Final Storybook..

Here is my final outcome, I have illustrated William Allingham's Poem - 'The Fairies' in a storybook. For each verse i have drawn what I think visually describes the poem. Finally along with this story I have combined a narration which adds a dramatic effect to the tail.

"The Fairies"- StoryBook Process

I have combined the illustrations of the storybook with the audio of my cousin that I record on iMovie. Here are some screen shots of my work process..

Storybook Pages..

Sketches from drawing pad!

Some drawings from my sketch book! I am going to be scanning the images that I am using for the book into the computer, and use photoshop to finalise them and edit the the sketches into a video clip with the narration that I recorded of my cousin whispering the poem as audio ...

                             

Molly Bretts Fairy Art..

I came across an English Children's Storybook Illustrator called Molly Brett. I found some enchanting paintings of fairies drawn with great attention to detail, a wonderful range subtle colours and a magical atmosphere.

Grimm Fairy Tales Comics..

Grimm Fair tails is a horror comic book which presents classic fairy tales with modern twist and recreates a darker story.. I am looking at various styles of illustration and trying to work out through my sketches which technique would best suit the poem.

Messing around with the Sound Effects..

I used garageband to achieve the sound affects I was looking for.. Here are a few screen shoots of my process..

The Fairies-Whisper.m4v

I got Cara to Whisper the poem and added sound affects.. The echo and tone of her voice is rather creepy!

The Fairies.m4v

I recorded my cousin reciting 'The Fairies' and plan to manipulate her voice to make it more scary and maybe use it along with my illustrations as an audiobook...

Ending Credits- Coraline Soundtrack

The music in this movie is chill-inducting. The children soundtrack is so creepy, I dont know what it is but creeps me out!! I have recorded my 10year old cousin saying the poem and i am going to use that somehow in my development work!

"Coraline" Official Trailer

Upon doing research for my children's book I came across this movie trailer for a girl called 'Coraline' who enters this world that seem too good to be true. It is a rather spooky film for children, the characters/animations almost give you goosebumps! When I read 'The fairies' I got the same chilling feel.

ROY TRAILER

I had a look on the CBBC website to seenwhat shows where on for kids and came across a TV series called 'ROY' i really liked this style of illustration/animation ...

Rosie's Rainbow a children's story by Ron Dubren, illustrations by Je...

I liked the illustrations in this story; it combines visually eyecatching, bright and childlike images and a verbal narrative that are suitable for children.. It also reminded me of the illustrations in Jacqueline Wilson's books!

More Research...

I found a great piece of work in a book called 'Urban intervention- Personal Projects in Public Spaces'- Gestalten ;-

This Street Art Photography is called the 'Little People Project'.. Slinkachu the name of the artist, has modelled miniture people and placed them in public places. I just thought this was a really cool idea! 

Children's Books..

I picked up a few books on illustration in children's book... I liked an artist Mary Blair's work , She is remembered best for the work she done for Walt Disney. I think her illustrations have flat, interlocking shapes and patterns which give a surreal and almost abstract structure.

These paintings experiment with colour, mode and composition. They are kind of strange, uneasy and eery which is exactly the feeling I get when I read William Allingham's Poem 'The Fairies'- At the start you thing it is a nice poem about fairies and as your continue to read it, its becomes more dark and scary.

Research

After deciding what poem I was going to do for this project I went to the library to look at some artists work to collect some ideas! I came across some material that I found very helpful in The Picture Book, Contemporary Illustration- Edited by Angus Hyland...

I liked this picture because the roots of the tree looks like a house, When I seen it I instantly imaged little fairies and mystical creatures living under trees in the forest...

I like the loose drawings on these pages, the image on the right of the girl with her eyes closes and laying in among leaves etc reminded me of the lyrics in the poem about the little girl Bridget;

"They thought she was fast asleep

But she was dead with sorrow.

They have kept her ever since,

Deep within the lake,

On a bed of flag leaves,

Watching till she wake."

This is a funny illustration of little weird characters chasing a man through a forest  this also reminded me of the first few lines in the poem;

"We daren't go a-hunting,

For fear of little men.."