Portfolio

I used a dog theme for my portfolio. I decided to use the same dog, which is one that is similar to assignment 2.

However, as I wanted to use rhythm, I decided to put the dog(s) in bubbles (since bubbles can be repeated, with different sizes and colours, like the X'mas balls in assignment 5).

The dogs and bubbles change according to the assignments. For example, in page one, the dog wears shades as it "attends" the pop/rock concert (my name design).

I'll use all different dogs from my assignments in the cover page. This is a draft.

I hope the bubbles do not overshadow the dogs as my theme. I tried to prevent this by making the bubbles smaller and using them as a background...

Assignment 6 (Improved Again)

Some of the words were difficult to read, so here's the updated version. I've removed some fonts I'd drawn, and used more standard fonts. Hope it's better...

Storybook project – final reflections

My final reflections would be on coordinating with my group mates. In the previous posts, I presented our design process in a more organized manner to make it easier to understand, but we were actually quite uncoordinated and confused at times.

This was because Yin Lam and Melissa had finished tracing, and I had finished colouring a few pages when we consulted Julian on the story. So when our story was changed, some scenes were cut or had to be drawn again. This messed up the number of pages, and it was confusing for us to refer to any scenes or even the versions of the story.

I was particularly confused as I had to do the margins as well. I had lots files of different stages of the book: tracings, coloured pages, pages with margins, etc. I had lots of source files as well, from the different production stages, and some from Melissa, who helped me colour. As a result, I had to burn 2 CDs to contain all of them :S

Still, I enjoyed working on the book (though not the sleep-deprived nights) (;

Storybook project – printing

Melissa and I went with Exel to print, as we were more familiar with the final design of the storybook.

We had a minor problem organizing our files, as they were in alphabetical order and not in printing sequence. Also, as we’re printing double-sided, we had to tell the printer which pages are back to back. However, we usually think of the book as facing pages, so we took some time organizing. Moreover, I forgot to add the blank pages (facing “this book belongs to” and the title page), which the printer kindly added for us.

Despite the brief confusion, we managed to print the pages immediately, and we even got a chance to check them. That was when I noticed the typo in “copyright” on the details page, so we changed it (Melissa brought her laptop). As the hardcover takes a week to print, we went back on 3 Nov (the day before deadline) to collect the book. Luckily, all was well.

The minor problem was that the colours were darker on print. Thus the background colours were not as faint as I would like them to be. (I wanted to use faint shades as children may question why an igloo is pink/green/orange on the inside, though the unusual colours can also be attributed to creativity.) Also, the background of page 21 is supposed to look more orange than yellow.

The text and illustrations could also be further from the edges. However, I’m relieved that no text or illustrations were cut out, and no margins were printed. This means I’ve done relatively well with the margins, so I’m not complaining. (;

On the whole, I’m happy with the printing outcome (:

Storybook project – text and margins

* I forgot to add… We also added pages such as the title page and the maze after looking through past students’ works during the last tutorial.

Text

After colouring and finalizing the story, I added the text to the storybook. (The source files were large and it was difficult to hand them to Natasha for adding the text. Since the files were mainly shared between Melissa and me, she offered to add the text. However, she had problems exporting the source files to 300 ppi, so I added the text and Melissa helped me colour instead.) Generally, I added the text at empty spaces and tried to align them to the drawings. For example, in page 8, I aligned the text to the outline of the road.

I had problems adding the text to some of the pages as the drawings took up almost the full page. Thus some of the font sizes are smaller. I didn’t want to use the smallest font size as the standard as I thought it was too small for a children’s book.

Also, for page 21, I had to split “Mama taught him how to do some household chores” as the sentence was too long. Thus “household chores” had to be on the other side of the split frame. If I were to put the sentence on the same side (where Peanut is cooking), then I would probably have to write “He stirred soup” in white, and on the stove. However, I thought the layout would look ugly. So “household chores” stayed on the side where Peanut is serving tea. I hope readers will be able to perceive “household chores” as part of the same sentence.

Melissa also did the page number design from Peanut, and I typed the respective page numbers on that.

Here’s how the book looks like:

Cover

Details

*We noticed a typo in "copyright" just before we printed. Luckily...

Montage Page 1

Montage Page 2

Back Cover

Margins

After I finished the pages, I added a 0.5cm margin around all pages. The margins are white as I couldn’t extend the drawing. (We only realized we have to add margin after a friend who took 2208 before reminded us to. It’ll be too much trouble to extend the tracings and colour again: we were already finishing the book and we had to print a week before it’s due.)

However, I managed to extend the background of the cover and the back cover by 1cm all around (for folding in when we print the hardcover) as there were only 2 pages.

Then we sent the book for printing... 

Storybook project – colouring

After Yin Lam finished drawing the story, Melissa traced the sketches in Illustrator, and exported them as high-quality JPEG (300 ppi). I then coloured the JPEG images in Photoshop, as I felt that the soft brush gave me more flexibility to shade and produce more realistic illustrations.

I soon realized that colouring in Photoshop was more time-consuming than I’d expected. I had to keep changing the brush sizes to colour the finer details of the drawings. Also, I had to erase strokes that I coloured outside of the outlines, so I had to change eraser sizes too. (Maybe I didn’t find a better way to do this.) In the end, Melissa had to help me colour almost 10 pages to speed up the process.

Characters

I started colouring the characters first. I used conventional colours for the penguins, except light yellow for their fronts, to make them more colourful. I also used analogous colours to colour parts of the penguins to make them look more realistic, e.g. orange and yellow for the beaks. I also used the dodge/burn tool to shade the penguins.

Character Accessories

Initially, I used feminine shades of pink and purple for both Mama and Grandma. However, my group mates suggested using green for Grandma, so as to better differentiate between the two. I changed accordingly.

Different shades of pink and green were used to colour Mama’s skirt and Grandma’s apron respectively, so as to add texture and interest to the illustrations.

Background

Although colouring was tedious, the most difficult part was deciding on a suitable background colour. This is because I did not want to leave the background white, as I thought it will make the storybook look boring and plain. I also did not want to use too much blue background (e.g. page 9, below) to fit in with the icy cold setting of Antarctica, as too much blue will make the book look boring as well.

Thus I chose light yet bright colours for the backgrounds of the interior of the igloos (e.g. page 21, below), so that the book will appeal more to children.

Although colouring was tedious, (I stayed up to around 2 a.m. for about 3 to 5 days doing nothing else but colouring) I think the experience gave me a good idea on how work is like if I were to work in graphic design, or probably any other design-related fields. (Working is probably worse?) Hmm, I shall ponder if this is a job for me after the exams ;)

Storybook project – the story of Little Peanut

My group members are Melissa, Yin Lam, Natasha and Exel. We decided that we should each take up different aspects of production to ensure consistency, as opposed to us illustrating different pages of the book.

Yin Lam drew, and Melissa traced the sketches. She compiled the design document as well. I coloured the tracings, and Natasha wrote the story. Exel was in charge sourcing for printers. Nonetheless, we helped each other as necessary.

When we first met up and started brainstorming for ideas, Natasha brought a children’s book, which has its main character as a penguin. We all thought the book was cute, and moreover, penguins are easier to draw than humans. (Penguins can be drawn simply and yet look cute, unlike… stickmen?) Thus we decided that we should use penguins too.

Next, we brainstormed about the story.

We decided to follow the suggested story, which is about teaching children how and why they should take care of their grandparents. Thus the story revolves around a little penguin and its family, who lives in igloos and would go fishing and skiing (stereotypical settings and activities we can think of, that are associated with the North/South Pole, also similar to Eskimos).

This is our initial plot:

There was once a little penguin named Peanut. He lives with his parents, and his Grandma lives in an igloo next to him. (We decided on the name Peanut, as both “peanut” and “penguin” start with “p”, and “peanut” is listed in a website that provides names for babies.)

One day, when Peanut brings his Grandma to school to celebrate Grandparents’ Day, he noticed that all his other friends have both Grandpa and Grandma with them, but he only has Grandma.

So that night, Peanut asked his mother where his Grandpa has gone. Mama (the rest of the penguin family don’t have names, as the focus of the story is on Peanut) then tells him the story (presented as a flashback).

A long time ago, before Peanut was born, Grandpa and Grandma asked Mama and Papa to go fishing with them. However, Mama and Papa wanted to go skiing instead, so they parted ways.

While Mama and Papa were skiing, an accident happened to Grandpa and Grandma. They were fishing when a polar bear attacked Grandma, and Grandpa was killed while defending her.

Luckily, there were other younger penguins who chased the polar bear away, so Grandma remained unscathed. (This is to show that the attack wouldn’t have happened if Mama and Papa, who were young, went fishing with Grandpa and Grandma.)

When Mama and Papa returned home and knew what happened, they were guilt-ridden and thus decided to make it up to Grandma.

(Back to the present) Mama then finishes the story by telling Peanut to be filial to Grandma. Peanut agrees.

Thus the next day, Mama and Papa brought Peanut to Grandma’s house, and Mama taught Peanut to do household chores for her. Grandma was happy, and praised Peanut.

And this is how Peanut learned to be filial.

Comment

Julian commented that the story focuses on the wrongdoings of the parents, when it should be on Peanut. Thus we had to change our story.

For the second version, we decided to remove the flashback, and also make Peanut a spoilt child.

Here’s the summary of the second version:

Peanut was a spoilt penguin. One day, he wanted his parents to bring him to ski. However, Peanut’s grandparents wanted Mama and Papa to go fishing with them. Peanut threw a tantrum. Thus, his parents had no choice but to bring him to ski. As a result, Grandpa and Grandma went fishing alone and Grandpa was killed by a polar bear. This made Peanut guilty, and so he learnt to do household chores for Grandma so as to make it up to her.

Comment

This is not suitable as Grandpa was killed because Peanut made a different choice: to go skiing and not fishing. It’s better if Grandpa was killed because Peanut did something morally wrong.

And so we changed our story again. (This is the last version.)

Summary of the final story:

Peanut was a spoilt penguin. One day, he wanted his parents to bring him to ski. However, Grandpa wanted Mama and Papa to go fishing with them. Peanut threw a tantrum and snatched Grandpa’s fishing rod. Then he ran outside and threw it into a fishing hole. Grandpa was dismayed when he finally caught up with Peanut. At that time, a polar bear appeared. Peanut was scared and Grandpa protected him. However, Grandpa was hurt in the process. (We decided that it was too morbid for a character to die in a children’s story, moreover, making up for Grandpa’s death by doing household chores seem too trivial.) This made Peanut guilty as he was rude to Grandpa, yet Grandpa sacrificed himself for Peanut. So Peanut helped Grandma do household chores while Grandpa was in hospital. Peanut also learnt his lesson and became filial ever since.

Natasha wrote the first version of the story. Melissa then added rhymes, and I finalized the story.