Masterclass B: Picture Book Illustration 101: Bringing My Dead Bunny Alive

Learning how to bring illustrations alive and their impact on the visual narrative is key to successful picture book illustration. James Foley used his CBCA shortlisted book My Dead Bunny as an example of picture book illustration in this captivating master class.

James talked about how character design, choice of media, colour, line, typography, image boundaries and composition all affect the visual narrative, and how you can control these variables in your own work.

Research:

  • All books begin with research.

  • Use reference photos to help develop characters, setting and colours.

Character design:

  • Sketch and re-sketch the character in many different ways.

  • Try a variety of styles: realistic, cartoon etc.

  • What size and shape will their body have? tall, short, solid, circles, triangles, squares

  • What type of body language or mannerisms wills they how?

  • What colour scheme, patterns, line work style will be used for the illustrations?

  • Develop Character Reference Sheets showing the character from the front view, three quarter view and profile.

  • Develop Cast Sheets to see all the characters next to each other.

  • Check to see if the characters are identifiable from one another. As a silhouette you should be able to tell who each character is from their outline.

Planning - storyboards, dummy books:

James shared a few of his storyboards and dummy books. He described this step like jigsaw pieces coming together to make a complete picture.

Storyboards and dummy books show:

  • Pacing and page turns.

  • Illustrations with the text placed on the page.

  • That the important information is not in the gutter or bleed area.

  • How the extra story layers work with the main story.

  • That eye movement pathways from left to right for both the text and images.

Media Testing:

James used a range of images from books to highlight how media choice creates the tone of the story. Media may include but is not limited to; watercolour, acrylic, pencil, pastels, paper collage, digital, mud and food.

Take a look at some of the books James showed the masterclass and the media they were created with:

Final Artwork

The last step of creating a picture book is creating the final artwork. The typography has been chosen and the visual narrative is cohesive. All the pieces of the jigsaw puzzle are in the right spot.

Now it is your turn to create using this illustration process. Participants had a short amount of time to develop characters using the process and the story Ugly Fish written by Kara LaReau.

Happy Illustrating!

Leanne Barrett

#SCBWISyd

Extras - Video Links:

Ann James Painting with Mud is my Medium

Quentin Blake How to Draw Willy Wonka

Bruce Whatley Drawing Your Characters with Bruce Whatley

Gus Gordon Meet Gus Gordon, Story Box Library

Eric Carle Eric Carle on the illustration of the Brown Bear Series









Chapter Two: Masterclass for Illustrators with Sarah Davis

Illustrious Illustrator, Sarah Davis attempting distracting techniques

Illustrious Illustrator, Sarah Davis attempting distracting techniques

Prior to this year’s SCBWI conference I knew we were in for a treat when I learned Sarah Davis would present a workshop and sure enough it has been an absolute delight. I was pleasantly surprised, though, when Sarah started off with a little slide show enlightening us about her own “unremarkable life story of a very ordinary, humble, unassuming mild mannered illustrator” and her many heroic deeds (saving polar bears, being an astronaut, bringing us world peace and fixing climate change) all before she started her illustrator career. Most definitely she meant to distract us from her amazing and mostly self-taught illustration skills but I am happy to report she didn’t succeed in this attempt.

First up talking about illustrated book characters, Sarah pointed out they need to be convincing and there are different ways to achieve that. Her own characters clearly are a product of her “obsession with bringing them to life”. The reader can connect with these characters by experiencing them as pure individuals. This is supported by the three principles of character design:

  • shape
  • proportions
  • energy

Just as the shape of your character or even just its face’s shape can carry emotional weight (a triangular face oozes evil!), the energy levels add to that (a hunched over character demonstrates sneaky ambitions while an upright character can convey a happy energy). Playing around with your characters’ proportions can open up a whole new level of character design and be very enriching, too.

Another important part in creating a visual narrative is perspective. Sarah demonstrated that by your choice of the focal point you can achieve different kinds of connections with the illustration. For example, if your focal point is on eye level with your character it can convey a sense of intimacy and closeness. This might well reveal a character’s softness. In comparison, if you chose a distant focal point this could create a sense of harshness and underline the character’s fierce side. Personally, I was not quite aware that perspective could influence your perception of the character’s disposition that much. So this was quite an eye opener.

We then had a closer look at Sarah’s broad choice of medium that demonstrate her multi-talent and joy in experimenting. While her book ‘Sounds Spooky’ (written by Christopher Cheng) was created using hand-made puppets and cardboard sets and then photographed, others are done on paper with layers of Prismacolors,  oil paint and many more. Currently Sarah is experimenting with ink and glazes of acrylics and oil paints.

For all three aspects – character design, perspective and choice of medium – it is important for an illustrator “to speak clearly so you can communicate your ideas” visually. These visual elements enrich or undercut the text and help children to decode the story in a special way.

I think it is fair to say that Sarah Davis yet again not only inspired us with her amazing talent and colourful treasure box of wisdom but also how she incorporates her family life into her work. Being a parent and full-time working is not always easy but Sarah sure made it look like that. Holding that thought I am now off to find out how on earth she actually fixed climate change with just a massive fan in her heroic hands….

Katrin Dreiling Roving Reporter

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