After having to write and illustrate my own children’s book for my last project I have decided to write this part on comparing four children’s books. The books I have chosen to talk about are:

‘NO!’ by Marta Altes

‘Jack Frost’ by Kazuno Kohara

‘Where the Wild Things Are’ by Maurice Sendak

‘Grow Your Own’ by Esther Hall

(sorry the covers have been cut off slightly, my scanner wasn't big enough for the books.)

‘NO!’ by Marta Altes

I love everything about this book, from the colour scheme, the text, the layouts and illustrations. I picked this book because of all those reasons and because the story is written so well and it is a comical book. The story and illustrations appeal to both adults and children, which in my opinion make it a brilliant children’s book. I love her use of space in the compositions across the double pages. She creates a real feel of movement throughout and the character is consistent. The illustrations do all the talking in this book but the typography and the story all work so well together and give the book something different to all others. I think the book works so well because people can also relate to it, especially if they are dog owners. The illustrations have a real hand made feel to them with hand type and the fingerprint marks for the mud. Very simple and very effective.  Out of all the books I have chosen this one is my favourite when it comes to typography, the text is very hand finished and consistent throughout from the cover to the last page. I liked the way that bits are crossed out or underlined, as if the character himself has written it. This is something that differs in the other books. The placement of the text also works well with the theme of the rest of the book; it isn’t placed in the same position on every page.

‘Jack Frost’ by Kazuno Kohara

I think I was drawn to Kazuno’s work due to her use of printmaking. She sticks to using one colour throughout all her books which works very well, especially considering it was all hand printed.  In similarity to ‘NO!’ her layouts work really well especially the way she uses double pages. I love the way she leaves some of the print lines that should have been cut away, this gives it a hand made feel just as Marta has achieved in her book. In all the books I have chosen they have all kept the character very consistent and changed the scales of them throughout the stories. The type in this book works well with the illustrations and the thickness of the lines. I think the way she has moved the text around the pages work well also, it isn’t in the same place on every page. I really like that the only colour is in the background instead of the foreground and characters as it is in all the other books and in fact most children’s books. The story is really playful and heart warming as it goes through the story of ‘the boy’ and ‘Jack Frost’ playing in the snow.

‘Where the Wild Things Are’ by Maurice Sendak

Just like the other books I really like his use of space in his layouts. At the start of the book there is just a square of illustration on the right and a line of text on the left, as you go through the book the illustrations start to take over the entire double pages gradually. This works as it goes with the story, as ‘Max’s’ imagination gets into the story the pages start to fill. Again like all the others the colour scheme is really nice and works very well. And in this like ‘Jack Frost’ and ‘NO!’ there is a real sense of movement. One thing I think could have been improved in this book is a bit more a variation in size of the character; they stay a very similar size throughout unlike in the others. ‘NO!’ and ‘Where the Wild Things Are’ both have a real feel and subtlety with shadows. This book uses cross-hatching to create its shadows and feel of movement. It seems like there were a few different mediums and methods used to create the illustrations, watercolour paints, pen and coloured pencils seem to be the main source. One thing I like about this book, which wasn’t done in any of the others, is that he has done pages, which are solely illustrated and have no text; these pages didn’t necessarily need any text, as the pictures are simple and self-explanatory.

‘Grow Your Own’ by Esther Hall

The last book I chose to write about was ‘Grow Your Own’, I was immediately drawn to this one for the same reasons I was to ‘Jack Frost’. I am a very interested in printmaking, especially lino prints. This book is beautifully illustrated and is very similarly illustrated as ‘Jack Frost’. They both do have many differences but I love how they have both used their prints. Unlike ‘Jack Frost’ this book is done in full colour, and has used many different colours to create the backgrounds and foregrounds. This book unlike the others doesn’t particularly have a colour scheme, although the colours she has used compliment each other, the story and work well as a whole. This book too has a real hand made quality just as the others, especially ‘NO!’ and ‘Jack Frost’. Some of the parts of the illustrations look like they have been mono printed (like the background, sky/grass), this is another part of print I am really interested in and practice myself. One thing I think this book could have had which was used in ‘Jack frost’ was the uncut parts which were left over on some of its pages, it gave it more of a rustic feel which I would have liked to see here, however I cannot fault this books illustrations.

After looking at all of these books together I have found many similarities but also quite a few differences. Such as colour, ‘Jack Frost’ had a very simple but definite colour scheme as it only used the one colour (two shades) and black and white. ‘NO!’ had a more varied scheme, the same colours cropped up throughout and the tones were very similar. ‘Where the Wild Things Are’ was quite similar to ‘NO!’  in the way it used colour as there were more colours in ‘Where the Wild Things Are’ but the tones of the colours stayed the same throughout as in ‘NO!’.

The obvious similarities lay in the methods of producing the illustrations. The most obvious being between ‘Jack Frost’ and ‘Grow Your Own’ as they both used printing techniques to create their illustrations. Both used very minimal and simple styles however ‘Grow Your Own’ was a lot more complex in the sense of colour usage and shadows. Whereas ‘Jack Frost’ used very simple lines, the stories and illustration matched beautifully for them both. If ‘Grow Your Own’ were done in the way as ‘Jack Frost’ it wouldn’t have worked. The colour and shade was in my opinion needed as the book was about growing vegetables, which wouldn’t look right done differently. The same the other way round, colours weren’t needed in ‘Jack Frost’ because of the snow and the story.

‘Where the Wild Things Are’ and ‘NO!’ have similarities in their colour schemes and use of tones. As well as their use of shadows and medium. They both used watercolour paint, pencil and pen. The text was the main thing that differed between the two ‘NO!’ is very hand made unlike all the others. The text placement was also very different and more experimental in ‘NO!’, which again suits the book and story well.

Word Count: 1309

DD2000. Maira Kalman Talk

Maira Kalman is an author and illustrator; she talks about her life and work, from her books fro children and grown-ups to her covers from the New Yorker. Her talk was very at ease, comfortable, real and also very witty.  She doesn’t just talk and sound like a robot like a lot of speakers do, but she talks from her heart, her personality shines through from the beginning.

She talks about writing children’s books and that she doesn’t like talking down to them, that she has to condense her story or idea to be suitable for a children’s book and also maybe slightly change language so as it is suitable and readable for a child. However not make it so once it has been read you wouldn’t want to read it again and again (like mist children’s books-to an adult), in doing this the book has appeal to both children and grown-ups. She illustrates the pages from photos or real life and includes personal stories and loved objects. Maira also includes things personal such as dreams she has had. She also likes to include a dialogue between children and grown-ups and different humours.

‘I don’t like plots. I don’t know what a plot means. I can’t stand the idea of anything that starts in the beginning — you know, ‘beginning, middle and end.’

Maira is constantly making the audience laugh out loud and keeps them interested in what she is talking about. You can see this part of her personality in her work, from the covers of The Newyorker to pages she painted for books. She came up with this cover for The Newyorker with Rick Meyerowitz. Her personality certainly comes through.

I think this has been one of my favourite talks as she makes you feel like you know her, like you’re friends. She makes the crowd very comfortable and is a very witty, wonderful and wise character.

Word Count: 320

DD2000. Suzanne Lee Talk

Suzanne Lee is a fashion designer turned biological conjurer. Suzanne Lee Directs the BioCulture project, which came from and idea in her book Fashioning the Future: Tomorrow’s Wardrobe in which she discusses fashion and future technologies: Can we grow a dress from a vat of liquid?

Her talk was very interesting as she discusses something I personally have never seen or even heard of before. She talks about making her own ‘vegetable leather’, she tells us how this is done and how it can be used. She uses bacteria, yeasts and organisms in a fermentation process to spin threads to create a matt on the surface. She uses boiled tea and sugar which when cooled living organisms are added; she keeps the liquid at a certain temperature in a bath (or if nice out, outside).  When left for up to 2-3 weeks it is ready to wash and spread out for the water to evaporate which will then leave the end product. This can then be sewn and coloured by using iron oxidation, vegetable staining or indigo.  You can tell that Suzanne is truly passionate and interested in this new method and way of producing fabric and is still finding new things to do and flaws, which need to resolve. She talks about her appeal to the fabric and how it almost resembles human skin, which is something she likes and is interested in. When the fabric is done and hasn’t been coloured the tea leaves it this kind of nude but transparent colour. She then goes into the problems she has found, such as it isn’t water resistant as it is made of water. If you were to go outside in the rain the fabric would fall apart and the stitching would come apart. She is really interested in keeping the fabric as environmentally friendly and recycled as possible, the liquid left over to make the fabric can be re-used again, the ways in which she forms colour on the fabric is using vegetable stain; also the indigo she would use to die it would only have to be dipped once for a very short time, but she said that cotton would have to be dipped several times.

Her talk drew me in straight away from the word go, she is very dedicated and determined to carry on and be successful at what she is doing. Overall a brilliant talk.


Word Count: 403

DD2000. Fig Taylor

We have recently had a talk at university from the very successful AOI portfolio advisor, Fig Taylor. This was a very truthful and eye-opening talk on how to present your work and portfolio to potential clients. She was a woman who didn’t mess around and was straight to the point, and also very passionate about the illustration industry and wanting to help people hoping to get into it.

She told us all the main things to avoid doing and to use to create the strongest portfolio possible. Pieces of work should always be finished and of a same style as the rest of work in the portfolio. If you have more than one distinctive style then you should create more than one portfolio. Keep one portfolio for one style. The portfolio size shouldn’t be too large, so avoid A1 and A0. You should never put work you personally don’t like in your portfolio, if they like it you might have to continue doing something you hate. Work should be presented to a professional standard and never on a Pc screen. The portfolio should be suitable and relevant to the client you are going to see. Show what makes you different from everyone else. Life drawings and sketches aren’t necessary, they know that you can draw already; however don’t hesitate to take sketchbooks, they may be interested to see how you work. If you have any 3D pieces such as packaging you should always get it photographed professionally, rubbish photos don’t do your work any justice.

Fig Taylor had many, many useful tips and valid points, which I probably wouldn’t have considered. Her talk has made me think more about what work to use and how to structure my portfolio. I will definitely be thinking of her talk when creating any future portfolio.

Word Count: 305