OUGD503 - Studio Brief 02 - Further Background Developments

Further background developments decided to make use of purely collaged elements, whereby shapes were cut out from textures considered appropriate for specific objects and composed in interesting ways to produce a scene. Initial rough sketches were drawn out to use as reference for the final scenes, in particularly ones we did not have primary images for since these included more fantastical elements, such as fairy houses.

An important element which was considered in this process was that scenes would have to be consistent with the previous scene in order to produce a flow and journey through the book, better enhancing the narrative of the story and illustrations. To do this the same set of textures were used throughout the scenes, simply increasing shape sizes for more zoomed in elements.

Further background developments can be seen to play on the idea of white space. Other sketches were drawn out in order to represent this and show how images would be composed on the page around this blank space. The simplicity of these designs was thought would better enhance the clarity of information since developments showed that some objects may have overpowered if other background elements were used. In this instance, it was thought the mud puddles worked best on their own surrounded by white space since a textured floor meant the puddles looked too raised, reflecting them more as 3-dimensional rocks rather than flat puddles.

Again, developments here show how consideration has been taken in making sure each scene is consistent with the one previous or the one after to show a clear flow and links through each.

One more subtle element it was initially decided to place within the book and illustrations was the idea of night gradually falling as the journey is moved along. In this instance, this would mean that the last scene should be a lot darker and greyer than the rest of the book. This was also done to convey a slightly darker theme within the book. Initially, this last scene was produced in a way which continued to develop a consistent flow with the aesthetics of the previous scenes, since it also proved to be harder to replicate this sense of darkness falling using existing textures.

Another initial idea was to produce these background illustrations using limited colour, giving the book a monochromatic theme, which would also be more cost-effective when printing copies. Elements of colour would then be included within character designs to make them stand out more from the scenes, and fantasy pages produced in full colour in order to represent the huge, colourful imaginations of children. However, like the gradual fall of darkness throughout the illustrations, this was harder to replicate since shades of colour would have needed to be even more carefully considered for accuracy of colour shades and shadows.

For such reasons, it was decided that in developing the backgrounds, this gradual colour change would be easier produced digitally in modifying the brightness of each scene.