Exercise: Working for children

For this exercise I was instructed to collect as many examples as possible of images for children and categorise them into target age groups which I did in the Pinterest boards provided in the hyperlinks provided in the link below.

I have to admit that when googling, and even though the reference materials on children’s books recommended for the course were useful, I still felt unprepared for analysing children’s books since I don’t have any adult experience with them. I first categorised where it made sense on instinct and then I also used amazon tagging and search by age groups to check what others were recommending.

Pre-reader

Pre-school (1-3)

Early Reader (5-7)

Established Reader (7-9)

Older Age Groups

I then was told to take two of these age groups of my choice and brainstorm around some of the words from the below given list of themes. I chose pre-reader and early reader as I felt like there was a reasonable difference in style and tone that I could try to capture in my own illustrations to come later on.

Festival
Scary
Wild
Growing
Journey
Sad
Family
Discovery

This first brainstorm was useful but I felt like I wasn’t getting into the children’s illustration mindset so I did the brainstorm again and tried to think more about actual animal characters and things they could be doing or settings for the character along the most compelling thematic choices of the previous brainstorm:

Pre – reader Character:

I finally decided on a cute rabbit, well known classic animal that early readers would be able to recognise and then chose the ‘festival’ theme so I could have bright colours and a fun action with the rabbit that I hoped would be suitable for the age group.

I first created a moodboard of festival related things, other animal illustrations and my favourite animal characters from the collection above as well as reference photos of rabbits in my Pinterest account here.

While I really appreciate the digital polish for more formal illustrations, I realised that when going through all the collections, I much preferred the more sketchy, natural, textured look (whether created digitally or not) and then started sketching ideas for this as per the below, trying out different characters, shapes and sizes.

I started out trying to be quite detailed in the character but I felt like it was too ‘old’ for the age group and then really tried to simplify out the rabbit body in fluid shapes and in a simpler sense and ended up with a very simple rabbit selling candy floss at a funfair!

As advised by the tutor, I tried out some other positions and character types just to play around and practice the drawing more as per advised and also try out facial expressions.

I then did a few trials in colour with different outfits and attitudes too. I decided to keep the colours clean and bright and used alcohol markers then paint markers on top for little highlights as well as crayons for a touch of texture here and there while still keeping it quite flat and 2d.

However, I need to have the festival style for my final character so I went for the below with a fun candy floss cart!

Early reader character:

I decided on the theme ‘discover’ and used an intelligent looking squirrel as a scientist discovering things with experiments and calculations which would not be unknown to early readers who would have already started school and learning.

I first created a moodboard of discovery related things, other animal illustrations and my favourite animal characters from the collection above as well as reference photos of squirrels in my Pinterest account here.

I then started sketching ideas and trying to come up with a squirrel scientist.

For this character I wanted to have a more defined and complex look with more texture. I really was inspired by the illustrations above that were quite ‘drawn’ and sketchy looking, giving it texture and depth that I thought might reflect more the interests of this age group.

Based on feedback from my tutor and previous exercises creating characters where trials around facial expressions were also advised – I also tried out some different facial expressions:

I tried short and tall looks, female and male and ended up with a not so gendered tall and elegant looking squirrel with glasses and a pleasant demeanour. I used acrylic and gouache paints with the dry brush technique to get a nice texture and then added fine ink marker for more lines and definition.

Further analysis:

Since both ages were relatively young, I have tried to stay in positive and colourful themes and settings and animals but made a distinction in style for pre-reader vs early reader: the former being simpler, more abstract in shape and using bright blocky colours and the latter more nuanced, textured and detailed yet still playful and bright which I believe is more appropriate for and attractive to the younger side of the age groups.

When I did the first analysis of collecting images related to age brackets I admit I found this hard and had to depend on book ratings that explained what age the books were aimed at. I believe there is a difference that can be seen spanning from pre-reader to older age groups with the style becoming more detailed, more emotional, more representational the older it gets and even darker and more menacing and dramatic at times, particularly for the older age groups. This is contradictory with the idea that all children’s illustrations have bright colours – and I recall when reading the course material that some of the most innovative children’s books have been done in dull, dark or shadows to align with the message being illustrated.

However, some images that I would have situated in pre-reader for example were also used in older age groups and thus more based on the style used by the illustrator. Some were also applicable across various age ranges. Thus while there can be some distinction as I have tried to achieve in my two different characters, I also believe that a pre-reader could like the squirrel and an early reader enjoy the more basic rabbit. What I believe is more important is the content and purpose of the image and how it is being used and if the children are able to interact with it and understand it and be entertained by it. Since all children’s images have to be quite appropriate for a young age, there is potentially a lot of overlap which makes for more diverse approaches and interesting ideas.

Final reflection

I really enjoyed this exercise and enjoyed trying out more characters which I have only ever done on this course. When I look back at my first trial sketches to where they ended up, I think that I have made a lot of progress on loosening up my style and trying things out and seeing new ideas come through experimentation, though probably still have a lot to learn when it comes to characters in general. Indeed, by putting the character into different positions or trying different expressions, it really forces you to think about the character more extensively so you feel like you’re getting to know it better!

This also takes me back to a reflection on the distortion exercise I did previously that turned into a mystic cat on the back of a witches broom based on using collage and image. That exercise was so far removed from what I have ever done that I enjoyed it but was not particularly convinced about the final result yet it got a lot of praise from my tutor saying that this could really be in a children’s book! At the time, I was surprised but I think this is helping me distinguish between my taste and pre-conceived ideas and the creative design process that can evolve into surprising results that I couldn’t have imagined from the get go.