CHILDRENS' BOOK ILLUSTRATIONS (work in progress)
what:
This is a personal project I undertook, attempting to create illustrations for another author's children's book. It follows the story of a zoo tapir, and targets an audience around the third grade level. This is an ongoing project.
why:
I am passionate about illustration and fine art in addition to design. This project allows for great creativity, as well as an interesting study into effective and efficient visual communication.
who:
I am the only illustrator for this project, but the writing is done by another author.
The author requested that my style be somewhat resemblant of two already famous illustrators, Edward Gorey and Ian Falconer. This presented a slight challenge - how can I combine two very drastically different styles?
influences
The main character of the story is a tapir, which is a slightly unusual character. How can I identify it unambiguously as a tapir, even with the tuxedo and two-legged stance specified in the writing?
tapir
Every drawing began with a pencil outline, followed by linework in varying thicknesses. The cuter, exaggerated expressions and features on each character are inspired by Ian Falconer’s “Olivia”. Meanwhile, the style of shading using many thin lines is more inspired by Edward Gorey - the direction, weight and texture of each line is made with intention, conveying something about the form of the object/animal.
advancing
I decided to do a minimal amount of muted colors as seen in much of Ian Falconer’s work:
color
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The main character of the story is a tapir, which is a slightly unusual character. How can I identify it unambiguously as a tapir, even with the tuxedo and two-legged stance specified in the writing?
tapir