Traci Van WagonerProgress Made on Teddy Bear's Adventure
Progress is being made. I have discussed the project with Kurt who will be designing the book and preparing the final files for production, and we decided on an overall size for the book at 8.5 X 11”, unless the story dictates otherwise as I dig dipper into sketching and uncovering this far away world.
While we discussed the format and design of the overall book, I found a book I loved and have had for a long time (since I first discovered my love for writing and illustrating children’s books), Buford the Little Bighorn by Bill Peet. We like the format of mostly spot illustrations with plenty of white to encourage use of imagination and bleeding off the page in limited ways. So I’m striving to fit within a structured design.
Also I need to push the idea of Willie being very small — so we will only see other character’s legs or parts of them to show the difference in sizes. I have completed rough sketches, doodles, thumbnails, and thinking in the text dummy. Here's a sneak peek at a couple spreads. The first one are a bunch of possible sketches which I'll use as spots to tell the story of that spread. The second one is a remake of the spread which will probably also be the cover illustration to add more drama and tension.
Next, I will create PSD files where I’ll add the text to each spread (in a rough fashion) and my rough sketch / thumbnail to size to get a feel for spacing and how the pages will look overall.
Once I have more finalized sketches I’ll have Kurt do to the initial design in InDesign where he’ll choose the font and will design the book, looking for consistency and page turns, as well as punctuation, sizing, color, and style all lending to the way we want the story to be read.
I’m excited to see the book coming together and to get into the serious sketching stage.
Feel free to ask any questions about this stage of the process or anything else for that matter. Is there anything you would like to see specifically?
Thank you every so much for joining me on this adventure.
#kidlitart #process #sketches #childrensbookillustration #TeddyBearsAdventure #sketchtofinalbook #sketchbook #picturebook