Nursery Rhyme Process Book by hanna goldstein

NURSERY RHYME

PROCESS

BOOK HANNA GOLDSTEIN

RESEARCH.

THE beginning stages of this project brought back memories of my childhood: when moons had faces, animals could play instruments, and eggs could sit on walls. In a nursery rhyme, anything could happen. This sense of endless possibilities is what led me to choose this project. The first step I took upon receiving the list of nursery rhymes was typing each one up and printing it out. Once I had a physical copy of each rhyme, I took my highlighter and pen and began to annotate. I would underline/highlight important words or actions, define words I was unfamiliar with, and jot down ideas that flashed into my mind. Once I selected the six rhymes I would be working with, I began experimenting with potential compositions. At this stage, a struggle presented itself that I would have to work on throughout the entire project: my characters and the environments they were set in appeared very traditional. What I did not realize was that I had such a distinct picture in my mind of how characters in these illustrations were supposed to look, based on childhood stories I had seen in the past. From this point on, I would work to distinguish my characters and compositions from traditional storybook characters and compositions. 2

DISCOVERY.

DURING our next class, we worked to confront the issue of traditional looking illustrations. Each one of us was given a stack of post-it notes and a sharpie. First, we looked at each of our selected rhymes and made a list of the objects that were absolutely essential to telling the story. Next, we were to draft five 20-second sketches of radically different versions of each object on the list. Though tedious, this exercise really helped me to let go of the traditional imagery I was holding onto from my childhood and lead me in the direction of establishing my own unique characters and illustrations. An issue I tend to face during this phase of projects is that I get too attached to one composition I develop early on and fail to give the proper attention to the others. Because I know that illustration is an iterative process, I made a conscious effort to not make this mistake during this project. When I felt myself gravitating towards one composition and favoring it over the others, I would push myself to work harder on developing the others to the level of my preferred composition. This ensured that each of my ideas was well considered and no idea was arbitrarily abandoned. 4

ONCE I HAD CHOSEN THE COMPOSITIONS,

IT WAS TIME TO DIGITALIZE MY SKETCHES.

REFINEMENT.

WORKING with the constraint of having only three values was especially difficult for me. I found it challenging to distinguish between objects using value instead of arbitrary outlines, as I had resorted to in the past. These limitations, however, helped me work out compositional issues that I would not have found had I not had to work out my value structure. At this stage I had a lot of issues I needed to work out in terms of cohesion. At this point, the illustrations did not appear as a set. To fix this, I developed a system I would apply to each illustration. I would use shapes to build my characters and the environment they were set in, using differences in value to create contrast between objects. I would use a very thin line to create details in the faces and the clothing, not to outline. Although the designs were very simplistic, they were legible, which I saw as a success. 8

In this illustration, I transfered my drawing from Photoshop into Illustrator, which helped me clean up the lines and made it easier to experiment with value. I took out most of the outlines aside from details in the clothing so I could use contrast in value to distinguish objects instead. distinguish some objects in the illustration. In this version, I focused on making sure that everything was clear and legible to the viewer.

In this illustration, I focused on fine-tuning the intracacies of the characters. In the previous version, a lack of contrast and outline made it very difficult to This is the illustration I changed most drastically. I changed the orientation, removed much of the background, and essentially altered the entire character so that the old woman was more in line with the characters in the other two illustrations. What I found after making these changes was that now this character almost lacked detail compared to the other two. Later on, I will add thin lines and intricacies on the clothing to up the level of detail. 9

After finishing my value studies, it was now time to add color into the equation. I began my color experimentation by creating three sets of paired complimentary colors: purple and yellow, red and green, and lastly, orange and blue.

Of these three sets, I found that the purple and yellow combination yielded the highest contrast. However, I also really enjoyed the blue in the third combination. The perfect compromise would be substituting this blue for the purple in the first set. 10

After adjusting the hues a bit, I arrived at this color palette.

The next step would be experimenting with text to find a type face that would represent each nursery rhyme and also add a sense of cohesion to the set. Originally, I experimented with very complex typefaces, like:

Amatic SC Bold MarketPro

Leckerli One Latino

However, what I found through trial and error and from the feedback of my peers was that some times, simpler is better, and clarity is important. That is how I arrived at

FRANCOIS ONE 11

Another obstacle I encountered during these final stages of the project was removing the cat in my Jack Sprat illustration and then compensating for the resulting empty space that was left in my composition.

I tried enlarging the figures, changing the size of the table, but none of these alternatives helped the fact that this illustration just did not fit with the other two illustrations in the set. I realized that what this illustration lacked was a large area of dark blue space, and that is how I arrived at the solution to my problem:

A CARPET. JACK SPRAT COULD EAT NO FAT

CRITICISM.

UPON finishing this project, I learned a lot about my work process as an illustrator. Sometimes, I overlook the importance of the initial discovery phases, and my eagerness to arrive at the final product interferes with the necessary trial and error period. I will be sure to give this portion of the process proper consideration going forward. Another key take-away from this project was the importance of breaking away from traditional illustration styles. On the first class of this project, all of my peers came in with very similar illustrations of characters due to the fact that these were what we were familiar with/exposed to through reading childrens books and viewing various illustrations. The post-it note exercise helped me get this traditional imagery out of my head, pushing me to create my own unique characters. During the class critique, we talked a lot about edge relationships. This is an aspect of my project I feel I could definitely improve on. In all of my compositions, the action is mostly contained in the space. I think that giving more consideration to the edge relationships would make my compositions more dynamic. 13

For the final review, I want to work more on thoroughly investigating typefaces. I have trouble finding typefaces that fit the content of my illustrations, so this is something I definitely hope to improve on in the future. In addition to exploring typefaces, I also want to explore color and pattern, as the color in all of my illustrations appears flat and lifeless. I hope to do so through finding new methods of creating and using new materials to create. I have established a very distinct style of illustrating, but I feel using new ways to achieve this style will bring my illustrations and designs to the next level.

Hanna Goldstein Nursery Rhymes Word and Image II Fall 2018 Typefaces Used: Nobel, Francois One