Weekly Update and SWOT Analysis

The past few weeks have been so busy! I currently have 4 projects on the go with deadlines fast approaching. My main focus has been getting all of my sketches and final illustrations finished for the Macmillan Prize submission deadline on the 28th of April. Luckily, I've been able to streamline the project as I'm working with my original children's book concept, 'A Hermits Home' and remaking all of the artwork. Since I haven't done a weekly update in a while, I thought it would be good to share some of the work I've done over the last few weeks. Currently, I've finished all of the digital sketches and completed the coloured versions for 6 of the spreads I want to submit, including a front cover and endpages. 

Studio chaos!

Endpage

Pages 15 & 16

Pages 23 & 24

These are just a few of the sketches but I'm pleased with how they've turned out. Compared to the old version, the proportions are much better, thinking about how much smaller the ants would be next to the hermit crab. These illustrations still have a lot of creative license, (as the ants would be about 10 times smaller!) but I think this is necessary as children's books need to be engaging and with fun characters and storylines- they're not as critical over proportions! A also like the added environment with the rockpool giving an insight into where the story takes place and grounding the characters. Since the background is white, I think this is beneficial as it helps the reader place the characters. 

For research, I've taken inspiration from two of my favourite illustrators, Oliver Jeffers and Jon Klassen. I love their approach to children's stories, incorporating visuals and witty humour that appeals to children and parents. I think this is an important feature as you have to consider the audience and how they will engage with the product. Oliver Jeffers is an author and illustrator who incorporates strong morals/messages focused on equality, teamwork and social/environmental issues. I love his use of simplistic characters and clever secondary narratives going on in the background, such as smaller character popping up or hidden objects (Referred to as 'Easter Eggs'). This idea has worked well for my book as there's a lot of blank space with rocks framing the characters so there were opportunities to hide things in the scene. Before deciding on the sketches above, I explored incorporating different storyline for the background, maybe with a lighthouse and boats on the horizon to show days passing and reflect the hermit crab’s sadness through the dark sky. This worked well but took the focus away from the hermit crab and ant narrative so I decided against it.

Other contextual influences came from Shawn Miller. Miller is a wildlife photographer and naturalist who has worked for the National Geographic Magazine and Blue Planet documentaries. I found his photography series while researching hermit crabs and was mesmerised by his 'Crabs with Beach Trash Homes' photographs showing how Blueberry hermit crabs in Okinawa have adapted to using rubbish found on the beach as shells. In my book, the ants bring various found objects like a plastic bucket and old boot before finding the perfect shell. I wanted to highlight this message in a non-forceful way so children can learn to respect the planet. On the endpages, I've done a repeating pattern with beach rubbish as shells, showing rubbish is more readily available than an actual shell. This was a good way to show different elements to the storyline. Below are some of the illustrations I produced in response to the research of his photography series. They were pretty fun to do!

Overall, I'm happy with the progress I've made this week. In uni today, I want to use the A3 scanner to scan all of my spreads so I have the weekend and the rest of this week to work on the digital side, making any colour corrections or edits. This process always takes a while so I want to make sure I leave enough time before the deadline to work on this.

Coloured spread

SWOT Analysis:

Strengths

• Worked hard to get the finals done to keep on top of everything, balancing essay and practical projects.
• Sketchbook development, documenting different colour variations and styles.
• Good media testing with informed research of Shawn Miller, Jon Klassen and Oliver Jeffers.

Weaknesses

• Limited timeframe alters how much I can do in my sketchbook so I don't have as much research as usual which could alter the grading.
• Less studio time, I haven't been able to explore different processes like Riso. Could look at this in future to make the endpages if it ever gets published or just as an experimental piece.

Opportunities

• The book has potential for other competitions, I could enter it into the Creative Conscience brief for Environmental impact, using my illustrations to make a poster about our impact on the planet.
• Explore in many mediums, able to change and adapt the characters in more storylines.
• This competition is a huge opportunity for me if I win or get longlisted as it's judged by publishers and illustrators in the field. Could lead to publishing!

Threats

• Very short timeframe, I need to submit this week and work on making the PDF with all sketches and finished pages.
• I haven't had the chance to do as much research as the project has been streamlined, focused more on making work for my portfolio than the final grade I achieve.