Exe 5.7: Educational strip and Exe 5.6 Working with Children

Brief: You have been asked to produce an illustrated strip of up to five frames for use in schools explaining to young teenagers how to cope with the onset of puberty. You can decide on which aspect you want to tackle. Due to the subject matter and the intended age group it is suggested that you use metaphor and humour when conveying the message – though take care not to trivialise a serious message. The client would also like you to provide a single illustration of your character for use on the front cover.
The leaflet is called What’s happening to my body? It’s all going mad!


I was absolutely not looking forward to doing this exercise mostly because of the subject matter, but the more I did it the more I ended up enjoying it. So much so that I seemed to have forgotten that the brief had specified that the strip should be up to five frames....oy! Oh no! 

Apart from this I think that I learnt a lot from doing this exercise.

I used the Internet primarily for my information especially the website: http://kidshealth.org/kid/grow/body_stuff/puberty.html. I also searched images of current information regarding puberty and these are some examples:

           

These resources were helpful but I wanted to present the information in a more contemporary yet sensitive manner. I found this image online which I think works well for giving information to both genders:

I liked the use of typography and was keen to use this in my own version.

I also experimented with using a kind of graffiti type font but none of these seemed quite right. I tried to rack my brains about tweens and what they like. As I was tackling puberty in girls I thought specifically about them.

 

I tried a few versions initially creating a character which was a little more comical but found that I was only introducing humour and the image wasn't very empathic, so I decided to try my hand at creating a more sensitive character.

This took some time and experimentation but I am happy with my final character as I feel she is childlike enough for a tween to relate to and has an element of empathy...well I hope!

I wanted the pamphlet to appear as if it was someone doodling or someone’s school diary or something like that, so I decided to  use school-lined paper as the background and sharpie felt tip pens for colour. I also wanted to limit the colour pallet especially as the 1st 'graffoiti' version felt a little overwhelming with colour. 

Initially I did all the writing on each page in felt tip ( as they are my new love!) but found that when I reduced the images on the photocopier the lettering was too bold and too large. 
As a result the writing almost implied it was targeting a younger audience then a tween..... 

SO I went back to the drawing board and used a mixture of uni-pin fine liners and marker pens to create the final pamphlet.

On the whole I am happy with the result although that is not to say some changes are not in order! 

I did some last minute market research with work colleagues who have kids who had some good constructive feedback. Overall they were positive about the pamphlet and said they would happily give it to their daughters. One colleague did comment that she felt that the page that dealt with the crux of what puberty was ie: the body changes etc should be across 2 pages as the images looked a little on top of each other. She also commented that this would mean a little more ‘helpful tips’ could also be included underneath each of these changes, which I thought was a good idea as I had only touched on things to do to help tackle these changes. Unfortunately this feedback came too little too late on this occasion but I will make the above amendments (and any other recommendations) when I hand in the work for assessment! I did manage to make 2 minor changes on the pamphlet itself as one father said the word ‘live’ looked too much like ‘dive’ so I made that clearer and another mum felt I should add that “it was all part of growing up” at the end and therefore I added this as well! So all was not completely lost but note to self….READ THE BRIEF AND DO MARKET RESEARCH EARLIER!

EXERCISE 5.6 WORKING WITH CHILDREN
Brief: Collect as many examples of imagery for children as possible. Group the illustrations

you’ve collected into the target age groups. Include at least one image for each age group.
Pre-reader Pre-school (3–5) Early reader (5-7) Established reader (7–9) and Older age groups.
Take two of these age groups and, for each one, go through a process of brainstorming around at least one word chosen from this list:

Festival       Scary        Wild         Growing         Journey          Sad           Family                   Discovery 

I found this exercise challenging simply for the perspective that I really struggle with making such clear boundaries between age groups and picture books. I say this because there are a number of stories I can think of simply at the top of my head which I would read to a 2 year old pre-reader who would love the images and the story and ready the same story to an 8yr old as a bed time story where they may be playing a more active role in reading or just listening to the story no matter how many times they’ve heard it. Books by Oliver Jeffers or even the Gruffalo by Julia Donaldson are examples of this, which I have done just this for friend’s children who fit into these two different age groups. I also have some picture books that I cannot say was designed with a target age group in mind and therefore span all ages. Shaun Tan’s books in general are good examples of this e.g.:  ‘The red tree’ ,the Arrival or Eric. Even artists like Korky Paul and Babette Cole create works of humour rather then targeting specific age groups. Their narratives are strong enough to span across age groups.  

Agata Dudek:

Dr Seuss:

Oliver Jeffers:

 

Of course I can appreciate the other side of the argument and there are books that need to be designed for certain age groups like ‘novelty’ books which look at in essence teaching basic concepts like colour, texture etc and these concepts should be consolidated by a 4/5yr old.  Successful books like “in the night garden” are targeting a younger child by virtue of their narrative. I think they also started as television characters and then became books rather then the other way around.

In terms of bright colours, I do not feel that picture books have to be bright and some of the best books have a very limited colour pallet both contemporary books and older stories. In fact there seems to be a pattern of returning to a more limited pallet echoing the colours used by people like John Lawrence or Jack Townend. A lovely book I recently saw with a pallet of orange, blue and black and white is called 365 penguins and it is a fabulous book. Of course wonderful colourful books by tony Ross or the wonderful Quentin Blake are amongst my alllll time favourites picture books!!!! I also love Sara Finelli’s books or Agata Dudek’s work which are filled with collage and distorted images and yet are very well received by children and adults alike.

Of course longer novels can also be illustrated and David Roberts or Quentin Black are examples of illustrator who produces both full colour picture books and black and white illustrations for longer stories. E.g.: The twits by Roald Dahl and illustrated by Quentin Blake. Again for me I would read the twits to a child that couldn’t read and show them the black and white illustrations and then conversely children who are older can read it for themselves.

CONFUSED.COM!! In one way I think that picture books have few rules and the most successful and timeless books in my mind are constantly pushing the boundaries of what is acceptable. I think that it is becoming more acceptable that a lot can be said within and image and with a few/no words is as important as reading long novels. This is not to say one skill is more important then the other, rather that they serve different purposes and therefore in my mind there is a place for stories with fewer words and images and those with lots of words and fewer/no or simple black and white images.

I therefore ventured to waterstones and to our local Kemp town book shop to get a better understanding of the age group split. As a bigger mainstream bookshop, Waterstones tends to only separate books for 9-12 year olds and pre-readers but the rest of the children’s section is simply “children’s sections and books are divided into bestselling picture books etc.

Kemp town bookshop children's section

Waterstones bookshop 9-12 yr old recommended reads

When I finally got to doing creating the animal I was in a state of confusion! With SO many options and styles I suddenly felt a little overwhelmed and therefore stumped! So in order to get me out of what felt like sinking-sand and back into action I signed up to a lithography course with the intention of using the course to create my animal. My main reason behind this is because I really struggle to limit my colour pallet naturally and have a tendency to include lots of colour. Sometimes this works, sometimes it doesn’t and sometimes it means that the image doesn’t really stand out. Needless to say the course had the desired effect of getting me unstuck and providing the bit of inspiration and boundaries that I needed! The image I drew from an internet picture of an elephant and decided not to distort it but focus on the letting the colours do the talking. Plus the elephant itself was soooo cute that I just couldn’t change him! ; ) In saying that I have recently discovered the wonderful work of Marc Boutavant who has all his animal creatures walking on two legs, including a lovely elephant character that he recently produced for a book of short stories called “The day no one was angry”.

 
 Sketchbook prep drawings

Coloured pencil prep drawings from internet photos

 

Final Ellie: Lithograph print and coloured pencil

I do feel that I needed to do some more drawings of animals and perhaps try one which I 'humanised' more but was really happy with my litho elephant and with the printmaking process. In retrospect I may have steered little far away from the brief about putting the animal into one of the contexts suggested i.e.: festival. .....maybe a little bit too much of adapting the brief to the image rather then the other way around.  Also the litho process was verrrrrry time consuming (Of course more so because I was learning) eand of course one has to know what they are doing and have access to presses etc. Because it was so time consuming and I was merely doing a few evenings in a short course I misjudged the length of time and therefor had to finish the ellie in blue coloured pencil rather then having time to print the second colour, ei: blue. I do however think the mixed media stands out and when comparing the litho textures etc to the coloured pencil prep drawings in my sketch book, it is more clear how the medium comes to life. 

I am sure there is also a quicker digital method but at this stage anything digital or computer based does anything but save me time! Also, because I was more focused on learning the process I wasn’t really considering composition but I did consider mark making and litho I have discovered is great for mark making!

In a nutshell I think that I have learnt from this exercise is that when it comes to picture books the sky can be the limit!