Selection box: 6-8

Research

Nursery rhyme: 'One for sorrow'

The rhyme was first recorded in Samuel Johnson and George Steevens's 1780 supplement to their 1778 edition of The Plays of William Shakespeare:

It was later extended in 1846 in Michael Aislabie
Denham's Proverbs and Popular Sayings

Artist research

Hannah Coulson

Tanya Okhten

Initial ideas

3 illustrated pages:
1 double page spread (could do more
1 single page
Front cover design

Book plan:

Reoccurring figure - someone for the children reading to relate/project onto (?) - does this stray too far from the rhyme...

Development

THIS IS A CHILDREN'S BOOK - think bright colours, inviting images, room for imagination to run wild

"A single magpie in spring, foul weather will bring"

Fourth spread - colour combos etc

Thumbnails/placeholders

Desaturated look? Geometric. Airport runway.

Thursday Crit main notes:

Play with typography type as an illustration - take ownership
Push the design of pages - keep the composition tight like the first page.

Needs to be: Playful, colourful, whimsy, cobbled together - decorative

'SEXY DIAGONAL'

PUSH THE COMPOSITION - THIS SHOULD BE INTERESTING

Cover design - 365mm width/261mm high (5mm spine)

Idea 1

Idea 2 - birds on a wire

White background and black wire more recognisable/clearer contrast - darker background doesn't fit mood

Naive brushstrokes and marks - as if a child has coloured in the sky - crazy with the yellow crayon

Limit the colours - yellow and blue - big shapes - lead the eye into the sun

Front 'single-page'

Mockups

Covers

Double page spreads (+end pages detail)

First single page

POST FRIDAY CRIT

Main notes:
More cohesive colour - each page needs stronger links between the last
Cover is not dynamic enough - keep style consistent - however colours work well (or the other cover) colours are too much and the title doesn't link well to the image. (✓)
Redraw birds to keep the magpie-esque part of them - e.g painterly, sharp angled, long tailed etc.
Body language of birds - "One for sorrow" needs to be shoulders hunched looking more sad. "Two for Joy" needs to be cooler - have the spring colours - too summery, redraw bigger magpies head to be more angular. "Three for a girl has the most boring composition - redo spread (✓). "Four for a boy" the ones in the sky need higher detail - redraw bigger bird
Single page feels like a different artist - rework with the painterly style and colour (✓).

Moved birds to accommodate covers better - no crossover on spine with awkward spacing - needs to be flashier?

Different direction - too many elements - unorganised, the carnival of summer comes across cold and messy.

(Learning how to do typography on a path in photshop)

Single page focus - link it into other pages - colour palette and digital paints

Consider: Composition - mountain on the thirds, interesting eye-line - lower/higher than expected (again on the thirds) - dappled lighting - sense of distance - aerial perspective (advancing and receding colours) - add more textures