events. The pictures do the describing as you could have characters doing one thing and the text saying another.

''Pictures tell the story!''  - Emma Reynolds

Emma Reynolds Influences!

Raymond Briggs

I love his work, his images of the snowman bring back lovely memories of my childhood when I was watching the film with my Grandma, makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. 

Raymond Briggs was born on Jan 18th 1934, he shares a birthday with Alan Alexander Milne who is well known for his stories on 'Winnie the pooh'. 

Briggs is a children's writer and an illustrator who gained most his inspiration from his parents, his father was a milkman and his mother was a lady's maid. He started illustrating when he left school in 1957 and his first Children's book he published was called 'The strange house' in 1961. 

Furthermore I found in an interview with Raymond Briggs his answer to becoming a successful illustrator in which he replied; 

''Learn to draw, learn to paint, don't fiddle about on computers, they are a useful tool, when you know what you are doing, but they can make you feel clever when you are not.'' 

Leaving you fresh with this quote in mind!