March 2016 – Jasmine Pointer

Picture Book: Feedback

Jasmine Pointer / March 23, 2016April 4, 2016 / Feedback, Picture Book, Project Four

I have now finished a first draft for my picture book. I feel it is 70% done at this point, with improvements to be made on the illustrations. I have created a version with my own font that I have put to the side for now as I am unsure of whether to use it. But with the Verdana font version, I have created a PDF and asked for audience feedback via Facebook. I’ve also made a survey for them to fill in after reading it to help me improve the book.

https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/9ZGDJ6T

After posting this 10 minutes ago I’ve already had two people who are willing to read it with their children, so hopefully this will be a helpful way to make my book better.

View the book here:

Speck the Sphynx Cat

Update:

8 people who are going to read it with their children, and two responses to the survey.

Also a bit of feedback over Facebook:

Person 1:

Person 2:

One consideration I have made since having people read the book is upping the target audience to 3-9 as one person read it to their daughters, one being 8. Therefore I think there is a chance that 8-9 year olds would be interested in the book if they had younger siblings like this one did.

Update:

4 more people who will read it with a child and 2 who are just going to read it and give me feedback.

Picture Book: Work in Progress

Jasmine Pointer / March 23, 2016March 23, 2016 / Picture Book, Project Four

I had a go at making my own font for this book by using the scanned in image of the style I wanted:

Using Photoshop I made each letter larger like so:

I then used a website called My Script Font to turn it into a working font, using their template and applying the letters to it. This is the result on a mock up front cover for Speck the Sphynx Cat:

I’m not 100% happy with the way it turned out as the ‘p’ is faded along the top and some letters are cut off such as the Y. I could correct these letters but I tried the font on the inside pages and it didn’t have the same effect as using ‘Verdana’ which seems more picture book like. I could use this font for the front and back cover only but then there would but inconsistency and it would look slightly odd.

I had the idea of using Verdana mainly throughout but the Speck font on speech bubble text. I could correct my font and try this to see how it goes.

Before tweaking:

After:

Picture Book: Front & Back Covers

Jasmine Pointer / March 22, 2016March 22, 2016 / Picture Book, Project Four, Research

With 10 pages of my book done so far (but around 7 more to go) I have decided to start looking at front and back cover designs. I need some inspiration for my own, so I have started by finding and collecting a few favourites:

Front Covers:

My Grandpa by Manta Altes

I Want My Hat Back by John Klassen

I Am An Artist by Manta Altes

The Day the Crayons Quit by Oliver Jeffers

Mr. Tiger Goes Wild by Peter Brown

Back Covers:

My Grandpa

I Am An Artist

The Day the Crayons Quit

I Want My Hat Back

Mr. Tiger Goes Wild

Can be either busy or simple, e.g. ‘Mr Tiger Goes Wild’ is very busy compared to ‘My Grandpa’ but they both work.
Colourful but calm colours which draw you in – I want to achieve similar style
Front covers – just include illustrations, author and title
Back cover – blurb (synopsis) & more illustrations
Blurb is short and sweet

Picture Book: Work in Progress

Jasmine Pointer / March 21, 2016March 21, 2016 / Illustrations, Picture Book, Project Four

So far I have created 5 pages for my picture book, but I’m not showing these off until the whole thing is finished. However, I will show the illustrations I have made for pages 2, 3, 4 & 5.

Initial Sketches:

Picture Book: Font

Jasmine Pointer / March 18, 2016 / Picture Book, Project Four, Typography

I have decided I would like to be able to create my own font for this book to allow everything to flow together well and have the same look and feel. The font is pretty basic, almost school-like (like a child’s), but the reason I want it is for that hand-drawn/sketch look. Here are the plans for it, whether I will have the time to include it along with the amount of pages I want to achieve is another thing!