Bibliography

• Andersen, H.C (1845), The Snow Queen
• Bettelheim, B. (1976), Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales (Penguin)
• DK Publishing (2008), Signs and Symbols 
• Tresidder, J. (2003), 1001 Symbols (Duncan Baird Publishers)
• Lederer, W. (1990), The Kiss of the Snow Queen (University of California Press)
• Lewis, N. (2010), The Snow Queen (Walker)
• Chapman, J. & D. (2012), Bedtime Tales for Sleepless Nights (Fuel)

• www.steelthistles.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/snow-queen.html
• "Frozen Heart: Growing up with the Snow Queen" http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?cc=mqr;c=mqr;c=mqrarchive;idno=act2080.0047.311;rgn=main;view=text;xc=1;g=mqrg
• www.surlalunefairytales.com
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1840s_in_Western_fashion
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Snow_Queen
• http://shortstoriesshort.com/story/the-snow-queen/ 
• www.pinterest.com

• The Snow Queen an animated short (1992), Narrated by Sigourney Weaver
• The Snow Queen (1957), Director Lev Atamanov

The Future

Following up from my previous post, I'm going to talk about my goals and what I hope to achieve after this project and the course ends. By the end of the year I aim to be in the full swing of freelance illustrating whilst having a part time job on the side, hopefully related to my industry. Even while I am not receiving commissions I intend to carry on creating images whether they are self initiated or group projects or for competitions which I can then use to update my website, blog and other social networks and this will still be helpful to gain more exposure. I think it would be quite nice to continue with the theme of fairy tales, fantasy genre or something similar. Where my version of The Snow Queen was a bit more focused on scenery I would like to do something more character-related next time. I am primarily aiming towards children's book illustrations but I also want to keep my work open-ended enough to get commissions and illustrate for an older audience. I will be sending my finished artwork for final major project to children's book publishers, both ones that are more well known and also less well known as these are the ones more likely to pick you up if you have just started out freelancing. I am also contemplating joining an agency but will need to do more research on this as I understand that finding one that is suitable for my work and is reliable will be a choice I need to make carefully.

By the start of 2015 I am hoping to have gained a decent amount of exposure with the help of social networking and sending out new self promotional pieces. My self promotional piece will probably contain the new illustrations I've developed for my final major project, and now that I have purchased an A3 printer and scanner it will make it much easier to print in bulk and send out to relevant persons. Joining groups on Linkedin, Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators etc. will also be helpful to reach out to like-minded people and build important connections.

All in all, I feel I am well prepared and am looking forward to begin my career as an illustrator!

Reflecting on Final Major Project

As I am coming close to the end of my project, I am going to look back on my progression over these few months and review what has been both successful and unsuccessful in terms of development and end products.

   In regards to organisation, I think I have planned out what I had to do in the time I had fairly well, however there were a few things I felt I could have spent more time on and spent less on others. Whilst researching the text and characters at the beginning, I think it would have been more productive to have begun drawing straightaway even if I didn't know what I was doing, which I did do to an extent, but I realised that any image throughout the project can be a possible final image.

   In the beginning I also sketched a lot of thumbnails to see how each of the illustrations could look; I think that in the future, I will sketch each scene consecutively as well as focusing on one scene at a time as this would have aided me in seeing the progression of events in the narrative a bit more clearly. This didn't effect my creative process too much however.

   Overall, I have stuck to my timetable quite well, which I was surprised at. I was able to access some places to draw things such as woods, people and architecture as stated in my proposal, though with future projects I'm going to aim to find other areas to draw from life as I will have more time on my hands once I've finished uni.

   As for my images I am pleased with the atmosphere I have created in most of them and feel that I have managed to incorporate symbolism subtly and effectively. I'm also pleased with how some of my images have come out so you have to look more closely to see certain details in the picture, which can be quite nice as an additional feature. I think I could have varied the composition a bit more as a lot of the images are scenery-based but overall they've worked reasonably well. Although at first the colour palette was not what I had aimed towards I think the colours I have used has worked well as the dark colours contrast nicely with brighter colours, hinting at symbolism eg. Gerda's red shoes and it also lends towards the overall dark theme throughout the story.
I am now more confident of the style I want to work in, taking what I've learnt from previous projects. Painting quick ideas with a brush and ink have been really helpful with developing my images as well and this is something I'll be carrying on.

   All in all, I'm very proud of what I've achieved and it has definitely taught me a few things in terms of image making as well as the technical side of things like binding books and using Indesign which I did not know how to use previously. These have all prepared me for future work and commissions.

Designing the Dust Jacket

Over the past week I've slowly been putting together the design for the dust jacket among everything else and have almost completed it today. Looking at it now, I feel that the entire image might be more effective with something in front of her face, such as her hand or part of Kai's face - then again, it will fold over the cover as a flap which means it might not matter so much. I still have plenty of time to adjust things if I do change my mind however once I've bound my book.

I decided to keep the cover simple and more graphic compared to a full scene as I want it to stand out from a distance, so I used the Snow Queen's head as a container for the text. I spent a while trying to find a traditional yet slightly contemporary font for the title.
I have painted her hair so it is a bit less defined than her face to make it seem almost like the snow or wind, as I imagine her to embody the snow or be a part of it.

Adding Spot Images & More Symbolism

Today I've just been creating a few more illustrations which I'll edit into my book to fill up the space around the pages with text as it'll help to keep them more consistent and interesting to look at. 

All of them are related to the scene that is happening on the page they are on.

The sleeping dove, shoes, comb and mirror fragments are all important objects in the paragraphs whilst the others are more meant as accents for the story.

I've been using birds as another recurring theme as they can represent a number of things.

The Raven for example is a helpful and noble character in the story; he is a symbol of hope and a guide to Gerda, and overall a strong symbol. The sleeping chained dove and the bird on the branch (when the Snow Queen kisses Kai), both represent purity. The bird on the branch also symbolises Kai's vulnerability to the Snow Queen, just as a bird might be vulnerable to the harsh winter.

 

After I've added these as the final touches to my book on Indesign, it will all be ready to print out next week! 

Once it is bound I can also then measure the spine and adjust my dust jacket design to print out.

Hullabaloo

 Today I finished off my piece for our course's hullabaloo themed newspaper. I wanted it to be connected to my final major project so I drew a spin-off to the ending of The Snow Queen. In some versions of the fairy tale including the original, during Gerda and Kai's journey back home they encounter one by one all the characters they met through out the story and so here I've drawn them gathered together, celebrating Kai and Gerda's reunion. The Robber-girl undergoes the most drastic change when they meet her again, she is described to be wearing "a shining red cap on her head, and pistols in her belt".Though she at first comes across as tempestuous and a little scary, she ends up choosing to help Gerda. In this image I've drawn confetti coming out of her pistol which is unexpected, symbolic of her personality in the story. 

After scanning it in I played around with Photoshop a bit and ended up with three versions, each varying in the hues. Out of these I prefer the one at the bottom the most.

Week 14

• Presentation Document meeting
• Tutorial with Louise
• Hullabaloo illustration
• Cover design
• Adding small images onto some pages