Sequential Illustration : Sketchbook Research

Sequential Illustration : Notebook Research

Final Pages

For the interior pages, I used a combination of illustrations and textures that are used as a visual aid for characters, objects and places. Like the dust jacket, I have used chromatic blue and browns to in-keep with the limited hue theme. I used images from my contact sheet to get the proportions of faces and objects, and then styled the facial features and objects adding the blues and browns in layers of watercolour.

I used layers of graphite and watercolour to create a soft outline and light texture, as well as layering to create shadows. This is shown on the illustration of Jack's mother, as the hair uses highlights and layering to create a shadow on the hair. Creating alternating layers of watercolour also gave the illustrations a range of light and dark shades of the hues. This worked especially well on the illustration of the government officials, as the alternating shading on the suits created a more interesting range of colour combination. 

For the textures I wanted to create watercolour cloud textures, and overlay plane illustrations to foreshadow ideas about the story. I used tissue to remove layers of watercolour to reveal the white paper background, creating distant cloud textures. I also overlaid paper onto watercolour to create other textures around the corners of pages.

Final Dust Cover

My final cover uses a chromatic blue and brown, limited colour palette scheme. I have used watercolours to create a textured background, and the men in various falling positions, that are outlined with graphite. This use of hues is used to keep a mature and un-childish appearance, and is also used in the interior illustrations. I have used the scruffy, 1940s styled typeface, made from biro, that foreshadows elements of the book, and creates a contrast between the two typefaces used on the cover. 

I also added images, quotes and a blurb on the dust jacket, informing the reader about legal information and opinions of the book. These texts have been displayed around the illustrations, bringing them forward. The text is also in black to continue the chromatic dull theme, and create a good contrast between the light background.

Creating Front Cover Font

After doing more research on the context of the short story, the 'The Greatest Man in the World' was written in 1945. I decided that using a font, relating to this time would represent the pragmatics and context of the story. Fonts such as 'Petroglyph' and 'Dusty Rose' represent the time period but didn't show the personality of the character 'Jack Pal'. I decided to combine the structure of the 1940s fonts, but give them a rough and scruffy personality, symbolising the era and characters in the book.

Font inspired by 1940s font, and using biro, given a rough edge. 

Work in Progress screenshots of arranging font into text on cover.

Final arrangement of text on cover. The text is central, allowing the men to be placed around the text. The 'est' on Greatest is out of line, which could symbolise the behaviour and character of 'Jack' or the accent or decent of the monoplane. I believe this font conveys the time period of the story, and also foreshadows the unusual characters in the story, shown by the rough typography.

Planning and Creating Background Textures

experimenting with watercolour, acrylic, tissue paper and masking fluid to create cloud textures.

Subtle textures that border the pages

Full pages of cloud textures for front pages

Pages with watercolour texture to add around pages. Could be cropped or zoomed in InDesign

textured backgrounds on front pages of short story

textures on pages with book text

watercolour textures for illustrated pages, covering corners of double page spreads

Textures on pages in InDesign, with illustrations overlaid

experimenting with sizes and shapes of textures in InDesign

Illustration Work In Progress 5

Illustration of Government Officials in short story, using Blue and Brown limited colour palette, made with watercolour and graphite.

Using photoshop to remove paper background.

Using InDesign to wrap text around image on pages.