Personal Tutorial

This afternoon I had my personal tutorial with Louise and I showed her my work and ideas for the project. Her advice to me was as follows:

Try to make the Snow Queen (in the image with boy looking out the window) more ethereal and less substantiated to create a more mystical atmosphere. Improve on boy's expression so he looks more scared in seeing her.

Be careful not to overwork some images, ie. the girl in the forest below. Not every detail has to be drawn out. 

Crop in on areas, some images could work well zoomed in.

Work smaller if I am more comfortable doing so as it affects my paintings. 

Earlier development/playing around with images are strong as they seem more relaxed and expressive. 

"Red Shoes", Selina Quach, 2014

"No Peace Or Rest In Her Eyes", Selina Quach, 2014

Early development work for the Snow Queen's character

Overall, I found her advice helpful and pushed me into shifting out of my comfort zone a little. This week I will try and put what we discussed into action.

Week 9

• Create a dummy book
• Tutorial with Louise
• Formative assessment
• Indesign editing
• Talk with Sophie Giblin
• Painting further illustrations

Painting Scenes From The Book

This week I have been working hard on painting images for the final book. These of course could be changed later on but for now this is what I have come up with I'm relatively pleased with how they turned out as I like the placing of the girl in the woods; I think I am also settled with the kind of colour palette I am using; dark and muted but with certain colours standing out in each image such as white to create more of a contrast.

Red will be a major colour theme throughout the book as it is what links Gerda and Kai together while they are apart - red, of course, symbolising love.

So far I have painted a lot of full scenes therefore for my other illustrations I will crop/zoom into images so there is a variation of compositions in my book. I've chosen to work on the moments in the story that will work well as illustrations and also the ones that are most vital to the story.

The main thought behind this piece was that it is the first time she has ventured away from home, and 'out into the wide world'; this subliminal message is portrayed by her small size in contrast to with the tall trees. She is away from the comfort of her house and about to go on an unknown journey.

When a piece of the mirror gets in a person's heart, they "become like a lump of ice". Here,

I have taken this literally. I am quite pleased with this image as it has a sense of abstractness, yet it isn't fully abstract either. 

The rose is another major recurring theme as it is Kai and Gerda's favourite flower. When Kai kicks it

over then, it is quite a dramatic moment and a strong message so I think it might work better if it was just the rose. The kicked over rose also represents Gerda's hurt feelings afterwards.

Kai and Gerda together in the beginning, this image compared to the rest I wanted to create an

aura of happiness and joy as this will later contrast quite extremely with the long voyage

Gerda undertakes.

"The Demon and His Mirror", Selina Quach, 2014

I wanted to depict a calm and peaceful background, thus the clear sky but with a little cloudiness up ahead which foreshadows the breaking of the mirror. The peaceful atmosphere is also contrasted by the strong black figure in the sky.

"Past the Moon and Over Hills", Selina Quach, 2014

The emphasis here was on the paragraph that describes the wonderful scenery happening around Kai and the Snow Queen in chapter 2. The full moon symbolises "height of power, the peak of clarity, fullness and obtainment of desire" which I felt was suitable for this scene as The Snow Queen has taken what she wanted and therefore symbolically at the "height" of her power.

"No Peace Or Rest In Her Eyes", Selina Quach, 2014

In keeping with the moon symbolism (as it is a strong symbol for magic which is a dominant theme in the book) the new moon here represents new beginnings/rebirth. Kai sets eyes on the Snow Queen for the first time and a change is about to occur.

Kai Sleeping At The Feet of the Snow Queen - Selina Quach, 2014

The splash of red for Kai's gloves represent the small yet still present tie between him and Gerda. This technique I think I will be using throughout the book. I painted the light on the floor almost reaching Kai to emphasise that he is now in darkness (within the Snow Queen's domain) and unable to leave.

Using Brush and Ink to Create Compositions

Initially I have been sketching out compositions as thumbnails but this week I have found it quite helpful to create bigger ones on A3 paper with brush and ink.

Following Jonny's advice about filling up space in my paintings, I realised this was due to my not being used to drawing on A3 as I've always preferred A4. However,  it's been quite a refreshing change working bigger as it allows me to go into more detail and these quick brush drawings have helped me a lot in making better use of space, on top of allowing me to be more inventive and less precious.

Development of Side Characters

This is just a little further development of some of the side characters as they aren't ones that I have worked with much yet. Although the mix of wet gouache and dry pencil is working for me, I used this as a chance to experiment with different paper/media anyway. Here I worked in the A3 sketchbook I made with Katherine earlier. I'm quite happy with how I've brought each individual personality across so far.

The Old Lady Who Knew Magic

The Finnish Lady

The Robber Girl

Week 8

• Creating bigger composition-based drawings with ink
• Working on different kinds of paper rather than water colour paper in order to work a bit more loosely
• Side character development
• Experimenting with fine liner and water colour
• Continuing to produce illustrations for different parts of the story

Shortening the Text

The last couple of days I have been concentrating on compressing the text so that it is more suited for the kind of book I want to go for. It was quite difficult at first because it is very long and there are quite a few vital parts to it as well as parts that I felt gave the story character. In the end, however, I knew that it isn't the writing I am trying to emphasise, but the art work.

I had a look at an existing shortened version of it via this website http://shortstoriesshort.com/story/the-snow-queen/ which really helped to get me into the mindset of writing concisely and to the point.
I have completed it today but am aware the text may need some further tweaking in the future after I have produced some of the illustrations!

The target audience for my book will still be to appeal to both children and adults.

Listing and planning out the illustrations on each page