I have explored the concept of bullying among young children and have settled on the idea of writing and illustrating a picture book targeted towards the ages of 4-7, promoting kindness and inclusivity.
I have explored the concept of bullying among young children and have settled on the idea of writing and illustrating a picture book targeted towards the ages of 4-7, promoting kindness and inclusivity.
I have made this book with the aim to encourage young children to be kind to each other. The book itself is short and gets the message across in a simple way, making it an easy read to be used in schools, at home, or in the library.
The illustrators; Quentin Blake, Suzie Lee and the picture books; “Leonardo the Terrible Monster”, by Mo Williams and “When Sadness comes to Call” by Eva Eland have been huge inspirations of mine. I love the sense of spontaneity that Quentin Blake and Beatrix Potter bring to their illustrations and how this really helps bring the characters to life. Similarly, find that Williams’ use of block colour and typography in “Leonardo the Terrible Monster” to be really effective in communicating emotion. Eva Eland’s use of white space and light washes of colour are aspects of her work which I have adopted to my own illustrations because I have found them to be especially effective in creating a sense of sensitivity which is appealing to young readers.
I have worked with ink, fine liner, watercolour, graphite and photoshop to create these illustrations. I like the sensitive style that I can create with this combination of media, while also having the control to add depth when needed, to separate the foreground from the background.
