//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!
//
I’ve started on the main character of the book, “Speck”.
At first, I found a photo of a sphynx cat from Google and started to trace it using colour brushes on Photoshop. However, I realised I’m not the best at this and it just did not look right. May be if I worked on it a bit more it would have turned out fine, but I decided this isn’t the look I want.
I then tried to create him on photoshop with the brush tool. However, I decided against these illustrations as I felt they weren’t they right look and I wanted to start with a new visual idea in mind. These are too ‘perfect’ as in the outline is neat and the painting is blocked and inside the lines.
I have decided I would like a sketched, watercolour look. I wanted to achieve this by hand-sketching the outline and then painting it with a watercolour style brush on photoshop with a graphics tablet. I am happy with the basic outline of the face that I have created for Speck, to be used throughout the book. I am unsure on the look of the style of the painting which is done on photoshop so far. I might try water paints by hand and see how this looks. I have found it difficult to get the eyes right which is why I have struggled in creating him so far, with this sketch I might try other eyes as I feel the first ones are too much like the ones in “I Want My Hat Back” by Jon Klassen, but I like them. The second eyes I made digitally so they stand out too much and may be don’t suit the character as much.
Initial Sketches:
Full body Speck:
//My book has been written!
After completing the script, I decided to put it into a basic storyboard, as writing allowed me to think up loads of visual ideas for layouts.
There are some pages I am not happy with or decided on with both visuals and the written story. But this is a rough plan to get me started.
//Page Layout:
Illustrations (cats):
Background:
Type:
Colours:
//After attempting to draw a cat on a graphics tablet and failing, I’ve decided to look into existing cat characters – including how they are drawn.
Within the picture book cats I have found, there is the look of being hand-drawn which seems to work best for the look of the cat. Some are more detailed than others, for example ‘Tabby McTat’ has a lot more detail and texture than ‘Splat the Cat’ but I feel they are all still quite well detailed and not simplistic. I have felt like I will definitely have to hand draw my cat to make it unique, however, the examples of film/tv cats shows that an ‘animated/cartoon’ cat still looks good. Although these were perhaps hand-drawn first, they don’t have that sketch look I feel I will need to achieve. I like the simplicity of the siamese cats, which may not seem simple at first glance, but with the block/filled in colouring method they wouldn’t be too difficult. I was aiming to avoid using a black outline around my illustrations but I feel I will need it as a guide that I will end up keeping as it will look neater. If I attempt to make my cat on Photoshop again, from a hand drawn, line art version that I make – this will allow it to be unique but also still have the cartoon look I want.
