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

Creating the Title Page

Today I've been creating some title page designs. For the first design I painted part of the land where the story is set and included the river with Gerda's shoes and the Snow Queen's palace in the distance. It is meant to be sort of a preview to the story where at first you would not know the significance of these objects until after you have finished the book. I've kept it deliberately water-downed and lowered the opacity as I wanted the emphasis to be just on the words. I've also made the hues change from sepia toned to cool toned from the first page to the other, it represents the seasons changing throughout Gerda's journey, except here it happens in one picture. At the moment I'm unsure whether to use white or black text; I think black might be better as it will stand out more but I will get Louise's advice when I see her next week. 

Below are a few other examples I could use as the secondary title page (the one before the main title spread). I made these with boxed images instead of full page ones as I think if there were too many full pages at the beginning it may not go with the rest of the pages where most of them also have boxed images. Out of the two below I prefer the bottom which is more simple and seems almost like a pattern with its repetitive trunks.

The Pick Me Up Festival & Buying Portfolio/FMP Supplies

Yesterday I went to the Pick Me Up festival with the course; it was very exciting and inspiring to see so many contemporary artwork all in one space. Although most of the art wasn't very similar to the style or medium I work in I still felt quite inspired by many of the illustrators - I especially loved Isabel Greenberg's work who gave a talk earlier this year, Jessica Das and Damon Smith's work which I've pictured below respectively.

Isabel Greenberg display

Etchings by Jessica Das

Damon Smith

I purchased a portfolio case as well and decided to get an A4 size one as I prefer to work smaller and I think it suits my work in this size. Because I am aiming towards book publishing it will also be easier for the art director to imagine my artwork in their publications.

Additionally, Emma and I walked to Shepard's Bookbinders which is around 30-40 minutes away from Pick Me Up. It was much more convenient being able to see and touch the paper there rather than just ordering online. With the size of my book Katherine advised me to get between 120 - 140 gsm which unfortunately did mean the images might show through a little, but not too much. I ended up getting Simili Japon inkjet paper which is off-white and I feel will suit my images more.  

All in all, it was an enjoyable day and I got a few essential items I've been needing for a while! 

The Final Illustrations For My Book

These are the final images I've painted for my book. Again, I've had to take references from photos on Pinterest for certain illustrations such as the ice palace (see this post http://selinaquachfmp.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/designing-snow-queen-palace.html which explains more in detail what references I've been looking at for inspiration) and the ruined castle as I was unable to access these places.

  

In this image I wanted to emphasise the transitional stage from summer to autumn as Gerda is very shocked in the book to find out it has already turned autumn-time. The symbolism; the dark tree with dead leaves represents Gerda's emotions at this stage of the journey, which is contrasted by the rays of light representing hope and optimism upon the news that the Raven brings.

The trees are bare here signifying winter is coming. The Raven is the main figure in this image as he watches over Gerda's departure and emphasises the feeling of separation 

This image subtly reflects back to the time when Kai was sleeping at the feet of the Snow Queen; Gerda is scared and worried sleeping with the Robber Girl and would rather be anywhere else than here. 

This is meant to be the mirror opposite of The Snow Queen kissing Kai - the emotions of love is much more genuine here and is meant to emphasise the fact that the Snow Queen's kiss was in order to lure Kai  and is not a true representation of love. The colours are brighter and gentler in comparison to the starker, harsher colours in Kai's scene.

The last image of the book. Kai and Gerda have returned to the roof top they spent theirs summer days at the beginning of the book. They've obviously changed and grown up but the same roof top reminds us that they are still the same people, still "children at heart". The softer pink shades in this image  symbolises calm and tranquility as well as "compassion, nurturing and love. It relates to unconditional love and understanding".

The roses are drawn less closely together and isn't framing the two of them anymore; this symbolises the huge journey they have both undergone - they aren't within the safe walls of childhood and seeing things in a limited perspective anymore. They have seen both the darkness in the world as well as real beauty.