week 4: revisions to book proposal/character drawings

Revisions:
Instead of using found images and patterns from the internet and completing this project entirely in a digital fashion, I would like to construct this picture book using patterned scrap booking paper from craft stores. It will feel more like a collage this way and have a more tactile quality. I will cut shapes out of the paper to form pond weeds, frogs, water, land, and whatever else goes along with the environment.The collages will be mounted on mat board to simulate the thickness of children's books.

CHARACTER DRAWINGS

week 3: book proposal

1. Working title:
Frog Cycle, Life of A Frog

2. One sentence description of book:
This picture book shows the life cycle of a frog starting from two frogs mating and ending with an adult  frog looking for love.

3. One paragraph description of book:
     This picture book shows the life cycle of a frog starting from two frogs mating and ending with an adult frog looking for love. Each page shows a point in a frog's development. After mommy and daddy frog get together on one page, eggs appear on the next. Then there are a few tadpole stages that lead in to the frog growing legs, and then the final stage of becoming a grown up frog who needs to mate will be the last page.

4. One page description of book:
     This picture book shows the life cycle of a frog starting from two frogs mating and ending with an adult frog looking for love. Each page shows a point in a frog's development. After mommy and daddy frog get together on one page, eggs appear on the next. Then there are a few tadpole stages that lead in to the frog growing legs, and then the final stage of becoming a grown up frog who needs to mate will be the last page.
     The images for the book will be my own drawings in combination with found images and patterns from the internet. I will use mostly graphic textile patterns in blues, greens, and browns to construct underwater scenes as well as land scenes. Since it is a picture book, the only writing will be the title that I will use my own handwriting for.

5. Visual and/or written research (other people's work):

6. Treatment visuals and writing for your book (my work):
See frog drawings in previous blogs.

7. Description of my technical, stylistic, and design approaches to the book that answers the following:
     a. What media will you use to create the book? Photoshop, my drawings, found images
     b. Will it be in color? yes
     c. What is the page size? 8"X10"
     d. What is the approximate length of the book? 14
     e. What is  your approach to lettering/typographic design? my handwriting

8. A timeline of my project with specific deadlines:
May 1: front cover and inside front cover ("pages" 1 & 2)
May 3: title page (page 3)
May 8: two frogs falling in love (page 4)
May 10: eggs in pond weeds (page 5)
May 15: close up of egg and baby frog inside (page 6)
May 17: two tadpole stages (page 7)
May 22: two more tadpole stages (page 8)
May 24: front and back legs, emerging from water (page 9)
May 29: almost grown and on land (page 10)
May 31: adult frog looking for love (page 11)
June 5: finding love (page 12)
June 7: inside back cover and back cover ("pages" 13 & 14)

9. Keep updating my blog each week with my progress.

week 2: 8 page thumbnails for comic book

COMIC BOOK RESEARCH

I have been watching a bunch of survival shows with my best friend/roommate. We always joke about going on an adventure of our own so I thought it would be funny to make a comic book about us going to Venezuela and surviving without any help or guidance. The comic book will show us hiking, camping, and hunting in the different environments within Venezuela. Color is important since this terrain has a lot of it. I am not skilled at drawing but a lot of comic books are made in this fashion so I will attempt to make a decent hand drawn comic book.

MY WORK

week 1: 8 page thumbnails for picture book

PICTURE BOOK RESEARCH

I have an African dwarf frog named Niles so I thought it would be sweet to make a picture book about the life cycle of frogs. Instead of a diagram, the information would be spread across 8 pages and may include a slight narrative through a few images, like an attraction between two frogs in the beginning. I used the above image as a starting point for a book dummy and will further develop my drawings to make them more my own. I plan to use a combination of my drawings and found images with a lot of color and patterns.

MY WORK

  

book project: final

FRONT COVER

BASKETBALL

KITCHEN

VIDEO GAMES

DRINKIN'

SEX

BALLER

BACK COVER

Book Project Reflective Essay

I decided to make a book that pokes fun at comic books, video games, and familiar characters. The overall theme of my book is what these characters are up to when they aren't being their character. So, Magneto is chillin' at home with his wife Belle and their dogs. To best serve my theme, I employed a collage technique. I felt making each page a collage would be funny since everything would be out of proportion and look like it doesn't quite go, kind of like the situations in which I placed the characters. I also wanted to use bold colorful shapes for the word blurbs, which were written in Comic Sans as a way of poking some more fun.

Keeping to a production schedule was a weird experience for me. I wasn't thrilled about dragging out a project. I like to work fast and have instant gratification. Maybe that's a bad thing, so keeping to a production schedule pushed me to constantly revise and recreate. It was good that there were clear due dates because I respond well to that. I am a total procrastinator. I am most productive and diligent when I wait until the last minute...because then I have to be.

I will keep one copy of the book that the school prints. Having a copy of the first digital book I've made is a pretty cool thing. Other than that, it will most likely only be viewable on this blog unless someone jacks it and reproduces it...like I did with all of the images I used.       

book project: dummy

FRONT COVER

 DRINKIN'

VIDEO GAMES

  

BASKETBALL

BEDTIME

CARDS

 

HUNGRY

BACK COVER

book project: proposal

My idea for my book is to show what life is like for a superhero when he's chillin at home with the wife, not being a superhero. I will appropriate all of the images and make a collage. The backgrounds will be rooms in the house and have a window or wallpaper design. I plan on using different images of Magneto. I am bombarded with his image since my boyfriend is obsessed with MVC2 and Magneto is his favorite character. I guess I'm poking fun.

As for text, I will probably have a line on every page and use a bold font with all caps. Something superhero or in your face. I might use bright colors for the text or I might just stick to black. Whatever works best with the collage.
   
I will be working within square pages. I think 2200 pixels wide by 2200 pixels high. I think the collage technique will work well with the subject matter. The comic book look is not really what I'm interested in. I want it to look like a story book of collages, not frames right next to each other.

FRONT COVER: Magneto in front of a cute little house, coming home from work with his briefcase. title.
PAGE 1: dinner time. asking wife to cook him something.
PAGE 2: basketball game. maybe horse.
PAGE 3: cigars and cards with the boys. 
PAGE 4: drunk ass Magneto.
PAGE 5: playing video games until dawn and getting mad for losing.
PAGE 6: bed time. gettin it on.
BACK COVER: a blurb asking for maple sausage and waffles.