My original interpretation of an old English nursery rhyme, Mr. Sandman...the art work is all my own, mostly collages created using public domain images, colored pencils, chalk, and other stuff I found lying around. Enjoy!
While I’ve worked on book projects in the past, it has always been in the capacity of the illustrator. This was my first experience of a start-to-finish project of discovering a story, working with a storyboard, drafting it out, and creating the artwork. Discovering the story I wanted to use was probably the simplest step of the entire process! I’ve always enjoyed the darker rhymes, and The Sandman has a slightly dark edge to it. Overall, the picture book project has been a positive experience. Of course, there’s been hiccups and frustrations along the way. Most of which were brought on by my own super hero ability to complicate the simple.
The decision to create my own art instead of using the digital storyboard tools was a foregone conclusion. I do not work well within the constraints of how the Storybird site is set up. But some of the artwork was fantastic and would have worked well with the story. The challenge was to create art inspired by what was offered on the site and scouring through endless offerings of images in the public domain searching for the right ones. The step-by-step instructions provided for the assignment were invaluable, as was the critical feedback from both professor and colleagues. Especially the gentle reminders that the art does not have to mimic the text, it can compliment and enhance the story without being an exact match. With this being designed as a bedtime story, I was also mindful of colors, keeping them clear but muted.
In thinking about the artwork to use for the picture book, I thought about how I would approach the project as a librarian setting it up for young students. I knew I could create original art that would reflect and enhance the story, but would that be a duplicatable task for students? Would they be frustrated if they weren’t confident in their artistic abilities? I thought about what most children have access to in their homes or classrooms--scissors, coloring pencils, crayons, colored paper, and most likely a computer--and how those household items could be used to create a picture book.
The pages are all collages of images found on an Internet search. The few images that are Creative Commons and not public domain, I made sure I had permission to modify them and they are credited to the original artist (so simple using Creative Commons’ license codes!) Once the images were found, it was a fun afternoon of old school cut and paste. The collaged images were scanned into my computer, and I used the simple photo editing tools in iPhoto to smooth out edges and manipulate color balance. The final spreads were put together with the text in slides, and saved as the images shared here. These are all techniques children—even the younger ones—can follow! I would love to take it further and experiment with basic animation using the same methods.
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