In the beginning of this section it says that children’s publishing is an area many illustrators are interested in and is very competitive.
For this exercise I need to go through a process of brainstorming and making illustrations for children.
I found the wording of this exercise very confusing and I wasn’t always sure what exactly is being asked. The first thing is to collect “as many examples of imagery for children as possible”, which seems an impossibly long task, but I settled for compiling research of what’s big in the market at the moment.
I went onto the Amazon website and helpfully they had already laid out categories almost identical to the ones listed in the exercise.
Immediately I had to confront the question posed at the end of the exercise, as many of the same books reappeared in multiple categories. It’s pretty clear that there’s a good deal of overlap and that the categories are only rough indicators mainly for parents and publishers.
I sifted through the bestsellers of each category and found it difficult to precisely place them in this category or that for the purpose of the exercise, but I did as best I could.
Pre-reader
Pre-school (3-5)
Early Reader (5-7)
Established Reader (7-9)
Older Agre Groups
I then had to choose two age groups and do some brainstorming. I was a bit at sea here. I didn’t want to choose the “older” group and just draw whatever I usually draw as I felt it would be a bit of a cop-out and not really in keeping with what the exercise is asking, but at the same time I had very little interest in working with the pre-reader groups. In the end I chose the early reader and established reader groups. I thought it would be interesting to choose two groups so close to each other, and try and understand the differences between the categories a little better.
I chose the word “wild” as a theme, for no particular reason, and started writing down some stuff. Some ideas for different sources of inspiration, some potential themes or elements to include.
For my animals I went for a rabbit for the younger group and a cat for the older group. No complex reasoning, I just figured the rabbit was a little more cute and unthreatening and the cat was a little craftier and, well I just like them!
In preparation for coming up with different elements, I did a bit of reading. I’ve been going through a bit of manga recently, which is traditionally divided into several categories depending on target gender and age. Kodomomuke manga is targeted at children and are usually very funny, whimsical and impart good morals. I read a little bit of Yotsuba, which kind of straddles the line a bit between early and established readers, just to get an idea of tone and content.
I think moralising is particularly important for children’s literature, so in keeping with the wild theme, I imagined an environmentally conscious story about these animals living in the forest. For the art style I wanted to work with I was inspired by artists like Akira Toriyama. I have an artbook of many of Toriyama’s sketches and finished illustrations for the Dragon Ball series, Dragon Ball: The Complete Illustrations.
During my sketching I came across a couple of problems. One is that creating a whole new character from the beginning is really challenging and time-consuming. To get the design down pat, and also to have it be repeatable over different positions and expressions, takes a lot of time and practise which I think was sort of outside the scope of this exercise. I also had second thoughts about the style I chose to take inspiration from, as Toriyama has such a unique and iconic way of drawing, and I think it’s really hard to be inspired and not just look like a cheap imitation.
In the end I drew the rabbit character running away from a forest poacher character. I wanted to make the hero seem cheeky and mischievous, something I associate with some of my favourite characters from my childhood, and kind of a staple of the children’s genre. The cat I have in more of a combat pose, with a speech bubble to establish it as something for a more advanced reader. I like the contrast between the two pieces, I think it’s pretty clear that they target distinct age groups. I went with traditional media, ink pens and watercolour, as I think this is quite quaint and something I associate with children’s illustrations.
I inked both illustrations. During this process I realised I was quite out of practise. Particularly when it comes to line weight, this is something I want to spend more time focusing on.
Next I painted the illustration for the younger group, to take it to a more finished state.
And scanned it.
I think, you know, obviously it’s not so easy to put children into these different brackets. There’s going to be natural differences between kids at different stages in terms of reading ability and personal preferences. The categories are for the convenience of parents and publishers. Looking through the work I compiled, honestly I found it difficult to even categories a lot of established, successful series. They should be thought of as guidelines only.
I don’t think children’s illustrations always need to be in bright colours. I chose bright colours for my work in the exercise because I think as a society we want to protect children from darker and more mature themes until they’re old enough to really understand and cope with them.
References
Azuma, K. (2010). Yotsuba &!. New York: Yen.
Toriyama, A. (2006). Dragon ball, vol. 1. London: Gollancz Manga.
Toriyama, A. (2008) Dragon Ball: The Complete Illustrations. Japan: Viz Media, Shonen Jump.
Josh Robbins OCA Learning Log 