Further Character Sketches and Compositional Thumbnails

Yesterday I spent the afternoon making an A3 sketchbook with assorted papers in order to experiment with working on different types of paper.

I have also been continuing with designing the characters as shown below this time focusing on the Raven who helps Gerda on her journey and Kai. It's quite challenging but fun trying to make a raven look friendly and brave! as they are usually omens of death.

With my composition sketches I want some images with colour bleeding off the edges, alternating with images that have more white space, close-ups of characters and then more landscape focused images. As this will help to keep the book lively and engaging.

The Raven character designs, Selina Quach, 2014

Kai character designs, Selina Quach, 2014

On top of that, I have been continuing to draw ideas for images, varying compositions/subject matter.

The Snow Queen compositional thumbnails, Selina Quach, 2014

Self Promotional Launch

Yesterday afternoon I attended the Self Promotional Launch where we basically have to produce something to promote yourself and send it out to 5 chosen art directors within two weeks. It has to be eye catching and not easily forgotten, yet at the same time practical to make in bulk.
   At the moment I have a rough idea of creating a small possibly A6 concertina book as this will work well with my hand made drawings. The back will then feature my name and contact details etc.
  As far as which illustrations to feature, I know there will be a minimum of 5 but I need to compile some that will flow and work as a set. So far I think I will include these illustrations, but I will carry on producing images for FMP and see what I have at the end of this week before the work in progress on Monday. I may also include some individual character designs so that there is more variety.

Work In Progress with Jonny

Yesterday morning we had a work in progress meeting with Jonny where we had to show what work we'd done so far. He gave me some pretty helpful advice the most important of which was to stick to working in a sketchbook as my drawings seem more relaxed there. This was discovered in my Negotiated Study project as well but I thought to try and draw some things outside of it as I had been told before that my images seemed to be bursting from my sketchbook. However, I think I will be sticking with working in a sketchbook as I definitely produce better work this way.

He also mentioned that the paintings below were the more successful ones. I have not yet decided exactly which style I want to go for yet but I know that a realistic look will be most suited to the way I work. This week I aim to experiment further with using the water colour pencil effect and gouache as these materials are working quite well.


 

Week 4

• Work in progress meeting
• Self promotional launch
• Design self promotion piece
• Make a sketchbook with mixed paper to work in
• Alumni talks
• Continuing with media experiments and compositional drawings. Start thinking about how I want my images to be laid out alongside text.

Character Designs and Breaking Into The Story

This week I have been sketching designs for the different characters in the Snow Queen. To do this, I have been looking at the time and place the story was set in, the kind of clothes they would each wear, their traits and personalities as well as symbolism throughout the story. As shown in the images below, I've created a mood board filled with images that will inspire me in the creation of the character the Snow Queen, ranging from snowy scenic landscapes to patterned white lace. Meanwhile I've also continued with media experiments.

The Snow Queen character research and design, Selina Quach

The Snow Queen character research and design, Selina Quach

I find it easier to create character designs by drawing the character in a certain scene or doing something related to the story, therefore that is how I went about developing ideas.

The Snow Queen is an isolated figure who according to Kai's old grandmother "never remains on earth, but flies up to the dark clouds". This has understandably given her a reputation as a frightening otherworldly creature. However she shows a lot more human emotions than her icy exterior suggests as she kidnaps Kai due to a mixture of selfishness and loneliness and a desire to fill the emptiness that is actually within her.
Appearance-wise she can be described as beautiful, regal, grand and graceful. She wears a dress that "appeared to be made of the finest white gauze". All of this inspired the illustration below. I have also found that gouache (which is the material used here) is quite successful in recreating the gauze-like effect.

The Snow Queen and Kai, Selina Quach

The Robber Girl is another interesting character that is more complex than you would first expect. Along Gerda's journey to find Kai, she is ambushed by the Robber family, including the Old Robber Woman who wants to eat Gerda. However the Robber Girl stops her, biting her mother's ear and proclaiming that Gerda will play with her, give her her muff and sleep in bed with her. Though she seems at first to be a selfish and willful young girl, she shows a kinder side to her nature when Gerda tells her story to her, and she decides to let Gerda go, even giving her Bae, the reindeer and her extra warm gloves.

The Robber Girl is described as having being "about the same size as Gerda but stronger; she had broader shoulders and a darker skin; her eyes were quite black, and she had a mournful look. There wasn't any information about her background but it would probably be quite rare at the time this book was set to have someone with dark skin in Northern Europe, and the fact that she travels around with her family reminded me of gypsies.

The Robber Girl character designs, Selina Quach

The Raven character design and another painting of Gerda, Selina Quach

Kai's change throughout the story as the shard effects his mind and personality,
Selina Quach

Compositional sketches for the first chapter, Selina Quach

Gerda and The Raven, Selina Quach

I began compositional sketches and the above is the first full painting of a scene from the story. It's helpful for me to paint scenes straight off I can then figure out what kind of materials/technique to use for the final book. I tried to bring across the colours of autumn as seasons is a strong theme. As the seasons change in the book I might change the colour palette accordingly.

Comic Workshop with Isabel Greenberg

Today I attended a talk with guest speaker Isabel Greenberg who is a comic illustrator and writer. I really admire her work as her stories and characters have a way of pulling you in. She gave us loads of great advice on how to gain more exposure after graduating from uni, and overall it was just a good experience hearing from somebody who isn't that far off from where we are.
   Afterwards, we had a "Flash workshop" where we had to create our own comics. The first part, as a practise run, we were given 5 minutes only! to draw a comic based on a popular story of our choice (can be film, book, TV series etc.) using only three panels and a brush and ink as materials. This was very exciting and hardly gave us time to think, which in a way was a good thing.
   I just pulled The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe from the top of my head and here is what was produced:

Selina Quach The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe comic 

Thankfully, they could guess what it was!
We were then given 1 hour for the real thing. As I'm doing the Snow Queen for my project, I thought this was a good chance to create some thumbnail ideas for illustrations that could be used in my final book.

Selina Quach, The Snow Queen Page 1

Selina Quach The Snow Queen Page 2

Selina Quach The Snow Queen Page 3

Selina Quach The Snow Queen Page 4

Some of the compositions I felt could have been improved but as it was very rushed I couldn't have expected any better really. Kai getting the shard in his eye for example could be depicted with an up close of his eye.

All in all this was a very fun activity to do, and further made me realise that sometimes the best illustrations come out of the ones where you think less, and I also actually really enjoyed using the quick brush effect. I will be trying this quick effect in my project.

Tutorial with Derek

Had a tutorial with Derek today which I found to be quite helpful for my project and to see things in a fresher perspective. Some of the points discussed included:

• Look up the film director Jean Cocteau
• Tim Burton's "Ice Dance" from Edward Scissorhands
• Research the science of snowflakes, how they form, magnified images etc. - Can Reindeer Fly? by Roger Hyfield
• Look for photos of Edwardian dolls to possibly influence illustrations
• Possibly incorporate subtle symbolism into hair, dress, accessories...?
• Image depicting Kai's transformation throughout the story (almost like a metamorphosis)
• Research fashion designers such as Alexander McQueen to possibly influence The Snow Queen character

The Real World Beckons & Website Launch!

We spent the day getting advice from Chris Arran, an illustrator/graphic designer about steps to becoming an fully-fledged illustrator. He covered all the topics ranging from how to get an agent, taxes and how to promote yourself and your work. The highlight of it for me was definitely discovering how to get a website up and running.
There's something immensely satisfying about seeing your work displayed on your own website!

I spent a long while getting the layout looking half decent and working out how it all functions. It still needs improving but I'm quite proud of it! Here is the final thing:

www.selinaquach.co.uk

Week 3

• The Real World Beckons workshop 
• Create a website
• Begin character development for Kai and the Snow Queen
• Research clothing in the 1840s
• Beginning compositional sketches
• Tutorial with Derek
• Talk and "Flash" comic workshop with Isabel Greenberg

Researching The Characters' Origins

Following my tutorial with Louise, I've looked into Gerda's background to influence what her appearance will be like. It turned out to be quite difficult to find out what her nationality is which I suppose isn't very surprising seeing as it is a fairy tale.

In the story there is no actual mention of where Kai and Gerda live in the beginning; however throughout Gerda's journey it is mentioned that she encounters a Finn woman and a Lapland woman. Kai, himself, is kidnapped by the Snow Queen and brought to Spitsbergen in Norway, where her Ice palace resides. I also looked up where Hans Christian Andersen was born, which was in Denmark.
   If you take into consideration that at the end of the tale Kai and Gerda "noticed that they themselves had grown; they were not young children", then it would only makes sense that - despite the length of the story - Gerda's journey to find her beloved Kai, had probably taken a few years or so. Most of the clues then, point to her and Kai being Danish which would make sense as the author is also Danish. Gerda's journey very likely took her northwards through Finland and then to Norway.

This was quite in an interesting exercise to do as it made me feel like I knew the character better which will probably effect the way I illustrate her. I will be doing this research with the other characters in the book as well.

Below are some sketches I drew with this new research in mind.

 

Guest Speaker: Deirdre Mcdermot, Publisher from Walker

Today I attended an exciting guest speaker talk from Deirdre Mcdermot who publishes children's picture books at Walker. She was very enthusiastic about her job and it came across whilst talking. She introduced us to a lot of great illustrators that I hadn't heard before, whom she works with, including Chris Haughton, Jon Klassen, Hervre Tullet and Inga Moore to name a few.

Inga Moore

Jon Klassen

Chris Haughton

   Other than that she also gave us a lot of inspiration; some of the main quotes that stuck out to me were as follows:

"Having a good idea is one of the most crucial parts of being an illustrator"

"Every single piece you make is telling a story"

"Think about what you are illustrating, the whole story and world, in order to create the most engaging image"

Initial Sketches, Further Research & Personal Tutorial with Louise

This week, I started on some inital sketches just to get my brain flowing for illustrating the Snow Queen. I began drawing things that popped into my head; main symbols such as the snowflake and began on some character design of Gerda, the heroine, and Bae the reindeer from part five of the story. They are as shown below.

As far as media is concerned, I have started experimenting with a range of material to see what will work best including brush pen, colour fine liners, water colour, water colour pencils and gouache, as these are the ones that have suited my work best in the past.

I've additionally been reading some texts which analyse the Snow Queen, in particular Wolf Lederer's The Kiss of the Snow Queen which gives some quite insightful and in depth analysis of the themes in the story that one wouldn't normally pick up just from reading the book.

The Raven

Gerda character designs I

II

III

IV

Reindeer drawings from London Zoo 

II

III

The Kiss of the Snow Queen by Wolfgang Lederer

 I also had a tutorial with Louise today where she advised me on my work. Here were the points made summarised:

• Stop researching other artists - put pen to paper and draw!
• Draw from life
• Work larger
• Find out Gerda's background to create a more informed character design
• Create a modern interpretation of the story by the way I draw instead of changing the characters' appearance
• Go the print room to get an A3 sketchbook bound with different types of paper, as some of my work from the last project could have been used as final pieces

Week 2

• Continued research
• Beginning to develop characters from the story
• Find a suitable version of the story for my target age range
• Tutorial with Louise
• Guest Speaker Deirdre Mcdermot

Researching The Snow Queen

The past few days I've been doing as much research as possible as I find it easier for drawings to start flowing when I've got a better understanding of the story. To do this, I began by studying the original text of The Snow Queen by Hans Christian Andersen, then looked at some more modern versions including Naomi Lewis' translation. I think hers will be the translation I will base my book on as it is aimed for slightly more older readers, probably around six to ten years old. 

I looked up some old film adaptations of the story in order to give me a different insight/perspective to the story. I found two that followed quite closely to the text, though there were slight variations. They were quite fun to watch as it makes a nice change from modern TV! 

An animated short narrated by Sigourney Weaver - 1992

1957 Soviet directed version 

While researching the text I found that there were a lot of strong themes and symbolism and I took note of these for possible use in illustrations. I also began to list the characters within the story and find out as much as I could about them. 

Presentation Document Launch Workshop

Today, in a Presentation Document workshop at uni, we were all had five minutes to draw the first thing that came to our heads. The practice was meant to make it clear to ourselves and others what we are like and what inspires us basically and I did find it surprisingly revealing. I ended up drawing the doodle shown below:

It was the first thing I thought to draw because I am inspired by anything magical or out of this world. I enjoy designing and illustrating worlds from props to characters and so I drew an imaginary castle on a hill. This was also probably partly in my head because my project is fairy tale illustrations. This exercise has reconfirmed to me that in the future I do want to be illustrating narratives and creating my own concepts for a story book. 

Deciding On A Title and Finding Inspiration

For our Final Major Project it is completely up to us what we do and to me this made settling on an idea all the more difficult because there is so much choice! Not only is this project probably going to be the bridge to my career in illustration, it will also carry on until the end of May (making it four months' worth of work) so it has to be something I won't lose interest in. All last week I have been thinking hard about what I want to do and what would suit me best.

   To help me decide, I wrote down some of the things I was passionate about. These included quite a few differing topics including fantasy art and novels, fashion illustration and graphic novels.

After weighing up my options, I decided on the idea of illustrating a children's book based upon the fantasy genre. A number of stories that I could illustrate came to mind - a collection of tales such as the Greek Myths, The Brothers' Grimm fairy tales, contemporary books such as Northern Lights by Phillip Pullman and older classics like The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe.
In the end, however, I chose to illustrate The Snow Queen which is a fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen.

   There were a few reasons for this; one was because it was one of the first fairy tales I read as a child that did not follow the usual princess/damsel in distress trope. Instead it follows a young girl called Gerda who sets out on a voyage to rescue a boy called Kai, whom she loves like a brother, from the frightening and foreboding Snow Queen. I was really able to identify with her and was riveted by the tale of a young girl who fought her own way to reach a goal rather than the stereotypical hero.

It is perhaps a lesser known fairy tale at least compared to ones such as Cinderella and Beauty and the Beast so it'll be easier for me to interpret my own way rather than being influenced by other artists, and it is often republished which means lots of exciting opportunities in illustration.
The story contains a lot of both subtle and obvious symbolism, and is separated into seven parts making it the longest fairy tale Andersen has written which will definitely keep the project fun and interesting!

This week I have collected a range of work from artists and illustrators that I like the work of and will influence me in this project. Below are some samples.

Amy Sol
I find her work breathtaking and magical. I like her technique
of using limited palette and flat washes. The composition is
striking due to the contrast of high detail and
a simple background.

Kay Nielsen
There is an antique yet modern feel to
Nielsen's illustrations which I love.
The pattern and detail in the clothing help
bring the characters to life which is
something I aim to achieve in my images.
There is a strong decorative feel to his work.

Katsushika Hokusai
Emphasis on shape and colour here
and a non linear perspective
is applied. A striking composition.

John Bauer
Really like the small white figure placed at the
bottom in contrast to the tall dark shapes in
the background.

Claude Monet
Beautiful use of colours. Monet's work
will be inspiring in certain scenes within
The Snow Queen such as the Old Lady's
garden and the river Gerda is on in
Chapter 3. They also have a fairy tale
aspect to them, perhaps due to the
 bright, cheerful hues
and whimsical brush strokes. I also love
the way he has depicted the rippling
water and the light reflected off them
with paint.

Annita Maslov
Beautiful and intricate detail to her
work. Striking red contrasted
with the black and white.

Kiri Ostagard Leonard
Dark mood and great detail to the creature's face

Eibatova Karina
I like the way she has used white
space here. Another technique I
could try out

Jenni Saarenkyla

Sai Kring (Isnukwin on Deviantart)

I've also created a Pinterest board where I will keep adding inspiration over the course of this project to keep me motivated: http://www.pinterest.com/selinaqch/inspiration-for-fmp/