Research - Children Storybook Examples and Analysis

Research - Tones and Colours

Research - Illustrating Children Storybooks

Research - Possible Fairy Tale Choices Brainstorm

I have made a list of fairy tales and folklores that I know of. (see above)
(For clearer image of mindmap, click here)
Now I'll have to choose one of them for the final product to illustrate the book cover for.

I have sorted the fairy tales into two groups: Princesses (romance) and Adventures (non-romance) for easier organisation.
Since my end-users would be kids and gender is not included, I think the Adventures section is more universal (since some boys don't like stories about princesses).
That leaves me with the choices of: Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp, Little Red Riding Hood, Alice in Wonderland, Pinocchio, Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Ugly Duckling, and Hansel and Gretel.

Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp:
I think this story is a good choice since there is a lot to illustrate and is challenging too. If I choose this story, I could play around with the colour tones and glowing effect of the magic lamp.
Key objects: Aladdin, flying carpet, Arabian night scene, treasures, genie, magic lamp

Little Red Riding Hood:
This story might not be as challenging to draw but it could look really nice if done properly. The contrast between the woods and her red hood is vivid. Also, the forest could create a mysterious atmosphere.
Key objects: Red hood, forest, big bad wolf

Alice in Wonderland:
This story is challenging, and very rich in contents and colours. There are many ways to illustrate this story with different atmosphere such as mysterious, curious, strange etc. It is one of the most fantastic stories in the list as well, which may be more interesting to children.
Key objects: Alice, rabbit in waistcoat, Mad Hatter, Cheshire Cat, Queen of Hearts, cards.

Pinocchio:
This story is quite challenging as Pinocchio is made out of blocks of wood (which is hard to draw) but there is not as much content to draw about.
Key objects: Pinocchio, Geppetto, sea, whale, sailing

Goldilocks and the Three Bears:
It is not very hard to illustrate this because of its simple contents, although it might make some work to make the bears look animated and friendly for children book.
Key objects: Goldilocks, three bears, bears' house, soup, forest.

Ugly Duckling:
This story is simple, but it would take a lot of work to make the duckling look cute and feathery in a way and animated as well. This story would not be as difficult to illustrate but it lacks adventure and rich atmosphere in a way.
Key objects: Duckling, mother duck, sibling ducks, pond

Hansel and Gretel:
This story is challenging when it comes to drawing the details because of the candy house and it also allows different ways of expressing the sinister atmosphere of the house in contrary of its cute appearance.
Key objects: Hansel, Gretel, candy house, witch, snowing forest

Conclusion:
For the final product in Personal Project, I decide to do Alice in Wonderland:

• Challenging
• Full of atmosphere
• Flexible and creative character designs
• Popular fairy tale for children
• Personal favorite

Research - Basics of Digital Painting

1. Equipments:  
               a. Drawing Tablet
               b. Software

a. Drawing Tablet

It is a device acts like a replacement of the mouse that allows artists to draw into the computer like drawing on paper. The tablet that I'm currently using is Wacom Intuos 4 (medium size).

In digital drawing, this could be the most important equipment and it is essential to illustrating in computer.

Wacom Intuos 4

b. Software

The software that I mainly use to draw include Paint Tool SAI and Adobe Photoshop CS3.

Paint Tool SAI - A software developed by SYSTEMAX specialized for digital drawing.

Features:

• Brush modes such as watercolour, airbrush, pen, marker and acrylic.
• Brush density/opacity
• Paper textures such as paper, canvas, and watercolour.
• Multiple layers for a document.
• Vector layer, line editing
• Different blending modes such as multiply, screen, addition, overlay.

Pros:

- Rich in preset textures to make digital drawing look like traditional work.

- Good for lining (see later research), can edit lines using vector layer for smooth lines.

- Sensitive pen pressure for density of colour and thickness of lines.

- Could be exported to other file types such as .PSD and other image file types.

- Can rotate picture which is sometimes more convenient when drawing.

Cons:

- Lack of image editing features.

- Cannot add text to a drawing.

- No printing function.

- Cannot copy and paste layers.

Paint Tool SAI - Interface

  

Adobe Photoshop CS3 - is a professional image editing software with a wide variety of uses.

Features:

• Magic wand tool for auto selection.
• Multiple layers.
• Dynamic brushes.
• Pen pressure.
• Text function with different effects.
• Channels (for colour editing) and paths (for lines)

Pros:

- Text function is convenient.

- Better at image editing effects and overall colour adjusting of pictures.

- More blending modes.

- More brush variations.

- Can read many file formats.

Cons:

- No vector layer for smooth lining.

- Less sensitive pen pressure.

- Cannot copy and paste layers within a same file/to different files.

Adobe Photoshop CS3 - Interface

2. Steps to Digital Painting:

Bibliography:

1. Davies, By Chris. "Wacom Intuos4 Wireless Bluetooth Graphics Tablet Debuts - SlashGear." SlashGear - Feeding Your Gadget and Tech Obsessions. Web. 02 Jan. 2011. <http://www.slashgear.com/wacom-intuos4-wireless-bluetooth-graphics-tablet-debuts-0172170/>.

2. Google, By. "Features of Adobe Photoshop." EzineArticles Submission - Submit Your Best Quality Original Articles For Massive Exposure, Ezine Publishers Get 25 Free Article Reprints. Web. 02 Jan. 2011. <http://ezinearticles.com/?Features-of-Adobe-Photoshop&id=1752077>.

3. "PaintTool SAI Alternatives and Similar Software - AlternativeTo.net." Alternative Software and Apps to Your PC (Windows, Linux), Mac, IPhone, Android, Web/Online and Other Platforms. - AlternativeTo.net. Web. 02 Jan. 2011. <http://alternativeto.net/software/painttool-sai/>.

4. "The Photoshop CS3 Workspace | Blue Lobster Art and Design - Sacramento Web Design and Graphic Design." Blue Lobster Art & Design. Web. 02 Jan. 2011. <http://blulob.com/2009/03/02/the-photoshop-cs3-interface/>.

Personal Project - Concept and Topic

Understanding that Personal Project is very important in our IB MYP program, we were told to choose our topic carefully, something that we are interested in. I think this project is a great opportunity for students, and more importantly, work on something personal.

I've always liked drawing and have been practising digital painting for a while. I would really like to improve on my art skills and so I decided to do my PP on digital painting as a challenge for myself.

Through this project, my aim is to learn and improve on my skills of drawing/digital painting. Therefore, I chose the Area of Interaction on Approaches to Learning, which is related to:

• How do I learn best?
• How do I know?
• How do I communicate my understanding?

Through approaches to learning, students are provided with the tools to enable them to take responsibility for their own learning. Central to this is "learning how to learn" and developing in individuals an awareness of how they learn best, of thought processes and of learning strategies.

Approaches to learning also include:

• organizational skills and attitudes towards work
• collaborative skills
• communication
• information literacy
• reflection
• problem-solving and thinking skills
• subject-specific and interdisciplinary conceptual understanding.

Recognizing and helping students develop the range of their capacities, positive attitudes and effective habits of mind is the shared responsibility of teachers, and is at the core of all curriculum development and delivery.

"IB Middle Years Programme, Areas of Interaction, Approaches to Learning." The International Baccalaureate Offers High Quality Programmes of International Education to a Worldwide Community of Schools. Web. 19 Nov. 2010. <http://www.ibo.org/myp/curriculum/interaction/approaches/>.

By choosing this AOI, I have to focus on exploring how I learn best, communicate my understanding, and always evaluate myself.
To do this, I will be organized and make an action plan for my learning and keep a record of everything I learned.

Topic: To learn and apply digital painting skills on creating a storybook cover.

AOI: Approaches to Learning

Goal: How can I apply my skills of digital painting to create a storybook cover?

Inquiry Question: 

Approaches to Learning - Guiding Questions Brainstorm