Book Illustration

This is my Major Project and it’s aim was to showcase my abilities as an Illustrator by creating a body of work.

BUILDING A BANGING PORTFOLIO

Choosing this project made sense. After doing an eclectic mix of work for my studies, overall there was no cohesion between pieces or projects so the need for a body of work for a professional portfolio was logical.

What 3 years at uni looks like:

So how do I show what I’ve learned?

My passion for children’s picture books has not left me during this course, quite the opposite, my desire to create beautiful books that are cherished for years to come has only grown stronger.

Finding the subject

The Jungle Book written by Rudyard Kipling, offered a wide range of subject matter, from a variety of animal species, humans (baby Mowgli, boy Mowgli, his adoptive mother and villagers) to buildings, earth houses and regal stone buildings in the lost city.

Only the book was used as source material for this project.

Looking at Professional Portfolios

Leading Advice

Find out more on their websites

Natalie Merheb

Neha Rawat Battish

Asking Big questions !

What Size, What Format, What Medium?!

One of our guest lecturers Nick Moffat, made a BRILLIANT point. That if you want to show off your work, show it as a real object they can touch, smell, and even keep. Create a physical thing that will have a longer lasting impact and also set you out from the crowd of illustrators sending emails and web portfolios.

Conclusion I need to get it printed..

I’d started looking at making a hardback picture book. The Aesthetic being very upmarket, giving a feeling of Folio Society. Expensive, luxurious, classical..

56.50£ a book ?!

Another reason a hardback was more complicated, was the minimum of 38 pages to print this book, on top of being incredibly expensive to produce.

Paper

As an example of why choosing the right paper is important, I have included an image of two versions of a book I illustrated in 1st year.
The cheaper matte ‘natural’ paper vs the silk/glossy version, in my eyes the silk one works much better for colourful images and to bring depth to the image.

So for the purpose of this project I ordered the mixam sample pack to get a good idea of what the paper would look and feel like.

OR 67£ for 100 booklets ?

Choice was quickly made to go with the booklets as I can give them away to publishers and agents with little monetary concern and the added bonus was a minimum of 8 pages up to 70 odd. More flexible as the aim is to create quality not quantity!

Out of all the options, square felt right

Time management- YIKES!

Although I had decided on the booklet, there was nothing stopping me from working on the book as if it would be published. Working out the pacing of each story and the flow between images.

VISUAL RESEARCH

I read all three stories about 3 times.

Mowgli’s Brothers
Kaa’s hunting
Tiger Tiger !

I used sticky notes to mark pages that inspired my imagination.

I then started to figure out thumbnails and the flow through the book.

The X was for Title Page

Pinterest inspo

Paul Jouve was a very big inspiration

Aaron Blaise

I watched a fair amount of his videos so I won’t add them all here.

Emily Lamb

https://www.emilylamb.co.uk/2017/

WHERE IS IT SET ?

https://www.kiplingsociety.co.uk/readers-guide/rg_junglebook_location.htm

This will give us information about what animals could have been around and some information about landscapes and topographical settings.

Although the Mughal Empire would have dissolved by the time Mowgli was born I can imagine that his ‘Mother’ figure, Messua, in the village would have worn clothes like this passed down from her family or her husbands rich family.

MEDIUM RESEARCH

Acrylic and ink test

But even after enhancements with Procreate it didn’t feel right, although I did like the dynamic element of the flames.

Ink test

My second trial I tried to integrate some text “aaaah” in the flames but lacks legibility according to tutor.

Gouache

Quick Photobash to see what the idea would look like before painting

Ink and watercolours

Paying attention to native species

https://www.animalwised.com/different-types-of-wolves-and-their-characteristics-3198.html

Adding cultural references

Gouache

https://wildlifesos.org/animals/get-to-know-your-indian-bears/

Working things out

Flipping the image did feel unsettling, maybe a bit too much so.

I used a pose reference tool:
https://justsketch.me/

Grey Langur

Not just any monkey, careful attention to species and geographical location of these animals is important. The Grey Langur has a wide habitat in India and is visually striking as well as being one of the biggest old world monkeys in India.
https://www.animalwised.com/10-native-monkeys-of-india-with-pictures-1335.html

Native trees

https://pib.gov.in/Pressreleaseshare.aspx?PRID=1541596

FONTS

https://varrojoanna.com/the-easiest-fonts-for-kids-to-read/

Dyslexia friendly style

https://www.bdadyslexia.org.uk/advice/employers/creating-a-dyslexia-friendly-workplace/dyslexia-friendly-style-guide#:~:text=Use%20sans%20serif%20fonts%2C%20such,Trebuchet%2C%20Calibri%2C%20Open%20Sans.

https://www.fonts.com/content/learning/fyti/situational-typography/typography-for-children

Autism

http://www.niassembly.gov.uk/visit-and-learning/autism-and-the-assembly/useful-information/guidance-for-assembly-staff-on-involving-people-with-autism-in-committee-meetings-and-events/#:~:text=While%20everyone%20has%20individual%20preferences,letters%2C%20not%20all%20in%20capitals.

ADHD

After all the research into fonts, the stylistic choice was a serif as it worked better for the book.

https://www.fullfabric.com/articles/how-to-design-visual-learning-resources-for-neurodiverse-students#:~:text=Neurodiverse%20readers%20generally%20fare%20better,handwriting%20%E2%80%93%20such%20as%20Comic%20Sans.

Mowgli’s human ‘mother’

I wanted the emphasis to be on the mothers emotion of finding who she thought to be her long lost son.

Gustave Vigeland

I used a 3D model of his sculpture, mother and child.

https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/mother-and-child-gustav-vigeland-9b07da4b08b049e1a90db036edfc0497

Combining sculpture and real woman

Adding a tad more feeling

THE LOST CITY

Disney got it wrong

Angkor wat ? I think not…

Chittogarh fort

Enough proof to feel confident with the location

Could I have been mistaken with the location too?

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Achalgarh+Fort,+Achalgarh,+Mount+Abu,+Rajasthan+307501,+India/@24.6164663,72.765752,17z/data=!4m6!3m5!1s0x395d2b055647cb5d:0xf147003b866d788d!8m2!3d24.6164663!4d72.765752!16zL20vMGNnaGs3?hl=en-GB

No specific location is mentioned to my knowledge and so it may have been inspired by a various number of ruins from this region.

https://ms-my.facebook.com/vertiver/videos/greeting-water-buffaloes-in-an-aravali-watershed-watershed-rajasthan-udaipur-wat/2617722951826866/

https://agritech.tnau.ac.in/animal_husbandry/animhus_buffalo%20breeds.html#:~:text=Indian%20Buffaloes%20are%20water%20buffaloes,known%20for%20their%20milking%20qualities.&text=It%20is%20the%20most%20important,and%20Patiala%20districts%20of%20Punjab.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wild_water_buffalo

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_buffalo

After looking through all the breed of buffaloes found in India and comparing their territory to the aravali hills I conclude the domestic water buffaloes would not be out of place for that location or time.

TYPE

I wish I could afford to get this font, hélas I am broke.

THE COVER

In the story, Mowgli has a very powerful gaze. None of the animals can stand to look into his eyes for too long. Hence why I wanted his face but especially his eyes to stand out from the foliage.

The dynamic between Mowgli and Shere Khan is essential to the story, that’s why I chose to have him on the back cover. If you look at the entire image flat you can see that Shere Khan is stalking Mowgli, but folded you might not notice.

To portray the fight scene I chose the moment when Bagheera faces hundreds of monkeys by himself. In this image I wanted to portray a feeling of flooding, like a mudslide of monkeys.