I have chosen to review four children’s book illustrators
as I have had to illustrate and design several
books of my own and think that by comparing a few may help me understand
more what values they share and differences in designs. I also think that it
will help me understand different styles and help me to work on my own. I went
to the book shop Waterstone’s to look
at different books as I thought they would have contemporary illustrators as
well as well known and older illustrators too. Four books that I found
interesting were; Sarah Warburton’s ‘Grub’s
pups’, Layn Marlow’s ‘How many
sleeps?’, Russell Ayto’s ‘The cow
that laid an egg’ and Lydia Monks’ ‘What
the ladybird heard’. All of these four books have some similar and some different
qualities whether it’s the same technique, material, style or colours.
The first book I looked at was ‘What the ladybird heard’ as I had looked at this book in a
previous project. The characterisation of the animals is quite simple, yet the
use of collage brings depth and texture to the images which make them more
appealing and interesting to look at. The images and layout aren’t the same on
each page, some are double page spreads of parts of the farm with all the
characters while others have the characters dotted in small sections on the
page in their own space, which I think makes the book more interesting to look
at. The colours used are bright and cheerful which attract the eye and
different materials used include wallpaper, paint, photo and many others. She uses
textures and patterns a lot in her work and I think it works well for the
target audience as it make the images more appealing without getting in the way
of the illustration itself. A similar book to this is Russel Ayto’s ‘The cow that laid an egg’ as he also
uses texture in his work as well as flat colour. The characterisation is quite
plain and made using simple isometric shapes and even though I don’t personally
like this style work for my own I think it works well for the context and
audience of the book. Having the cow stand on two legs gives it more
personality and human characteristics where as Lydia’s characters still remains
with all their animalistic qualities yet still look cute and friendly. The materials that Ayto seems to use are inks,
paints, papers and some digital sections.
The next book I looked at was Sarah Warbuton’s ‘Grub’s pups’. I loved the drawings in
this book as they were still cartoony like the others yet the images seems to
have more shape than Ayto’s and Monks’ and the images had slightly more tone to
them as well. The texture of the illustrations is softer and looks like they
were coloured using water colour. The back grounds of the book are plain and
simple using block colour, where as Ayto and Monks both have full scenery
backgrounds in their books. I love the style of the illustrations, I like that
they have some tone in them and that the characters have a visible shadow. I
also like how the characters have a black outline; this is something I tend to
do with my own work as it makes the separation between the character and the
background more visible. However, Lydia Monk doesn’t put an outline around her
characters and this creates a softer look about them and creates a subtle appearance
which is quite peaceful as there are now hard lines around her characters. Ayto
on the other hand uses a bold black line to outline his characters which make
them seem cartoonier and a bit harsh because the line is quite bold.
The final book I looked at was Layn Marlow’s ‘How many sleeps?’ which I really like
because it is less cartoonish than the others and looks less childish. The
illustrations still have a black outline around them but it is quite fine and
works well with the image as you can see it but it doesn’t affect the appearance
of the drawing unlike the lines in Ayto’s book as I find them too thick and
garish. The colours used are quite subtle, not as bright as the ones used in all
the other books. The materials used look like it was water colour or pencil as
it’s subtle and quite calming. The layout of the book is similar to Sarah
Warburton’s as there is a plain background with the colour image placed in a
different area or way on each page where the images can interact when they need
to.
All four illustrators use a relatively cartoonish style
as it is not a realistic representation; however out of all of them I would say
that Layn Marlow’s is the closest to it. My favourite out of them all has to be
Layn Marlow’s ‘How many sleeps?’ as I
love the layout of the book, the illustrations, colour and materials – overall I
love everything about the book. My least favourite has to be Russell Ayto’s ‘The cow that laid an egg’ because I don’t
particularly like how simple the characters are or the harsh black lines around
them as it looks slightly messy. However I think they both work really well for
the context of the story and would appeal to the target audience of differing
age groups. Even though Layn’s book is my favourite I think it would hold the
child’s attention for the least amount of time out of all the books because it’s
not as cartoony or as bright and eye catching as all of the others. I think
that Lydia Monks’ and Russell Ayto’s books would be the most appealing to
younger children, followed by Sarah Warbutons’ and finally Layn Marlows’ book I
think would appeal to slightly older children more in terms of illustrations as
younger children would get bored of them quicker.
Each illustrator has successfully created endearing
characters that children would fall in love with and they all work well with
the context of their stories even though they have different mark making techniques
or characterisation and colour. Both Lydia Monks and Russell Ayto use collage
in their work while Sarah Warburton and Layn Marlow use watercolour in theirs.
All of the illustrations have a cartoonish style, just of varying degrees. Each
book would fascinate and charm a child audience and I have enjoyed looking and analysing
the illustrations. Since looking through the different styles and layouts of
the books, it has helped me to understand children book illustrating a bit more
and has given me some tips and ideas for consideration for the future if I choose
to pursue a project to do with children’s book illustration.
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