My characters initially started of sketchy and more ‘life-like’ and I created a few ideas for each of the characters. However through tutorials and workshops, I felt as if my characters were too complicated and need to be simplified for my children’s book.
The illustrations for the books The Dark by Lemony Snickett and Stuck by Oliver Jeffers were the ones that inspired me the most when changing the look of my characters. Both of them simplify their characters but they are effective.
I took my characters right back to the basic shapes of a human form and kept it at that. This in my opinion has worked for the story and the market that my book is aimed at.
When first coming up with the idea to make a children's book about a child’s fear of the dentist, I just had the one idea for a ‘demon’ dentist, however after having a tutorial it was suggested that as each friend described the ‘dentist’ it would get scarier and more frightening. This let me be more imaginative with each dentist I created and I am happy with the result. It also builds up the story nicely, building up to the climax of when the dentist is revealed.
The illustrator Jon Klassen is someone who's work I admire, his work is simple but still beautiful to look at. Even though I am happy with the progression of my characters, I feel that I could have added texture or more dimension to them, the characters do look very flat and that isn't something that I find works for the age group my children’s book is aimed at. With better planning and if I was to carry on with this project at a later date, I would have done the illustrations using watercolour, a medium I feel confident using, and photoshop to create layers and a collage effect to my work.
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